It’s a weekend of buzzy independent debuts, many Oscar shortlisted and festival-winning, in limited release with Academy voting set to kick off Jan. 12. These are from smaller distributors, some new or just ramping up, in a marketplace that’s dynamic but crowded right now.
Row K Entertainment is out with its inaugural release, Gus Van Sant’s crime thriller Dead Man’s Wire, on 14 screens in NY, LA Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Washington D.C., Seattle and Austin. Premiered at Venice (see Deadline review) and Toronto. Certified RT Fresh at 93%, the story of a 1977 hostage standoff that turned an aspiring entrepreneur into an eccentric outlaw folk hero stars Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Coleman Domingo and Al Pacino. On February 8 that year, Tony Kiritsis (Skarsgård) walked calmly into the Meridian Mortgage Company in downtown Indianapolis to see its president Richard Hall ( Montgomery) and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired from the trigger to Tony’s own neck. He believed the firm had deliberately sabotaged a real estate project and wanted $5 million, a guarantee of no prosecution or jail time, and an apology from Meridian’s owner M.L. Hall (Pacino).
Oscilloscope opens Alberty Birney’s black and white lo-fi fantasy Obex at the IFC Center in NYC to quite a few sold-out Q&As with hosts including Jane Schoenbrun. Premiered at Sundance, see Deadline review and is at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (off 36 reviews). In pre-internet 1987, Conor and his dog Sandy live a life of seclusion, lost in the slow-rendering graphics of early Macs and televisions aglow with late night horror movie marathons. But when he begins playing Obex, a mysterious new state-of-the-art computer game, he finds himself trapped in a low-tech, high-stakes analog hellscape as the line between reality and game blurs.
By Cartuna. Written by Pete Ohs and Birney, who also stars with Callie Hernandez, Paisley Isaacs, Frank Mosley, Tyler Davis.
Watermelon Pictures opens Cherien Dabis’ Sundance/Telluride multigenerational drama All That’s Left of You in NY and LA (Angelika, Laemmle Royal), expanding in coming weeks. Jordan’s Oscar-shortlisted Best International Feature Film follows a Palestinian teenager who gets swept into a protest in the Occupied West Bank and experiences a moment of violence that rocks his family. Loosely inspired by the experiences of U.S.-born Dabis’ family, which hails from Palestine and Jordan. See his Deadline Contenders interview. At 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (off 30 reviews). Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo are exec producers.
Music Box Films is out with Cannes prize-winning Young Mothers by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne at the IFC Center in New York. Adds LA and Chicago Jan. 16 with national expansion to follow. Belgium’s Oscar selection, which took the Best Screenplay Award and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is RT Certified Fresh at 94%, See Deadline review. Five young mothers living in a shelter strive for a better future for themselves and kids amidst challenging upbringings.
Janus Films opens the Gael García Bernal-starring Magellan at NY’s IFC Center and LA’s Nuart before expanding nationwide later in January. Premiered at Cannes, played NYFF, TIFF, Palm Springs and AFI Fest, the film tells the story of the 16th century explorer, the first European to cross the Pacific, and the indigenous people of the Philippines who bring his colonial expedition to its proper end. Directed by Filipino auteur Lav Diaz, the film played to sold-out previews in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco with the director and star and and is poised to be Diaz’ best opening to date.
Brandon Kramer’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary Holding Liat, winner of the Berlinale Documentary Award is presented by and opening at New York’s Film Forum. After Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband Aviv were abducted by Hamas on October 7, Liat’s father Yehuda embarks on an uncertain mission to secure his daughter’s release while resisting pressure to use her captivity to justify escalating violence in Gaza. At 100% on RT (off 16 reviews). See filmmaker interviews on Deadline’s For The Love of Docs.
Cohen Media Groups opens My Neighbor Adolf by Leon Prudovsky on 40+ screens including the Quad Cinema, Lumiere Cinema (LA), and select AMCs in Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C. and more. Premiered at Locarno back in 2022. Stars David Hayman and the late Udo Kier in one of his final leading performances. Preceded by an Udo Kier retrospective at the Quad. Filmmaker Leon Prudovsky is in New York for post-film Q&As on Jan 9 and 10 moderated by Monica Castillo.
WIDE: Angel Studios’ I Was A Stranger opens on 1,380 screens. Winner of the Amnesty International Film Prize in Berlin in 2024, it’s set against the backdrop of the Syrian Civil War. As a doctor is forced to flee Aleppo with her young daughter, one desperate choice sets off a chain of events that ripples across borders and interlocking stories. Written and directed by Brandt Anderson.