Shame is an erotic drama film co-written and directed by Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Shame was co-produced by Film4 and See-Saw Films. Shame's explicit sexual scenes resulted in this film being rated NC-17 in the United States.
Fox Searchlight Pictures paid around $400,000 to acquire the United States distribution rights of Shame, and they will release this film in limited theatrical release in the United States on December 2, 2011.
Shame premiered at The 68th Venice Film Festival in the main competition. Fassbender won a Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role in the film. It was also screened at The 36th Toronto International Film Festival, The 49th New York Film Festival, The 55th BFI London Film Festival and The 34th Starz Denver Film Festival
Shame will be officially released in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2012. Fox Searchlight will distribute the film in the US.
The film was rated NC-17 (no one 17 and under admitted) by the Motion Picture Association of America. Searchlight has not planned to appeal the rating or make cuts for the less-restrictive R rating. Searchlight president Steve Gilula said, "I think NC-17 is a badge of honor, not a scarlet letter. We believe it is time for the rating to become usable in a serious manner".
Shame has received widespread critical acclaim. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 82% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 22 reviews, with an average score of 6.9/10, making the film a "Certified Fresh" on the website's rating system. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 94, based on 4 reviews, which indicates "Universal Acclaim"
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