The shift to yet another virtual Sundance this year didn’t leave buyers and sellers scrambling in the way you might expect. In fact, they might now be more prepared than ever.
The robust, record-breaking sales for films like “CODA” (bought by Apple for $25 million-plus) and “Summer of Soul” (bought by Searchlight/Hulu for $15 million) were a surprise to sales agents during last year’s virtual festival. But agents and buyers who spoke with TheWrap argued that the traditional theatrical distributors are more equipped now in 2022 than they were last year to get into the acquisitions game.
Most theatrical buyers in 2021 came into Sundance with full release slates (largely due to pandemic delays in 2020) and therefore didn’t compete with the streamers for the larger titles, insiders said. Now those same buyers have released multiple films in the last year, acquired a handful of others and are coming into the festival with a greater understanding of the shifting theatrical windows. But they’ll also now be looking to buy — both for theatrical release and to feed their own streaming platforms — and the market could be just as fierce.
“I see no reason why it wouldn’t happen. There’s only more aggressive worldwide buyers and studios than there were last year,” Kent Sanderson, president of acquisitions and ancillary distribution at Bleecker Street, told TheWrap. “They keep making more of them. And I think there’s a few really strong titles that could possibly go that way.”
Whether the streaming dynamic brings out buyers from the likes of Pararmount+, AMC+ or Peacock is anyone’s guess. But Searchlight could be a prime example of a buyer willing to go both ways, as the indie division of Disney already made a splash this month by acquiring the Mimi Cave thriller “Fresh” — but as a streaming original for Hulu.
The good news is that sales agents have even more to work with on their own slates this year than in 2021, with even more titles screening and on a bigger scale. Last year’s overall festival slate operated with a slightly slimmed down lineup compared to this year (83 features compared to 72 in 2021), and the films themselves will have the benefit of not being as constrained by the pandemic.
“This year’s festival should have several titles that will look and feel bigger than last year,” Deborah McIntosh, co-head of WME Independent, said. “Last year, we were really hamstrung on the production side of things to get films made that had a more robust budget and to get talent safely and affordably on to movie sets, so many of the 2021 festival films reflected that.”
Among those could be titles like “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul,” a satire about mega churches that stars Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown, “God’s Country,” which is earning buzz for a performance from Thandiwe Newton and its sweeping cinematography, and “892,” a timely thriller starring John Boyega that’s also the last film featuring the late Michael Kenneth Williams.
Fortunately or unfortunately, sales agents and buyers have already dealt with what a virtual market would feel like for two years now. In fact, a hybrid festival could have presented its own challenges, juggling the audiences, buyers and talent that felt comfortable attending the festival with those who didn’t. No one’s thrilled that the splashy parties and premieres won’t happen, but there’s perhaps a silver lining: The challenges and complications posed by COVID haven’t changed.
“In one sense, having a festival be all virtual rather than hybrid has its advantages — everybody is seeing the film on an even playing field,” Jessica Lacy, head of ICM Independent, told TheWrap. “We knew we would have to navigate a virtual component irrespective of Sundance being in person or not.”
Sanderson, whose Bleecker Street is bringing James Ponsoldt’s family film “Summering” to the festival, agreed. “I don’t think we’re in a completely different place,” he said. “It’s same old, same old in that the thing we’re repeating is extreme variation.”
Even as production has been hampered by the pandemic, Sanderson said there seem to be enough titles for at least a handful of “breakout worldwide buys” as well as an attractive middle ground for theatrical players like his own.
But for every “CODA” that generates an eight-figure sale, there are smaller art-house movies that may still struggle to find a home without an in-person audience to help create buzz.
Cooper Raiff, who is debuting his sophomore feature “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” now finds himself at his second straight virtual festival after his debut film “S—house” won the top prize at 2020’s canceled SXSW (it was one of the first titles sold in a virtual marketplace to IFC Films). “32 Sounds,” an experimental documentary from Sam Green that was meant to play on Sundance’s opening night, will lose out on a live performance element that can only be experienced in a theater.
For those titles and other smaller, more art-house indies and documentaries, the theatrical landscape remains as uncertain as ever, but agents are still bullish about their ability to get such films into the right hands.
“Traditional theatrical distributors are cost conscious because of the current theatrical landscape,” Lacy said. “But they will have an appetite for the right film, and I am confident there are films in the lineup they will go after.”
