Fall Film Festival Acquisitions to Know

 With the traditional red carpet promenade severely limited by strike action, the fall film festival circuit gave indie movies a near-unprecedented chance to shine to buyers. While some jitteriness around the SAG-AFTRA waiver system caused slower-than-normal sales and some of the larger AMPTP distributors to opt for a ‘wait and see’ policy, there have been some strong acquisitions to keep on your radar. Entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, of Blake & Wang P.A., highlights just a few to watch.

Brandon Blake

Festival and Post-Festival Sales

Of the titles acquired during the festival itself, we see Sing Sing(to A24) headed to 2024 theatrical release in a seven-figure deal. Sorry/Not Sorry (Greenwich Entertainment) and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Wavelengths)also attracted considerable festival attention. Despite the quiet market overall for documentaries, Netflix took home Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa alongside Women of the Hour as the first truly major deal from the Venice festival as well as His Three Daughters from TIFF.

Lionsgate pre-acquired The Crow, the remake of the cult classic from the 80s, while comedic Fackham Hall and One Life both went to Bleecker Street. Neon was another high-profile buyer, taking home the Venice competition title Origin and TIFF market title Babes. Sony Pictures Classic will be the distributor for The Peasants, the animated epic that attracted a lot of attention for its painstaking hand-painted method. They join The Beast (Sideshow/Janus), We Grown Now and Daddio(both Sony), and American Symphony and Hit Man (both Netflix).

Pre-Festival Deals

Of course, some of the most anticipated festival titles inevitably arrive with distribution in place already. We saw this for some of the hottest titles both in and out of competition, namely Ferrari (Neon), Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures), Priscilla (A24), The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Republic for Showtime), The Boy and the Heron (GKIDS), Dumb Money (Sony), and El Conde (Netflix). A24 snapped up Dicks: The Musical, while Shudder took home When Evil Lurks.

These join 24 more key festival titles with pre-festival deals in place. Evil Does Not Exist (Janus/Slideshow) and 4 more titles landed distribution after the lineups for each festival were put in place, too.

While it may not be the largest year for buying we’ve seen, there are certainly some great deals now in place thanks to the fall festival season, and doubtless more to come, too.

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