Republic Pictures has picked up Mighty Mary, the documentary narrated by Hugh Jackman and Elizabeth Banks about the first all-women’s sailing team to compete for the America’s Cup. The film is set to premiere at the Nantucket Film Festival on June 18, giving the project a distributor before its first public screening.
For Mary Mazzio, who directed the film and founded 50 Eggs Films, the deal gives a wider audience a story she has spent years bringing to the screen. She said it had been a privilege to bring this hidden gem of history to life, and the release plan now points well beyond the festival run: AMC Theatres will begin showing Mighty Mary on Sept. 11 in 13 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco.
That reach matters because Mighty Mary is not just a sailing documentary. It tracks a team that began with an open call advertisement in and went on to defeat Stars & Stripes, helmed by Dennis Conner, before a controversial backroom decision changed the outcome. The women were widely dismissed at the time as a publicity stunt, yet the film frames them as trailblazers whose effort stretched far beyond the boat.
The acquisition also puts a cleaner commercial structure around a film with notable backers. Hugh Jackman and Elizabeth Banks are executive producers as well as narrators, and the documentary was produced by Grant Hill, Allison Abner and Mazzio alongside Skydance Sports. Republic Pictures’ timing suggests it sees the June premiere as the launch point for a broader rollout, with the Sept. 11 theatrical release turning a once-obscure sports story into a film built for a national audience.
What remains unresolved is the part of the story that still carries its sting: the women won on the water, but the decision that followed altered what victory meant. Mighty Mary is now positioned to bring that history to viewers first at Nantucket and then in theaters, where the fight over the outcome may land as hard as the race itself.
