EXCLUSIVE: Bleecker Street is at the altar for U.S. rights to the Toronto Film Festival acquisitions title Military Wives, the Peter Cattaneo-directed film that stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Jason Flemyng. Cattaneo is best known for The Full Monty, and this one also has a feel-good element to it. Pic tells the true story of a band of women who form a choir on a military base while their partners are away serving in Afghanistan. What starts as a diversion becomes more than that, and the unexpected bonds of friendship between the women transform their lives and help overcome their fears for loved ones in combat.

Several distributors circled the picture, which will get a proper theatrical release after a slew of festival trade reviews said it deserved one. The deal will be a shot in the arm for a festival whose acquisitions marketplace has been off to a slow start.

The film has been one of the hottest of the acquisitions titles to premiere early in the festival — it bowed last Friday at the Elgin Theatre — and several distributors chased the film, in a deal brokered by CAA Media Finance.

Military Wives is written by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard, and produced by Ben Pugh, Rory Aitken and Piers Tempest. Embankment Films is handling offshore deals.

Pic is a 42 production in association with Ingenious Media and Tempo Productions, and the exec producers are Peter Touche, Orlando Wood, Hana Canter, Emma Willis, René Besson, Zygi Kamasa, Stephen Spence, Emma Berkofsky, Tim Haslam, Hugo Grumbar, Liz Gallacher, Josh Varney, Josh Horsfield and Jo Bamford.

Military Wives will be distributed in the UK by Lionsgate and levelFilm in Canada.