Sundance-premiering Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake), the second feature to get a theatrical debut from nonprofit The Future of Film is Female, joins new limited releases from Mubi (Cannes-premiering The History of Sound starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor), Magnolia Pictures (Rabbit Trap starring Dev Patel) and Strand Releasing (Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams). Neo Sora’s extremely well reviewed sci-fi-tinged coming-of-age drama Happyend is getting a theatrical run via Film Movement.
They join wide and splashy indies Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and the farewell film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale from Bleecker Street and Focus Features, respectively.
Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) opens at the IFC Center in NYC via Caryn Coleman’s The Future of Filmmaking Is Female, a nonprofit that recently launched a small distribution arm to release one to two titles a year. Writer-director Sierra Falconer’s debut feature, executive produced by Joanna Hogg, premiered at Sundance and follows the intertwined lives of residents and visitors over a single summer around Green Lake in Michigan.
Coleman, former director of programming and special projects at Nitehawk Cinema, founded FOFIF to amplify the work of first-time female filmmakers through a short-film fund and screening programs from the Museum of Modern Art in New York to Vidiots in Los Angeles. Sunfish is the org’s second release after Hannah Peterson’s feature debut The Graduates, EP’d by Chloe Zhao, last year.
“I have seen too many wonderful films, first feature films, directed by women shown a festival … that then just kind of go nowhere. I’ve tried to pick up as many as I can to give them at least one screening” somewhere, Coleman said. She started to distribute in 2024 to give at least a few a wider audience, working closely with filmmakers on the rollout. “We focus our approach on a New York theatrical, robust screenings in Los Angeles, and then we ask the filmmaker.” For Michigan native Falconer, “it was very important for her to screen in the Midwest, specifically in Michigan, because that’s where the film takes place. So we essentially [planned] a road show in Michigan and Ohio” and other states at theaters and colleges.
“This is a very quiet film that critics and audiences have really gravitated towards,” she said. “A traditional release with a bigger studio is just not going to have the time or the resources to give it the attention that it really needs to hit. It needs “the right audiences.”
In a complicated indie market, a bespoke model has been working for films this fall from quirky animated Boys Go to Jupiter by Julian Glander, the first theatrical release from independent studio Cartuna, co-distributed with Irony Point, to Sam Hayes’ Chicago-set Pools from Utopia and more.
Mubi’s The History of Sound starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor debuts at four theaters in New York (Angelika Film Center, AMC Lincoln Square) and Los Angeles (AMC Century City, AMC Burbank). The film by Oliver Hermanus (Living) world premiered at Cannes – see Deadline review — and recently had its North American bow at Telluride. Expands nationally next Friday.
In 1917, Lionel (Mescal), a young, talented music student, meets David (O’Connor) at the Boston Conservatory, where a connection over a deep love of music leads to a fleeting love affair. They reconnect years later, leading to an impromptu journey through the backwoods of Maine to collect traditional folk songs. The unexpected reunion and the music they preserve will shape the course of Lionel’s life for decades to come.
Magnolia Pictures opens folk horror Rabbit Trap at 100+ theaters. The feature debut of British writer-director Bryn Chainey stars Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen and Jade Croot. Influential husband-and-wife musicians move from London to a remote house in Wales to finish their next album. But the music they make disturbs local ancient folk magic, conjuring to their doorstep mystical beings intent on infiltrating their lives. Premiered at Sundance, see Deadline review.
Strand Releasing opens Dreams at the Film Forum. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival (see Deadline review), it’s the third installment in Love–Sex–Dreams: The Oslo Trilogy by Norwegian director Johan Haugerud. It follows 17-year-old Johanne (Ella Øverbye) as she drifts and daydreams like any teenager, until her restlessness suddenly morphs into consuming passion for her charismatic French teacher (Selome Emnetu). At 100% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes off 28 reviews.
Film Movement is out with Neo Sora’s narrative debut in sci-fi tinged coming-of-age drama Happyend. Opens in New York at Metrograph and the Roxie in San Franscisco, adding Chicago and LA next week with a limited rollout through the fall. Best friends Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaka) are on the brink of graduating from high school in a near-future, politically oppressive Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake casts a shadow over daily life. World premiered at Venice and played the New York Film Festival last year. At 96% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes off 24 reviews.
Wide indies blast off with Spinal Tap II: The End Continues from Bleecker Street, directed by Rob Reiner, with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer reprising their iconic roles as the legendary heavy metal band Spinal Tap. In 1,919 theaters. The sequel to Reiner’s 1984 mockumentary cult classic This Is Spinal Tap, which Bleecker Street rereleased in theaters nationwide this summer.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale from Focus Features, directed by Simon Curtis and written by Julian Fellowes, is, sadly, a wrap for the saga of the beloved British aristocrats who call it home. Focus Features opens the film on 2,900 screens. Wednesday and Thursday previews have grossed $2.6 million.
More specialty openings: Pinup model-turned-photographer Bunny Yeager hits the big screen as Music Box Films opens documentary Naked Ambition by Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch in New York at Quad Cinema, the Laemmle Noho in L.A. and Chicago’s Music Box Theatre. Although few people know her name, Yeager had a huge influence on 20th century pop culture — popularizing the bikini, helping discover Bettie Page, shaping the image of Playboy and inventing the selfie. A trailblazer, her work bucked conservative 1950s America and helped pave the way for the feminist movement and the sexual revolution. Featuring testimonies from Dita Von Teese, Bruce Weber and Larry King. World premiered at DOC NYC 2023.
Boxing drama Bang Bang starring Tim Blake Nelson, from new distributor Sunrise Films, opens in limited release in NYC and L.A. (IFC, Alamo Drafthouse downtown Manhattan, Landmark Nuart), and the Fleur Cinema and Café in Des Moines, Iowa. Follows retired boxer Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski (Nelson) as he reconnects with his estranged grandson, coaching him in the sport that once upended his life. As the bond between them grows, questions arise about Bang Bang’s true motivations. Directed by Vincent Grashaw, written by Will Janowitz. With Glenn Plummer, Kevin Corrigan, Nina Arianda, Andrew Liner, Erica Gimpel and Daniella Pineda. Premiered at Tribeca Festival 2024.
Looking Through Water from Good Deed Entertainment, starring Michael Douglas, Michael Stahl-David, Cameron Douglas, David Morse, Walker Scobell and Tamara Tunie opens on 135 screens. William McKay, his career is in ruins after a shocking betrayal, joins his estranged father for a fishing tournament in Belize. Decades later, William recalls that pivotal trip as he tries to connect with his angry, distant grandson. Based on novels by Bob Rich with a screenplay from Rowdy Herrington.
Faith-based drama Triumph of the Heart by Anthony D’Ambrosio about St. Maximilian Kolbe opens on 400+ screens including AMC Theatres. The film from Outsider Pictures is based on a true story is set in the harrowing confines of a starvation cell in Auschwitz. Catholic priest Maximilian Kolbe (Polish actor Marcin Kwaśny) volunteers to die in place of another prisoner, joining nine others condemned by the Nazis, and urges hope and resistance through faith inside the suffocating cell.
Action dramedy Code 3 opens on 140+ screens from new distributor Aura Entertainment. Directed by Christopher Leone, it stars Rainn Wilson, Lil Rel Howery, Aimee Carrero, Yvette Nicole Brown, Rob Riggle, Xolo Maridueña and Page Kennedy. Co-written by former paramedic Patrick Pianezza, based on his experiences, and director Leone. It follows a burned-out paramedic on his final 24-hour shift as he trains his eager but inexperienced replacement. But what begins as a routine night quickly unravels into a chaotic, citywide odyssey.
