James Shani, whose new company Rich Spirit helped release Ali Abassi's The Apprentice, was jubilant at the film's New York premiere, just days before a wide theatrical release. "We did it. I don't know how many of you know what it took to get here," he told a crowd at the DGA Theater in Midtown.

The film, which chronicles the early rise of Donald Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) to real estate mogul under the tutelage of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), ran into turmoil after producer-financier Kinematics — some of whose projects, including The Apprentice, were backed by Trump supporter Dan Snyder — decided to abandon the film. Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, sent a nasty cease-and-desist letter and threatened to sue Abassi. So after screening at Cannes, Telluride and TIFF to critical acclaim, it remained in limbo until Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment, backed by Shani, picked it up for U.S. distribution.

“A shout out to the only distributor and the only person who had the balls to get us here,” Shani said at the event Tuesday night.

“It’s really sad to think that in today’s world, with everything that’s going on, it took a person who had spent 20 to 30 years building their career to stick their neck out and invest resources, and they were literally the only one. I think that says a lot about the times we live in.”