The Sundance Film Festival isn’t even halfway through yet, but there have already been some exciting deals and developments for films by and about women. Maggie Betts’ “Novitiate” and Alethea Jones’ “Fun Mom Dinner” have found distribution, as has the Emily V. Gordon-co-written “The Big Sick.”
Sony Pictures Classics released a statement announcing they have acquired worldwide rights to “Novitiate,” the first film from writer-director Betts.
According to its official synopsis, “‘Novitiate’ is about a young girl’s first experience with love. In this case, her first love is God. Raised by a vehemently non-religious, single mother in rural Tennessee, a scholarship to Catholic school soon finds Cathleen (Margaret Qualley) drawn into all the mystery and romanticism of a life devoted to the worship and servitude of God. With the dawn of the Vatican II era, radical changes in the Church are threatening the course of the nuns’ lives. As Cathleen progresses from the postulant to the novitiate stage of training, she finds her faith repeatedly confronted and challenged by the harsh, often inhumane realities of being a servant of God.”
“Novitiate” also stars Julianne Nicholson, Dianna Agron, Morgan Saylor, and Melissa Leo.
Meanwhile, Deadline reports that Netflix won multi-territory SVOD rights to “Fun Mom Dinner” in a “preemptive deal.” The directorial debut from Jones, “Fun Mom Dinner” is written by Julie Rudd and stars Katie Aselton, Toni Collette, Bridget Everett, and Molly Shannon.
The film’s logline reads, “Four women, whose kids attend the same preschool class, get together for a ‘fun mom dinner.’ When the night takes an unexpected turn, these unlikely new friends realize they have more in common than just marriage and motherhood. Together, they reclaim a piece of the women they used to be.”
Beating out Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Fox Searchlight, Amazon Studios acquired U.S. rights to “The Big Sick” — co-written by Gordon and directed by Michael Showalter (“Hello, My Name is Doris”) — as well as the rights to other territories like the UK, France, Germany, Spain, China, India, Russia, Malaysia, and Poland, ScreenDaily writes. The $12 million deal marks one of the biggest in Sundance’s history.
According to the source, Amazon “will appoint a theatrical partner and stage a U.S. release later this year before rolling out the film on its Prime Video streaming platform.” The film is earning rave reviews.
Gordon and comedian-actor Kumail Nanjiani (“Silicon Valley”) penned the script, which tells the story about “a Pakistani stand-up comic who falls for an American girl, based on [Gordon and Nanjiani’s] actual relationship.” Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, and Ray Romano star.
