Just like last year, over 60 films will enter this year’s Sundance Film Festival looking for home. But after a slow 2023, 2024 turned out to be a strong year for independent film, with some unexpected buyers getting involved, Netflix getting aggressive and spending one of the biggest amounts in Sundance history, and the overall health of the market at a healthy pace. This year suggests Even more distributors can get creative.
Below, we’ll update all acquisitions from the festival as they arrive. Here is Movies that we think can sell big.
“The Reality of Hope”
Section: Documentary short film program
Buyer: Asteria and documentary+
Director: Joe hunting
Buzz: Ahead of its premiere on Saturday, January 25, AI Animation Studio Asteria and documentary free streaming platform Dokumentär+ swooped in to acquire this DOC card that mixes VR and live action footage. The film follows Hiyu, a Virtual Reality World Builder based in Stockholm who suffers from kidney failure and is about to receive a transplant from a friend, a New York-based photographer, whom he only knows through an online VR community where they are each Seen as an animal “furry” avatar. DOC+ will release the film later this year on its Avod platform and through its various express channels. Asterias Bryn Mooser and Justin Lacob join the project as executive producers.
“One to One: John and Yoko”
Section: Spotlight
Buyer: Magnolia
Director: Kevin MacDonald
Buzz: Premiering first at the Venice Film Festival and then at Telluride, Magnolia bought “One to One” just before its Sundance screening and made a splash to give it an IMAX-exclusive release on April 11, the first time Magnolia has partnered with IMAX on a release. It will then land on Max and HBO in late 2025. The film follows the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, including restored footage from the only full concert Lennon performed after having broken up from the Beatles, it for a Madison Square Garden Benefit concert. The film has a sound restoration overseen by Sean Lennon Ono.
Movies arriving with distribution
“2000 meters to Andriivka”
Section: World Documentary
Distributor: Frontline/Associated Press
Director: Mstyslav Chernov
Buzz: The director of “20 Days in Mariupol” returns with a film in which he embeds himself with a Ukrainian platoon that slowly realizes that the Russian campaign can be seemingly endless.
“The Alabama Solution”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: HBO documentaries
Director: Andrew Jarecki
Buzz: The “Capting the Friedmans” director investigates a cover-up inside one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
“April”
Section: Spotlight
Distributor: Metrograph Films
Director: Dea Kulumbegashvili
Buzz: The women’s rights film from the Georgian filmmaker won the Jury Prize at last year’s Venice and will open from the Metrograph, fittingly, in April.
“The Ballad of Wallis Island”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: Focus functions
Director: James Griffiths
Throw: Girl Basden, Carey Mullaga, Team Key, Sian Clifford, The Nidgforgend Akemmnn
Buzz: Basden and Key are longtime comedy partners who reunite for a sweet, tuneful film about a lottery winner who gets one of his old favorite duos to reunite for a private concert.
“Deaf President Now!”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: Apple Studios
Director: Nyle Dimarco and Davis Guggenheim
Buzz: “Deaf U” producer with “Still” director of a story about the 1988 protest at Gallaudet University’s Deaf College.
“Riddle”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: HBO documentaries
Director: Zackary Drucker
Buzz: The director of “The Stroll” returns to Sundance with this profile of model Amanda Lear and April Ashley, the woman who claimed Lear worked with her in Parisian Transgender in the 50s.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: A24
Director: Mary Bronstein
Throw: Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, Conan O’Brien, Danielle McDonald
Buzz: The director of “Yeast” makes his sophomore debut with this darkly comic, awkwardly funny film about a woman’s adversarial relationship with her therapist.
“The Legend of Ochi”
Section: Family matinee
Distributor: A24
Director: Isaiah Saxon
Throw: Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, Willem Dafoe,
Buzz: This A24 Family Fantasy Adventure Film uses elaborate and carefully crafted puppet and paintings (not AI!) to tell an environmental garable.
“Magic Farm”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: Min
Director: Amalia Ullman
Throw: Chloe Sevigny, Alex Wolff, Simon Rex
Buzz: The director of “El Planeta” returns to Sundance with this English-language media satire A film crew travels to Argentina for a profile, only to end up in the wrong country.
“Opus”
Section: Midnight
Distributor: A24
Director: Mark Anthony Green
Throw: Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder
Buzz: Mark Anthony Green’s debut feature is a horror film about a young journalist who is invited to visit the compound of a pop star who mysteriously disappeared 30 years earlier.
“Result”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: Nat Geo
Director: Cristina costantini
Buzz: The director of “Mucho Mucho Amor” and “Science Fair leads this profile of Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut in space, and her secret romance.
“Sly Lives! (aka the burden of black genius)
Section: Premiere
Distributor: Onyx collective
Director: Questlove
Buzz: Four years after Questlove had a record-breaking Sundance sale for a documentary, Questlove is back with a documentary about Sly and the family’s rock leader Sly Stone.
“The Wedding Banquet”
Section: Premiere
Distributor: Bleecker Street
Director: Andrew Ahn
Throw: Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran
Buzz: The “Fire Island” filmmaker’s latest film is a comedy about a man who trades a green card marriage for an expensive IVF procedure, only to be surprised by an elaborate Korean wedding ceremony.
