Is the Matt Damon Film 'Stillwater' Based on a True Story?

Matt Damon

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Stillwater made headlines last week when it was reported that star Matt Damon received a five-minute standing ovation from the Cannes crowd that brought him to tears. And not long after the lucky crowd at the French film festival got to see Damon’s latest, audiences here can see it for themselves in just a handful of days.

Damon stars in Stillwater as a dad from a small town who travels to Italy to see his daughter, who has been studying abroad there in college, but has been imprisoned for a murder she claims she did not commit. Determined to free his daughter, Damon’s character makes it his goal to get her out of prison and exonerated for the crime.

Curious to learn more about Stillwater? Here’s everything you need to know about the emotional new drama.

IS STILLWATER BASED ON A TRUE STORY?

While Stillwater is a work of fiction, it might sound eerily similar to one of the most famous criminal cases of the past 20 years, the Amanda Knox story. Knox, too, was studying abroad when she was convicted of the murder of her roommate, but she also insisted she was not guilty. After four years in prison, Knox was acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court.

During an interview with The Today Show, Damon said Stillwater was not based on one true story, but had been “based kind of loosely” on the Knox story, and evolved beyond it.

“This is a story based kind of loosely on that, but [director Tom McCarthy] worked with some other writers and kind of made up a story around it as if a girl had gone and found herself in this situation where she was in prison for a crime that she says she didn’t do, and her father was a guy from Oklahoma who was a roughneck, a guy who worked on oil rigs,” Damon told hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie.

WHO STARS IN STILLWATER?

Along with Matt Damon as Bill Baker, Stillwater also stars Abigail Breslin as Allison Baker, Camille Cottin as Virginie, Lilou Siauvaud as Maya and Deanna Dunagan as Sharon.

WHERE TO WATCH STILLWATER:

Stillwater hits theaters on Friday, July 30. It won’t be immediately available to stream or rent online, but we’ll keep you posted when it becomes available.