‘LION’ trailer starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara
[divider style=”solid” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
After a sneak peak yesterday, today brings the full first trailer for LION, starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara in the true story of Saroo Khan, a young Indian boy who falls asleep on a train and ends up in Calcutta, separated from his family by thousands of miles.
As an adult, Saroo (Dev Patel), with the help of his girlfriend (played by two-time Oscar nominee Rooney Mara), uses the advances of Google Earth to begin a long search for his family 25 years after being adopted by an Australian couple (played by Oscar winner Nicole Kidman and David Wenham).
Lion is based on Saroo Brierly’s book “A Long Way Home” and his directed by Emmy-winner Garth Davis (Top of the Lake), his first feature film.
From TIFF:
[box type=”shadow” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=””]From the production team that brought us The King’s Speech comes Lion: the incredible true story of Saroo Brierley and his 25-year odyssey. Precocious five-year-old Saroo Khan is always up for an adventure. Eager to help his older brother Guddu with any odd job that will provide their family with much-needed money, Saroo follows Guddu everywhere he goes. One night the two boys are separated on a train platform in their native Madhya Pradesh, and Saroo winds up nearly a thousand miles away in Calcutta. Homeless in a strange city where he doesn’t speak the language, Saroo gets by on his street smarts until he is taken in by a government orphanage. When an Australian couple adopts him, he is taken to live with them in Hobart, Tasmania. It’s not until Saroo leaves that island as a young Australian man that he begins to wonder what became of his first home and the family he so adored. Ingeniously using satellite images from Google Earth, he finds a lead to follow up on. But the search for Saroo’s past threatens to overwhelm his present, and he finds himself further adrift than he ever imagined possible. Adapting Brierley’s own book, A Long Way Home, screenwriter Luke Davies and first-time director Garth Davis infuse the story with quiet heartbreak. Newcomer Sunny Pawar lights up the screen as the young boy, and Dev Patel delivers a deeply affecting performance as the adult Saroo. Nicole Kidman, David Wenham, Rooney Mara (also at the Festival in Una and The Secret Scripture) and Tannishtha Chatterjee round out Lion’s all-star international cast, while Greig Fraser’s arresting photography conveys the overwhelming chaos and beauty of Saroo’s two worlds. This remarkable journey shows us how home transcends borders and family transcends blood.[/box]
Lion will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival and hit US theaters on Thanksgiving from The Weinstein Company.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Awards: ‘Hamnet’ Tops Wins, ‘Christy’ Nabs Best Irish Film - February 20, 2026
- 8th Kodak Film Awards Recipients: Kristen Stewart, Joachim Trier, Autumn Durald Arkapaw and More - February 20, 2026
- Frontrunner Friday Oscar Predictions: The Pre-BAFTA Conclave Begins, Will a New Frontrunner Be Anointed? (2/20/26) - February 20, 2026
‘Moscas’ Review: To Be a Fly on the Wall is to See All in Fernando Eimbcke’s Quiet Family Drama [B-] Berlinale 
‘The Blood Countess’ Review: Isabelle Huppert’s Glamorous Vampire Mother Rises Above Baroque Bungle [C-] Berlinale 
Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Awards: ‘Hamnet’ Tops Wins, ‘Christy’ Nabs Best Irish Film 
8th Kodak Film Awards Recipients: Kristen Stewart, Joachim Trier, Autumn Durald Arkapaw and More