‘Freud’s Last Session,’ Starring Anthony Hopkins, Nabs Awards-Ready Release on December 22nd

I don’t have high hopes for Matt Brown’s “Freud’s Last Session,” which is set to world premiere at the AFI Film Festival in late October.

It does star the legendary Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud, so there’s that. Sony Pictures Classics also believes that it’s deserving of awards attention and has announced a limited release date of December 22nd in New York and Los Angeles for Oscar eligibility. The film will expand wide the following month.

The official plot synopsis reads:

“On the eve of the Second World War, two of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud (Hopkins) and C.S. Lewis (Goode), converge for their own personal battle over the existence of God.” The movie “interweaves the lives of Freud and Lewis, past, present, and through fantasy, bursting from the confines of Freud’s study on a dynamic journey.”

The Wrap’s Drew Taylor asks, “could “Freud’s Last Session” be a secret Academy Awards powerhouse?” Whenever in doubt, I like to check out the director’s track record — Matthew Brown only directed one other feature-length film, 2015’s misbegotten “The Man Who Knew Infinity.” Not the most encouraging thing.

Fine, let’s look at the screenwriter. The script was written by Mark St. Germain, based on his own play. His main writing credit comes from TV; he penned episodes for CBS’s daytime soap opera “As the World Turns.”

Shooting on “Freud’s Last Session” was completed in the Spring of 2023. They had more than enough time to submit this one to Venice and Telluride. The fact that it hasn’t shown up at any of these fests is a major red flag, if there weren’t any already.