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A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
Nov 10, 2017 | Theatrical Limited (1,726 locations)
Other Key Dates
Sep 4, 2017 (Venice Film Festival (Italy))
Sep 10, 2017 (Toronto International Film Festival (Canada))
Sep 20, 2017 (Helsinki International Film Festival (Finland))
Sep 24, 2017 ()
Sep 28, 2017 (Zurich Film Festival (Switzerland))
Oct 1, 2017 ()
Oct 6, 2017 (Hamburg Film Festival (Germany))
Oct 7, 2017 (Hamptons International Film Festival (USA))
Oct 7, 2017 (San Diego International Film Festival (USA))
Oct 8, 2017 (Mill Valley Film Festival (USA))
Oct 15, 2017 (London Film Festival (UK))
Oct 18, 2017 (Gent International Film Festival (Belgium))
Oct 21, 2017 (La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival (France))
Oct 21, 2017 (Chicago International Film Festival (USA))
Oct 22, 2017 (Middleburg Film Festival (USA))
Oct 23, 2017 (Twin Cities Film Festival (USA))
Oct 25, 2017 (Vienna International Film Festival (Austria))
Oct 27, 2017 (Philadelphia International Film Festival (USA))
Oct 28, 2017 (Austin Film Festival (USA))
Nov 1, 2017 (Tokyo International Film Festival (Japan))
Nov 3, 2017 (Los Angeles, California premiere (USA))
Nov 7, 2017 (New York City, New York premiere (USA))
Nov 11, 2017 (Los Cabos International Film Festival (Mexico))
Nov 11, 2017 (Bratislava International Film Festival (Slovakia))
Nov 12, 2017 (Stockholm International Film Festival (Sweden))
Nov 12, 2017 (Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (Taiwan))
Nov 13, 2017 (Leeds International Film Festival (UK))
Nov 14, 2017 (Camerimage Film Festival (Poland))
Nov 17, 2017 (Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia))
Nov 18, 2017 (Mar del Plata Film Festival (Argentina))
Nov 29, 2017 (Paris premiere (France))
Dec 11, 2017 (Dubai International Film Festival (United Arab Emirates))
Jan 3, 2018 (Palm Springs International Film Festival (USA))
Feb 23, 2018 (Belgrade Film Festival (Serbia))
Mar 1, 2018 (American Independence Film Festival (Ukraine))
Jul 18, 2018 (Transatlantyk Film Festival (Poland))
$705,188
$54,513,740
$108,215,581
$163,767,098
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) is grieving the sexual assault and murder of her teenage daughter Angela (Kathryn Newton) seven months prior. Angry over the lack of progress in the investigation, she rents three abandoned billboards near her home, which in sequence read “R***D WHILE DYING”, “AND STILL NO ARRESTS?”, and “HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?” The billboards upset the townspeople, including Sheriff Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and racist officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell). The open secret that Willoughby suffers from terminal pancreatic cancer adds to their disapproval (in addition to Willoughby being a good man). Mildred and her depressed son Robbie (Lucas Hedges) are harassed and threatened, but she stays firm, to Robbie’s chagrin.
While Willoughby is sympathetic to Mildred’s frustration, he finds the billboards an unfair attack on his character. Angered by Mildred’s lack of respect for his authority, Dixon threatens Red (Caleb Landry Jones), who rented her the billboards, and arrests her friend and coworker, Denise (Amanda Warren), on trivial marijuana-possession charges. Mildred is also visited by her abusive ex-husband Charlie (John Hawkes), who blames her for their daughter’s death.Willoughby brings Mildred in for questioning after she injures her dentist in an altercation in his clinic. During the interview, Willoughby coughs up blood. He leaves the hospital against medical advice and spends an idyllic day with his wife Anne (Abbie Cornish) and daughters, before committing suicide. He leaves suicide notes for several people, including one to Mildred, in which he explains that she was not a factor in his suicide, and that he secretly paid to keep the billboards up for another month, amused at the trouble this will bring her. Mildred is threatened by a stranger in her store. Dixon reacts to the news of Willoughby’s death by assaulting Red and his assistant. This is witnessed by Willoughby’s replacement, Abercrombie (Clarke Peters), who fires him.
The billboards are destroyed by arson. Mildred retaliates by tossing Molotov cocktails at the police station, which she believes is unoccupied for the night. However, Dixon is there to read a letter left for him by Willoughby, advising him to let go of hate and learn to love as the only way to realize his wish to become a detective. Dixon escapes with Angela’s case files, suffering severe burns. Mildred’s acquaintance James (Peter Dinklage) witnesses the incident and provides Mildred with an alibi, claiming they were on a date.Discharged from the hospital, Dixon overhears the man who threatened Mildred bragging in a bar of an incident similar to Angela’s murder. He notes the Idaho license plate number of the man’s vehicle, then provokes a fight. At home, he removes a sample of the man’s DNA. Meanwhile, Mildred goes on a date to thank James for the alibi; Charlie enters with his 19-year old girlfriend Penelope (Samara Weaving), and admits to burning the billboards. Mildred instructs Charlie to treat Penelope well and leaves.
Abercrombie informs Dixon that the DNA sample does not match DNA found on Angela’s body, and that the man was overseas on military duty at the time of the murder. Mildred and Dixon conclude that the man must be guilty of some other sexual assault, and set out for Idaho with a gun. On the way, Mildred confesses to him the police station fire; he replies without surprise. They express reservations about their mission, but agree to decide what to do on the way.
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award nominee Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson), the town’s revered chief of police. When Dixon, one of his officers (Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is only exacerbated. — Fox Searchlight Pictures In an effort to track down who raped and murdered her daughter, Mildred Hayes has three billboards erected outside her town of Ebbing, Missouri. They accuse the Sheriff of doing nothing to catch the killer. This causes a largely adverse, and diverse, reaction amongst the town’s folk, not least of all the sheriff’s deputy, the hot-headed, irascible Jason Dixon. — grantss It’s been already seven months since her daughter’s hideous murder, and the divorced mother, Mildred Hayes, is still grieving, refusing to come to terms with her loss. In Mildred’s case, nothing seems to be able to take away the gut-wrenching pain only a mother feels when she loses a child; however, in one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions, the plucky parent will rent three derelict billboards on the outskirts of her town, Ebbing, to declare war against the local police for failing to find the killer. No one is spared in this brave crusade, not even the ailing police chief, Willoughby, as Mildred’s bold black-on-red statements demand answers and the culprit’s head on a platter. Just how far is Mildred willing to go to appease her rage? — Nick Riganas The story takes place entirely in the small town of Ebbing, Missouri, where a girl was raped and murdered a few months ago. The mother, Mildred Hayes, believes that the local police did nothing to find the killer, so she rents three billboards in order to challenge them to search deeper. This leads to many complex situations that involve tragedy, anger, hate, love, redemption and broken characters. — Chris Makrozahopoulos