Sundance 2023: the deals so far:

Screen is tracking all the Sundance deals – from those on the ground to the sales announced prior to the festival.

The in-person 2023 Sundance Film Festival runs January 19-29. All entries below appear in alphabetical order.

On-site acquisitions
The Eternal Memory (World Cinema Documentary Competition)
Chilean couple keep their love alive while living with Alzheimer’s disease
Dir. Maite Alberdi
MTV Documentary FIlms acquired worldwide rights.

Fair play (US Dramatic Competition)
Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich star in psychological thriller.
Dir. Chloe Domont
Netflix acquired worldwide rights in $20m deal.

Flora And Son (Premieres)
Musical crowd pleaser starring Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Dir. John Carney
Apple Original Films has secured worldwide rights to in a deal in the $20m range.

Kokomo City (NEXT)
Black trans sex workers tell all.
Dir: D. Smith
Magnolia Pictures acquired worldwide rights

A Little Prayer (Premieres)
Man tries to protect daughter-in-law when son has affair.
Dir. Angus MacLachlan
Sony Classics acquired worldwide rights

Passages (Premieres)
Gay filmmaker questions sexuality, future after affair with woman.
Dir. Ira Sachs
MUBI acquired US, UK & Ireland, Latin American rights

The Persian Version (US Dramatic Competition)
Iranian-American woman negotiates different cultures when her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant.
Dir: Maryam Keshavarz
SPC acquired North American rights

The Starling Girl (US Dramatic Competition)
The sexual awakening of a teenage girl in a fundamenstalist Christian community in Kentucky.
Dir: Laurel Parmet
Bleecker Street acquired North American rights

Talk To Me (Midnight)
Horror about teens who try to contact the dead using an embalmed hand
Dirs: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
A24 acquired North American rights

Theater Camp (US Dramatic Competition)
Mockumentary about employees who must keep their camp afloat.
Dirs: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
Searchlight Pictures acquired worldwide rights

North American and worldwide pre-buys ahead of festival
The Deepest Breath (Premieres)
Doc about free-diving.
Dir: Laura McGann
Netflix has worldwide rights

In My Mother’s Skin (Midnight)
Philippines tale about the young daughter of a dying woman who seeks help from flesh-eating fairy.
Dir: Kenneth Dagatan
Prime Video has worldwide rights.

Joyland (Spotlight)
Oscar-shortlisted Pakistani film about love, yearning, and trans burlesque boss. Cannes premiere.
Dir: Saim Sadiq
Oscilloscope has US rights.
Screen review here

Little Richard: I Am Everything
Doc about Black queer origins of rock n’ roll and key role played by Richard Penniman aka Little Richard.
Dir: Lisa Cortés
Magnolia Pictures has worldwide rights. HBO Max has global streaming rights

My Animal (Midnight)
Small town hockey player with a dark secret falls for a figure skater
Dir: Jacqueline Castel
Paramount Worldwide Acquisition Group has worldwide excluding Canada.

Other People’s Children (Spotlight)
This Venice premiere title stars Virginie Efira as woman who living with her lover and his daughter.
Dir: Rebecca Zlotowski
Music Box has US rights.
Screen review here

Run Rabbit Run (Midnight)
Australian horror film starring Succession’s Sarah Snook as a fertility doctor whose beliefs are challenged by her daughter and a ghost from her past.
Dir: Daina Reid
Netflix has worldwide rights excluding select territories.

Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis) (Spotlight)
Doc about design studio behind iconic album covers. Telluride 2022 premiere.
Dir: Anton Corbijn
Utopia has US rights.
Release: Summer 2023

Films with distribution in place
20 Days In Mariupol (World Cinema Documentary Competition)
Reporters risk their lives covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Dir: Mstyslav Chernov
Frontline/PBS has rights.

All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt (US Dramatic Competition)
The life and loves of a Black woman in Mississippi
Dir: Raven Jackson
A24 has rights

The Amazing Maurice (Kids)
Streetwise cat and rodent pals hatch moneymaking plot
Dir: Toby Genkel
Sky Cinema has rights.

birth/rebirth (Midnight)
Shudder Original offers new take on Frankenstein story
Dir: Laura Moss
Shudder has North American rights.

Cassandro (Premieres)
Gay amateur wrestler turns Lucha Libre world on its head
Dir: Roger Ross Williams
Prime Video has worldwide rights.

Earth Mama (Premieres)
Pregnant single mother fights to reclaim her children from foster careDir: Savanah Leaf
A24 has North American rights.

The Eight Mountains (Spotlight)
Cannes 2022 premiere about the lifelong friendship of two boys from an Alpine village
Dirs: Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch
Sideshow Releasing and Janus Films have North American rights
Screen review here

Infinity Pool (Midnight)
Luxury resort harbours secret horrors
Dir: Brandon Cronenberg
Neon/Topic has North American rights.

Judy Blume Forever (Premieres)
Profile of the beloved children’s author
Dirs: Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok
Prime Video has worldwide rights

Landscape With Invisible Hand (Premieres)
Teens find a way to survive after tech-obsessed aliens take over Earth
Dir: Cory Finley
MGM has rights

L’immensita (Spotlight)
Venice premiere explores the relationship between a disillusioned wife and her child in 1970s Rome.
Dir: Emanuele Crialese
Music Box has US rights while Warner Bros has Italy.
Screen review here

Little Richard: I Am Everything (US Documentary Competition)
Profile of musical icon reveals the Black queer origins of rock ’n’ roll
Dir: Lisa Cortes
CNN Films/HBO Max has worldwide rights.

Murder In Big Horn (Premieres)
Native American families in Montana seek answers about missing Indigenous women
Dirs: Razelle Benally, Matthew Galkin
Showtime has North American rights

Past Lives (Premieres)
Close childhood friends from South Korea reunite in New York decades later
Dir: Celine Song
A24 has rights.

Polite Society (Midnight)
We Are Lady Parts creator’s action comedy about an aspiring stuntwoman’s bid to thwart her sister’s wedding
Dir: Nida Manzoor
Focus Features has worldwide rights.
Release date: April 28 2023 in US

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (Premieres)
Two-part profile of celebrated child star
Dir: Lana Wilson
Hulu has US rights.

Rye Lane (Premieres)
Pair of heartbroken young adults connect over the course of one day in London
Dir: Raine Allen-Miller
Searchlight Pictures has worldwide rights.

Stephen Curry: Underrated (Premieres)
Profile of basketball great Stephen Curry
Dir: Peter Nicks
Apple TV+ has worldwide rights.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Story (Premieres)
Beloved Hollywood 80s star recounts early successes and living with Parkinson’s
Dir: Davis Guggenheim
Apple TV+ has worldwide rights

The Stroll (US Documentary Competition)
History of New York’s Meatpacking District through the eyes of trans sex workers
Dirs: Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker
HBO has worldwide rights.

A Thousand And One (US Dramatic Competiton)
Mother kidnaps her six-year-old son from the foster care system in New York
Dir: A.V. Rockman
Focus Features has rights.

Victim/Suspect (US Dramatic Competiton)
Investigation into how women who report sexual assault are often accused of fabrication.
Dir: Nancy Schwartzman
Netflix has worldwide rights.

You Hurt My Feelings (Premieres)
An author discovers her husband dislikes her new novel.
Dir: Nicole Holofcener
A24 has rights.

View this article at Screen Daily.