Latest in Acquisitions

Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to Young Ahmed, the latest film from Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne to bow at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director prize this year. The film is having its North American premiere at the upcoming COLCOA French Film Festival in Los Angeles, and it…

EXCLUSIVE: Animal Planet has acquired worldwide television rights to  Participant and Terra Mater Factual Studios' documentary film Watson. The film chronicles Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson, who has spent his life sailing the globe to keep the oceans and their inhabitants safe.   The film had its world…

EXCLUSIVE: A24 is in final negotiations for an untitled drama that will be the next film for Joker star Joaquin Phoenix. The movie has been written and will be directed by 20th Century Woman and Beginners filmmaker Mike Mills. Production begins in the fall, and the deal is a coup for A24 to land the first film vehicle…

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that A24 has acquired North American rights to Rose Glass’ psychological horror film Saint Maud, which made its world premiere in TIFF’s Midnight Madness program. In addition, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) nabbed all international rights for Saint Maud, excluding the U.K…

EXCLUSIVE: RLJE Films has acquired North American rights to VFW, an action horror move with a tough-guy cast that includes Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Fred Williamson and Martin Kove. The deal comes as the pic, directed by Joe Begos (Bliss, Almost Human, Mind's Eye), is prepping for its world premiere Saturday at…

EXCLUSIVE: HBO is nearing the big deal of the Toronto Film Festival, acquiring for a sum nearing $20 million world rights to Bad Education, the Cory Finley-directed fact-based dark comedy that stars Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney as supervisors in the Roslyn, Long Island, school district who masterminded the largest…

Comedy Dynamics has acquired Michael and Thomas Matthews’ feature film Lost Holiday, starring Kate Lyn Sheil (The Sound of Silence, House of Cards), William Jackson Harper (Midsommar, The Good Place), Keith Poulson (Mercury Plains, Wild Canaries) and Josh Leonard (Blair Witch Project, Togetherness). The comedy also…

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has closed a U.S. rights deal on Sound of Metal, the Darius Marder-directed drama that stars Nightcrawler‘s Riz Ahmed as a drummer in a band who most come to terms with a new reality of silence when he begins to lose his hearing. Pic also stars Olivia Cooke, Mathieu Amalric, Lauren Ridloff…

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate is in final talks to acquire the action spec script package Shadow Force. Kerry Washington and Sterling K. Brown will star in and produce a Leon Chills-scripted action drama that is described as a two-hander action picture reminiscent of films like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Simpson Street's Pilar Savone…

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics is closing its second Toronto Film Festival deal, this one for Lyrebird, the Dan Friedkin-directed drama that stars Vicky Krieps, Guy Pearce, Roland Moller and Claes Bang. Deal being wrapped up is for North America, Latin American, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East and…

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights outside of some Asian territories to The Platform (El Hoyo), Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's Spanish-language sci-fi thriller that had its world premiere Friday in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival. Ivan Massague (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Antonia San Juan (All About My…

Lightyear Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to the Mihal Brezis & Oded Binnun-directed drama The Etruscan Smile starring Brian Cox. The pic will be released November 1 in New York and Los Angeles just in time for an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run. A theatrical rollout is slated for the spring of…