Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges face the struggle of their lives in trailer for family drama ‘Ben is Back’

“For the next 24 hours you are mine, all mine, got it?”

A son struggling with drug addiction and a mother fighting to keep him alive highlight the dramatic new trailer for Ben is Back starring Academy Award winner Julia Roberts and Academy Award nominee Lucas Hedges.

The film chronicles the turbulent 24 hours as Ben (Hedges) unexpectedly returns home to his family’s suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben’s mother, Holly (Roberts), is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean.  Roberts gets some of her richest looking material in some time, diving into a mother’s undying love for her son is tested as she does everything in her power to keep him safe.

Ben is Back is written and directed by Academy Award nominee Peter Hedges (yes, Lucas’s father) also stars Courtney B. Vance (The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story) and Kathryn Newton (Lady Bird).

The film received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and will next be seen at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 12th where Peter Hedges will be in attendance to talk about the film.

Roadside Attractions will release Ben is Back on December 7th.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.

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