Since its inception in 2018, North American distributer and sales outfit Utopia has been quietly building up its credentials as a both a company with a distinctive cinematic palette and one able to identify indie projects ahead of the buzz.
Its darkly comic 2020 breakout hit “Shiva Baby,” the directorial feature debut of Emma Seligman, gave an early indication of Utopia’s tastes, which soon led it to pick up Dasha Nekrasova’s wild and erotically-charged Jeffrey Epstein-themed horror “The Scary of Sixty-First” and Lena Dunham’s shoestring sex comedy “Sharp Stick.” In Cannes 2022 it made a splash by acquiring domestic rights to Ali Abbasi’s gritty Iranian crime thriller and Palme d’Or nominee “Holy Spider,” for which Zar Amir won the best actress award, and last year bought LGBT revenge thriller “Femme,” one of the hottest films going into the 2023 Berlinale.
But 2024 sees the company —founded by Robert Schwartzman and Cole Harper and with outposts in both New York and Los Angeles — cross the Atlantic with its first U.K. release, the aptly titled “The Sweet East.”
A surrealist satirical take on the American Dream and the directorial debut of cinematographer Sean Price Williams, “The Sweet East” —boasting an enviably red hot cast the includes Tania Ryder, Ayo Edebiri and Jacob Elordi — first bowed in the Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar to positive reviews. The Utopia team already had connections with the project, having previously worked with Williams and producers Alex Ross Perry and Alex Coco, but swooped on U.S. and Canadian rights from sales company The Match Factory after seeing the film in the south of France.
“It just outperformed all of our hopes for it, and really felt we could find an audience,” explains Kyle Greenberg, Utopia’s head of marketing and distribution.
And they did.
“The Sweet East” was released domestically in the U.S. in December, with Utopia creating the sort of specially-tailored distribution strategy it’s become renowned for. Greenberg says they adopted a “roadshow theatrical approach” for the film, which itself is a road movie, booking screenings across select cities, sometimes for just a couple of nights at a time and often with the filmmakers in tow for Q&As. Despite such a limited, event-style run, the film has now crossed $320,000 in the U.S., making it Utopia’s most successful domestic theatrical release that it’s operated in-house, while a new 35mm print recently opened and began touring. “It’s all very limited but the film just keeps performing,” he says.
And in the middle of this roadshow, the company announced a first: that it had acquired the U.K. rights and was hoping to capitalize on the growing conversation in the U.S. with a near-immediate release.
“We’d seen that some of the international territories were taking a while to to find at a home for the film,” notes Greenberg. “It’s not through any fault of anyones, it’s just how the market operates these days, with people taking a long time to make decisions.”
Greenberg cites Utopia’s growing relationships in the U.K —a territory where its previously sold features (including “Shiva Baby” and “The Scary of Sixty-First”) and seen several of its U.S. acquisitions have strong runs off the back of the domestic release (such as “Holy Spider” and “Meet Me in Bathroom”) —as being behind its decision to make the move. Helping matters, London has also become the company’s third biggest city —after New York and Los Angelas —in terms of its Instagram following, indicating a definite brand recognition.
“So ‘The Sweet East’ is us kind of dipping in our toes,” says Greenberg. “But it’s also about trying to take what makes us successful in the U.S. and not just try to mimic what others are doing.”
As such, the U.K. release has started with a similar strategy to that on home soil. Earlier this month, “The Sweet East” played a handful of sell-out sneak previews over several days in select London theaters (including Shoreditch’s 40-seat Close-Up, reportedly Williams’ favourite cinema) and is now set to embark on a country-wide roadshow from March 29 across mostly independent and art-focussed venues, with support from local art house stalwarts such as the ICA, Picturehouse, The Watershed and Showroom cinemas. From April 5, the film will expand its U.K. footprint further and will also move to Ireland, while the 35mm print will begin touring.
Amidst this, Utopia also made a smaller incursion into the U.K. via its boutique label Circle Collective, focused on arthouse theatrical and physical media. In early March, it held a sold-out sneak preview screening of Kim Albright’s debut feature “With Love and a Major Organ,” while it has just announced the U.K. acquisition —alongside North America —for Bruce LaBruce’s boundary-pushing and X-rated “The Visitor,” which bowed in Berlin and was presented as a conceptual installation during Frieze London.
“The Sweet East” may be a tentative toe dip for Utopia into the the U.K.’s more traditional distribution waters, but Greenberg’s says the company won’t rush into lining up an expansive British release slate just yet or begin scouring markets for potential titles for this new market, at least not yet.
“It’s a conversation we’re definitely having and it’s evolving. We’re under no illusion that we’re more established or capable that companies in the U.K., but there are films where we work really had to cultivate an identity for in partnership with the filmmaking team, so I think when the opportunity should arise it might be a conversation we have after acquiring North America.”
But there is already another film that Utopia has in its sights on where, were it to come on board, it would hope to handle U.K. rights as well. There are also titles already in its catalog that are yet to get a British release, such as “Hung Up On a Dream,” the music doc about British Invasion icons and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Zombies that first bowed in SXSW in 2023. Greenberg says Utopia is potentially looking to launch the film in the U.K. this summer.
And, like “The Sweet East,” there’s a much deeper connection between the company and “Hung Up On a Dream” than simply being rights holders —it was literally directed and produced by Utopia co-founder Schwartzman, the actor-turned-filmmaker who happens to be the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and is a musician himself (this marks his first documentary). The Zombies are also one of his favourite bands.
“We’ve been seeing the making the film for quite some time and know the movie better than anybody,” says Greenberg, who claims that, with The Zombies being a U.K. band, British exhibitors are already showing interest. “So it doesn’t necessarily makes sense for us to sell it elsewhere.”
However Utopia does expand in the U.K. and potentially further afield, Greenberg says it’ll be done as an “extension” of what the company has been doing since its inception, which is to “curate a campaign to the film.” It’ll also look to potentially take advantage the current reality of film licensing, where previously unavailable rights become available, and try to ensure that titles can be released in conjunction with the domestic release to capitalise on the momentum, as it did with “The Sweet East.”
“I think it’s the distributor’s role to be opportunistic at time and find ways to support our filmmakers,” he notes. “Because we love this movie and just felt like it would be a shame if it was a year from now and was only finally coming out in the U.K.”
