About 300 diplomats, filmmakers, and invited guests attended the United States premiere of “Mother Teresa and Me,” a new feature film about the life of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, on the International Day of Charity that was established to commemorate the day of her death in 1997.

The event, held at United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, featured a panel discussion hosted by EWTN presenter Raymond Arroyo and included Academy Award-winning actress and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Fight against Human Trafficking Mira Sorvino, a recent convert to Catholicism; and actress Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, who portrays Mother Teresa and co-produced the film.

“Mother Teresa and Me” is produced by the Zariya Foundation, founded by the film’s star Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, and her husband, Richard. “All net proceeds generated by the film and further donations will support grassroots programs and foundations that work for the destitute, the sick, the disabled, and abandoned children and orphans, uplifting the standards of healthcare and education for those who need it the most,” the foundation said in a statement on its website. The foundation is not associated directly with St. Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity.

The film, which runs just over two hours and 20 minutes, was written and directed by Swiss-Indian filmmaker Kamal Musale. It will be released in 800 cinemas in the United States on October 5.

St. Teresa of Calcutta was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to an ethnic Albanian family in what today is North Macedonia. She took her perpetual vows in 1937, after moving to India when she was 19. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, the Catholic organization for which she is best known, and the work on behalf of which Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She died in 1997. She was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, whom she knew in life, and canonized by Pope Francis in 2016.