Sundance 2022: Winners and Deals

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival, for the second year in a row, was an online affair, resulting in a noticeable increase in the event’s reach and revenue.

The most notable deals from the independent film festival included Apple TV+’s $15 million deal for Cooper Raiff’s highly-anticipated coming of age comedy Cha Cha Real Smooth starring Dakota Johnson, Sont Picture Classics’ purchase of Oliver Hermanus’ Living for around $5 million, and Searchlight’s $7.5 million acquisition of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande starring Emma Thompson.

National Geographic bought a documentary profile of indigenous conservationists in the Brazilian Amazon titled The Territory, as well as the story of married volcanologists, Fire of Love. Netflix picked up Descendant, Margaret Brown’s account of the search for the last slave ship to reach the U.S. shores by the descendants of those who were on board.

Some of Sundance’s 2022 winners included Nikyatu Jusu’s Nanny for the U.S. Dramatic category and Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama for World Dramatic. Ben Klein and Violet Columbus won the U.S. Documentary award for The Exiles, while Shaunak Sen won the World Documentary award for All That Breathes. The Festival Favorite Award, selected by public vote, went to Daniel Roher’s Navalny, which CNN and HBO Max will be distributing.

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