IFC Buys Sundance Thriller ‘Watcher’

Lewis Lee told Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio how she first became aware of the disproportionate numbers of preventable deaths of Black mothers and babies.“Way back in 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked me to be the spokesperson for their infant mortality awareness raising campaign called ‘A Healthy Baby Begins With You,’” she said.

Angelique Jackson Filmmakers Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s Sundance award-winning documentary “Aftershock” has been acquired by Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News.News of the joint acquisition comes after the feature won the U.S. Documentary special jury award for impact for change at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it made its debut as an official selection last month.

EXCLUSIVE: IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Julian Higgins’ feature directorial debut God’s Country, starring BAFTA and Emmy winner Thandiwe Newton (Westworld, Crash), on the heels of its debut at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It will release the film won in a bidding war in theaters this fall.

IFC Midnight has taken North American rights to Magdalena Lauritsch’s sci-fi disaster movie, Rubikon. A theatrical and PVOD date will be set for this year.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaScreen Media has acquired North American rights to “9 Bullets,” a new crime thriller with “Game of Thrones” star Lena Headey and “Avatar’s” Sam Worthington. The studio is planning a day-and-date release in April. “9 Bullets” centers on a showgirl (Headey), who risks everything when she rescues a young boy after his family is murdered by her ex-boyfriend, who also happens to be the local crime-boss (Worthington).

EXCLUSIVE: Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment have prevailed in a bidding war surrounding the Sundance thriller Emily the Criminal, starring and produced by Aubrey Plaza (Black Bear, Ingrid Goes West), claiming North American rights. They’ve slated the film for an exclusive theatrical release this year, with Redbox joining the partnership for home entertainment distribution.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterIFC Films and the AMC Network-owned digital platform Shudder purchased North American rights to “Watcher,” an eerie thriller that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.IFC Midnight, the company’s genre division, plans to release the film in theaters and on VOD (beginning with the horror-centric streamer Shudder) in 2022. The exact date has not been set yet.Chloe Okuno directed “Watcher,” a suspenseful story about a young woman who moves into a new apartment with her fiancé gets the creepy sense that she’s being observed.

Directed by Paula Eislet and Tonya Lewis Lee (Spike Lee’s producer and partner), the documentary “Aftershock” chronicles the dismal maternal mortality rate that women of color face in the United States medical system. The statistics are shameful, pointing to a systemic racist indifference, and the documentary chronicles the staggering number of times that expectant mothers entering into hospitals simply do not come out alive due to a lack of care and sensitivity.

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Angelique Jackson Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to the Sundance award-winning documentary “Descendant,” by filmmaker Margaret Brown (“The Order of Myths,” “Be Here to Love Me: Townes Van Zandt,” “The Great Invisible”). Higher Ground, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, will present the Participant feature alongside Netflix later this year.The film follows members of Africatown, a small community in Alabama, as they share their personal stories and community history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known ship carrying enslaved Africans to the United States.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIFC Films and Shudder has acquired North American rights to psychological thriller “Resurrection” following its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film stars Rebecca Hall as Margaret, a woman who balances the demands of a busy career and single parenthood. Her carefully constructed life is upended when an unwelcome shadow from her past, David (Tim Roth) returns, forcing her to confront the monster she’s evaded for two decades.“Resurrection” was written and directed by Andrew Semans (“Nancy, Please”) and co-stars Grace Kaufman and Michael Esper.

IFC Films and Shudder have taken North American rights to Andrew Semans’ psychological thriller Resurrection starring Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman and Michael Esper.

poisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday. Called “Navalny,” it’s a no-holds-barred indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, and insists that Navalny’s close brush with death was the result of a secret state-run operation to assassinate him.“As I became more and more famous guy, I was totally sure that my life became safer and safer because I am kind of famous guy — and it will be problematic for them just to kill me,” Navalny, 45, says in the film. “I was very wrong.” The doc, heading to HBO Max, was added at the last minute to the Sundance slate just as Putin had stationed more than 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border.

At first glance, actor-writer-director Cooper Raiff’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth” might look like your typical cutesy and whimsical Sundance dramedy, about a twenty-something college graduate learning a valuable life lesson and experiencing a bit of a delayed coming of age. While that’s not an inaccurate description of Raiff’s disarmingly lovely film (programmed in this year’s US Dramatic Competition), what feels miraculous about “Cha Cha” is: it doesn’t come with even an ounce of that cringe-inducing Sundance fancifulness, a brand that many love to hate.

EXCLUSIVE: Living, one of the Sundance buzz titles since its January 21 premiere, has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for around $5 million for North American and some international territories, Deadline hears. This after a brisk auction involving the likes of Neon, Bleecker Street, and Focus Features.

EXCLUSIVE: Searchlight Pictures has emerged as the favorite to acquire Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, the Sophie Hyde-directed drama that stars Emma Thompson as a widow who decides to seek out something that has eluded her over a 31-year marriage: a proper, mind-blowing, toe-curling orgasm. Negotiations are underway and will hopefully climax into the first narrative film deal at 2022 Sundance, after a weekend of foreplay but no consummation beyond the docu Fire of Love.

As you know, the in person festival was canceled due to rising concerns of the omicron variant of Covid-19 and it has moved to an online screening format for press and attendees.

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival obviously has so much to offer. Big premieres from indie auteurs, world cinema, documentaries, films for kids, and movies that are receiving so much acclaim right now, you’ll be hearing more from them later in the year upon regular theatrical release.