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Today, Prime Video released the official trailer and key art for the upcoming highly anticipated docuseries Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War.

The three-part docuseries, executive produced by Blye Faust and Cori Shepherd, the award-winning team behind Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, premieres on July 23 on Prime Video.

Directed by the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmakers Nicole Newnham and Cori Shepherd, Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War focuses on the controversial organization Teen Mania, once America’s largest youth ministry, which attracted millions through their wildly popular stadium shows known as “Acquire the Fire.”

The series bursts with peak Millennial nostalgia and cringe, featuring colossal stadiums filled with teens enraptured by religious rock anthems, inspired to swear purity oaths and eagerly embark by the thousands on culturally questionable global missions.

But beneath the wholesome youth group illusion lies a darker undercurrent: a high-pressure pipeline of brutal spiritual boot camps,...

MSNBC's The Sing Sing Chronicles, directed by Dawn Porter, was the top winner on the second night of the 2025 News & Documentary Emmy Awards on Thursday. Among networks, National Geographic led with six awards, followed by Netflix with four.

The Sing Sing Chronicles, which follows the deep connection forged between a journalist and a man convicted of murder within the walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility, won Best Documentary. Meanwhile, Best Director honors were awarded to Carla Gutierrez for her work on Prime Video's Frida.

The 46th annual News & Documentary Emmys, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, honor the best programming content that aired in the calendar year 2024. The news categories were presented on Wednesday and the documentary categories were presented on Thursday.

Two-time Oscar nominee Jon Else received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his groundbreaking contributions to the craft of nonfiction storytelling. The award was presented by Carrie Lozano,...

On night two of the 46th News & Documentary Emmy Awards Thursday night, MSNBC took home the night’s biggest prize, Best Documentary, for “The Sing Sing Chronicles.”

But at the ceremony focused on documentary programming, National Geographic led all winners with six award, taking home Outstanding Historical Documentary and Outstanding Nature Documentary among others. Netflix followed, with two programming wins (Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary and Outstanding Investigative Documentary) and two craft wins (Outstanding Cinematography — Documentary and Outstanding Light Direction — Documentary).

PBS historically does well on the second night of the annual ceremony, often leading the pack in documentary programming with series like “Frontline,” “Pov” and “Independent Lens.” Tonight’s two documentary programming wins brought the network’s two total to 19 this decade. They also saw three Gold/Silver Circle inductees — this amid President Donald Trump’s calls to cut the network’s funding.

Jon Else received the night’s Lifetime Achievement Award for documentary,...

Just hours after news that legendary news broadcaster Bill Moyers had died, the icon was paid tribute at Thursday night’s documentary portion of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. The event, held at the Palladium Times Square in New York City, saw Nat Geo take home the most prizes with six, followed by Netflix with four.

Among the night’s big winners: MSNBC’s “The Sing Sing Chronicles” (produced by NBC News Studios) was named best documentary; Paramount+’s “We Will Dance Again” was named best current affairs documentary; and the important and groundbreaking doc “The Sixth” — which told the dramatic and true story of the terror that took place on January 6, 2021 — earned the Emmy in the politics and government doc category. That Emmy was extra sweet, as streamers were scared to show it despite its crucial message.

Comedian and filmmaker Negin Farsad hosted the evening,...

The Sing Sing Chronicles won the coveted title of best documentary on night two of the 2025 News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

The film, from MSNBC, spotlights the connection between a journalist, Dan Slepian, and a man incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, who was wrongfully convicted of murder.

Dawn Porter directed The Sing Sing Chronicles while Kimberly Ferdinando served as an executive producer. The doc was produced by NBC News Studios.

Also during the ceremony, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jon Else was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Carrie Lozano. On Wednesday, longtime NBC Today weather anchor Al Roker also received the honor.

“The talents of our journalistic and documentary communities have profoundly shaped our culture and nation,” said Terry O’Reilly, Chairman of NATAS. “In the face of evolving societal landscapes, their unwavering dedication to truth and storytelling has illuminated critical issues, fostered crucial conversations and empowered the public.

Disney’s National Geographic lept over the competition when it comes to the News and Documentary Emmys, scoring approximately 46 nominations, as the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences revealed this year’s contenders on Thursday morning.

Helping Nat Geo dominate was “Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller,” which earned a whopping 29 nominations in various categories, including Outstanding Recorded News Program and Outstanding Investigative News Coverage – Long Form. In the Outstanding Lighting Direction – News race, it even received all four noms. “Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller” also earned the most series nominations last year.

Behind Nat Geo was PBS with 37, followed by CNN (33), ABC, Netflix (29) and CBS (28). Among Spanish-lingo outlets, Univision led with 13. Nat Geo’s “Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller” was among the top series nominees, with a whopping 20 nominations.

In the key best documentary category, there are nine nominees — Netflix’s “American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders,” HBO/Max’s “The Commandant’s Shadow,...

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has revealed its nominees for the 46th annual News & Documentary Awards.

The nominees for outstanding live news program include ABC World News Tonight With David Muir, The CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell, CBS Mornings, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt and Top Story With Tom Llamas.

In the best documentary category, nominees include American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders, The Commandant’s Shadow, The Grab, Hollywood Black, Mammals, Queendom, The Sing Sing Chronicles, The Sixth and The Truth vs. Alex Jones.

This year, the awards will be presented in two ceremonies: News will take place June 25 and documentaries will take place June 26, at the Palladium Times Square in New York City.

The News & Documentary Emmy Awards honor “programming content from more than 2,200 submissions that originally premiered in calendar-year 2024,” according to NATAS.

“We are thrilled to recognize the extraordinary talent and relentless...

The Academy has unveiled the list of feature films that are eligible for consideration in the animated feature, documentary feature Film, and international feature at the 2025 Oscars.

In animation, 31 films will vie for one of the five spots, including “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Flow,” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.”

In documentary feature, 169 films are eligible. Among them are “No Other Land,” “Daughters,” “Martha,” “I Am: Celine Dion,” and “Dahomey,” which is Senegal’s submission for international feature.

In international feature, there are 85 hopefuls, including frontrunner “Emilia Pérez” (France), “I’m Still Here” (Brazil), “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Germany), “Kneecap” (Ireland), and “Flight 404” (Egypt).

The shortlists of 15 films for documentary and international features will be released on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17. The 97th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, will be held on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pulled back the curtain on the films eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature categories for the 97th Academy Awards next year.

The list includes 31 toon features, 169 docs and international pics from 85 countries. Preliminary voting for the 97th Oscars runs December 9-13, and all three shortlists will be revealed December 17. The Oscars will be handed out Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

Here are the animated, documentary and international features eligible for the 2024 Oscars:

Best Animated Feature

Art College 1994

Captain Avispa

Chicken for Linda!

The Colors Within

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Despicable Me 4

Flow

The Garfield Movie

Ghost Cat Anzu

The Glassworker

The Imaginary

Inside Out 2

Kensuke’s Kingdom

Kung Fu Panda 4

Living Large

Look Back

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Mars Express

Memoir of a Snail...

A total of 31 animated features, 169 documentary features and 85 international features are eligible for Oscar nominations this season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed on Thursday.

In the animated feature category, high-profile studio films like Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Universal/DreamWorks’s The Wild Robot and acclaimed indies like Memoir of a Snail are joined in the running by longer shots like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, a film jettisoned by Warner Bros. that wound up with the distributor Ketchup Entertainment.

The documentary feature race, meanwhile, includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Nat Geo’s Sugarcane, Netflix’s Daughters and MTV’s Black Box Diaries; two that count Malala Yousafzai as an executive producer, Apple’s Bread & Roses and The Last of the Sea Women, and two that count Jennifer Lawrence as an EP,...

Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s new documentary, The Grab, begins with a former U.S. intelligence officer calmly declaring that, no, he doesn’t think the prospect of a third world war is all that improbable. Over the course of two riveting hours, the film then proceeds to outline with crystalline clarity exactly why that’s the case.

Back in 2014, a journalist at the Center for Investigative Reporting named Nate Halverson began working on a story about the takeover of Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, by a Chinese company. It was clear from the off that there was more to this deal than immediately met the eye: Not only was it the largest deal of its kind ever conducted, but a little digging revealed that it was effectively being undertaken at the behest of the Chinese government. A foreign state had just claimed ownership of around a quarter of America’s pork supply,...

"Food is a very obvious & central way to wield power." Magnolia Pictures has unveiled an official trailer for The Grab, a fascinating documentary film from Blackflish filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite. This is one of these films that "they" don't want you to see. They don't want you to know what's really going, who is doing it, what is quietly happening. An investigative journalist uncovers the money, influence, and alarming rationale behind covert efforts to control the most vital resource on the planet – food. The Grab is a global thriller about hard-hitting journalism from the Center for Investigative Reporting combined with compelling character-driven storytelling from director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, taking you around the globe to reveal one of the world’s biggest and least known threats. It's a look at who (and why) powerful nations are taking over control of food and water worldwide. It's scary and eye-opening and alarming. The film first...

What’s the new way governments can control its populations? By controlling their food.

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, whose documentary “Blackfish” exposed the animal cruelty at SeaWorld, follows journalist Nathan Halverson as he uncovers the colonization of food and water by the wealthiest nations. “The Grab” is billed as a global thriller combining hard-hitting journalism from The Center for Investigative Reporting with compelling character-driven storytelling spanning across the globe. It is one of Participant Media’s final films.

Per its synopsis, quietly and seemingly out of sight, governments, private investors, and mercenaries are working to seize food and water resources at the expense of entire populations. These groups are establishing themselves as the new Opec, where the future world powers will be those who control not oil, but food. And it’s all beginning to bubble to the surface in real time. Global food prices have hit an all-time high, threatening chaos and violence.

It was a totally unexpected day for movie fans on May 8, 2024 - a bunch of new trailers and interesting release information were dropped out of nowhere. There are horror movies like Beezel and Handling the Undead, a major documentary with The Grab, and a final, big trailer for Twisters. Jude Law is totally unrecognizable in the new Alicia Vikander movie, Firebrand, and Lily Gladstone and Chuck Norris return in different films.

MovieWeb frequently posts new movie and TV trailers across Facebook and other social media platforms like X and Instagram, pretty much every day. But it's rare that one day will see the unexpected release of as many movie trailers as have just dropped today, May 8, 2024. We haven't heard any news about several of these films, and so the polished trailers, images, and release information is quite a surprise. Instead of flooding social media with different posts, we figured we'd...

Magnolia Pictures and Participant have released the trailer for “The Grab,” a new documentary from “Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

“The Grab,” described as a global thriller, follows journalists from The Center for Investigative Reporting as they try to uncover the money and influence being used by countries, corporations and members of the uber elite to control the planet’s most vital resources. The film takes you “around the globe from Arizona to Zambia, to reveal one of the world’s biggest and least known threats,” per the official logline.

“’The Grab’ is a thrilling look at urgent threats to our national security and our very way of life,” said Courtney Sexton, Participant’s executive vice president, Documentary Film and Television. “We are proud to help bring this incredible film to life and are excited that it is part of our legacy.”

Last month, Variety exclusively reported that Participant was shutting down after 20 years.

As Neil Young once sang, the now shuttered Participant is gone, but not forgotten.

Some of Tinseltown’s leading talents like Regina King, George Clooney, Ava DuVernay, Daniel Dae Kim, Martin Sheen, Regina King, Alfonso Cuaron, Matt Damon, Diego Luna and more have joined up with the National Domestic Workers Alliance to express “gratitude and pride” in the work put out by the Jeff Skoll-created shingle over the last two decades. At the same time, the A-Listers are imploring the ever increasingly conglomerated industry to keep their eyes on the social impact prize.

“As we say goodbye to Participant, we must underscore that values-based storytelling is needed now more than ever; to expand the room for debate, to open our hearts to experiences vastly different from our own, to immerse us in the beauty of humanity’s complexities,” the star-studded letter says. “And in the face of unprecedented change and uncertainty,...

Magnolia Pictures and Participant have acquired North American rights to The Grab, Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s follow-up about an investigative journalist’s efforts to uncover the powers responsible for land grabs to control food and water resources.

The film premiered at TIFF last year and Magnolia and Participant will release theatrically and on demand on June 14.

The Grab is produced by Center for Investigative Reporting Studios & Rocklin|Faust, Nathan Halverson, Amanda Pike, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin, and Cowperthwaite, and presented by Impact Partners.

Executive producers are Dan Cogan, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Jenny Raskin, Maiken Baird, Nina and David Fialkow,...

Magnolia Pictures and Participant have partnered to jointly acquire North American rights to “The Grab,” a new documentary from “Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, follows journalists from The Center for Investigative Reporting as they work high-profile sources and utilize a cache of secret data to uncover the money and influence being used by countries, corporations and members of the uber-elite to control the planet’s most vital resources. Participant and Magnolia are positioning the film as a “high-stakes global thriller,” one that takes viewers from Arizona to Zambia as the moviemakers examine the food and water scarcity that’s resulting from this little-known power grab.

“We’re thrilled to reunite with our good friends at Participant and the great Gabriela Cowperthwaite who has, yet again, brought to light a nail biting, explosive, and essential story,” said Magnolia Pictures co-ceo’s Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley.

“I.S.S.” is a smart nailbiter that will stick with you long after the film is over. Big credit goes to director Gabriela Cowperthawaite who grounds the sci-fi thriller in realism. And a big congrats to Ariana DeBose, who auditioned for the role way before her Oscar-winning performance as Anita

The post Ariana DeBose & Gabriela Cowperthwaite Talk “I.S.S.” appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.

Tonya Mantooth, CEO and artistic director of the San Diego International Film Festival, is keenly aware that film is a uniquely immersive medium with the power to connect people — even strangers. And that power will be evident at Sdiff’s 22nd edition, which will run in person Oct.18-22, with screenings at various venues in the San Diego area. The event will also feature panels, Q and A’s, filmmaker happy hours and more special programming.

The fest will open with Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” (pictured above), a comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti, Domonic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as an unlikely trio bonding at a New England prep school over winter break.

“Alexander Payne really peels back the layers of the characters,” Mantooth says. “As each one unfolds, he does it in such a way that you laugh – it touches your heart, it makes you cry. But what...

Is AVOD the solution for struggling indie doc filmmakers?

“Beyond Utopia,” “A Still Small Voice,” “Deep Rising,” “It’s Only Life After All,” “Going Varsity in Mariachi,” and “The Grab” are all documentary titles that garnered good reviews, positive audience feedback and plenty of media attention at major film festivals including this year’s Sundance and last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. But despite the high visibility, each title is still seeking distribution.

The chances of any of the six titles garnering a highly coveted distribution deal isn’t likely given the state of the entertainment industry at present. The dismal distribution landscape has forced some nonfiction filmmakers to turn to substantially less lucrative alternatives, such as ad-supported VOD, or AVOD channels, and revenue-sharing arrangements to get their work seen.

That list include filmmakers Violet Columbus and Ben Klein, who directed the 2022 Sundance grand jury prize documentary winner “The Exiles.

Launching with the opening night world premiere of Marc Turtletaub’s “Jules,” a crowdpleaser sales title starring Ben Kingsley, the 26th annual Sonoma International Film Festival (March 22-26) drew its highest audience attendance to date. The wine country film festival combined a robust film slate programmed by newly appointed artistic director Carl Spence (working with Executive Director Ginny Krieger), from upcoming specialty fare like Paul Schrader’s “The Master Gardener,” starring Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver, and Searchlight’s period biopic “Chevalier,” starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., with a smattering of yummy wine and food events with top chefs, from Martin Yan’s Shaking Beef with Three Onions to Joanne Weir’s herb-covered goat cheese tarte.

The five-day festival curated by Spence along with senior programmers Amanda Salazar and Ken Jacobson, showcased 110 films, including seven films making their US premieres as well as films acclaimed on the festival circuit. Thirty-two countries...

There are plenty of documentaries being made all the time now about climate change and its devastating impact on this planet. Before all of these, there was one doc that changed the entire conversation early on – Davis Guggenheim & Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, which premiered in 2006 and went on to win two Academy Awards (and tons of other prizes). With climate change getting worse and worse, and not much hope on the horizon of slowing it down, the conversation among the powerful is now beginning to change instead to – what's going to happen next and how can we manage the inevitable natural disasters and social upheaval. One of the big questions on the horizon over the next few decades is: how will food sources and farms be affected as the world heats up. Which brings us to this documentary The Grab, made by Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, premiering at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival.

It’s been a good year for several documentary filmmakers who sought and found distribution for independently made projects at major festivals. But for many nonfiction helmers, this year’s festival circuit hasn’t proven to be as fruitful as it once was.

Pre-pandemic, streaming services went to film fests to fill their slates, but now with media conglomerates consolidating, brands merging, and Netflix tightening its wallet, film fest documentary shopping sprees have slowed down. On top of mergers and economic unease, there’s been an increase in streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, and Disney either pre-buying docus or commissioning their own nonfiction projects.

Some of this year’s fest favorites were commissioned docus, including Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ ‘The Janes” (HBO), W. Kamau Bell’s “We Need to Talk About Cosby” (Showtime), Rory Kennedy’s “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” (Netflix), and Ron Howard’s “We Feed People...

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In 2013, Gabriela Cowperthwaite released her last documentary feature, Blackfish, about the captivity of Orcas, especially at SeaWorld. The film directly impacted the attendance and revenue of the theme park. Eventually, SeaWorld and its former CEO James Atchison had to pay more than 5 million to settle federal charges that they covered up the negative impact of the documentary.

Nearly a decade later, after dabbling in narrative with features like 2017’s Megan Leavey and 2019’s Our Friend, Cowperthwaite has returned to non-fiction with The Grab, which had its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. The title, which is up for sale via WME, takes a look at the geopolitical forces behind global land and water rights, and the race for the world’s last farmable land. For The Grab, the filmmakers teamed with The Center for Investigative Reporting, spending years diving into the money...

If the goal of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is to introduce a lot of the films that will be competing for awards for the next seven months, the jury is still out after the first four days of the 10-day fest.

If the goal is to welcome back audiences and give them a chance to celebrate crowd-pleasing cinema in the kind of communal environment that’s been missing for most of the last two years, the verdict is in and the goal has been achieved.

In the course of 24 hours on two blocks of downtown Toronto’s entertainment district on Friday, three packed houses — no social distancing and few masks — played host to, in chronological order:

• An opening-night midnight screening of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a ridiculous but uproarious and good-natured mock rock doc that christened the majestic Royal Alexandra Theatre as a new TIFF venue and brought together the biggest,...

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s “The Grab” — following up both her groundbreaking documentary “Blackfish,” which revealed how SeaWorld’s use of captive orcas led to unnecessary human deaths and animal cruelty, and her more forgettable narrative drama “Our Friend” — takes an overwhelming interest in journalist Nathan Halverson’s tenacious pursuit of the impenetrable truth behind the colonization of our world’s most precious natural resource, water, by its wealthiest nations.

When Halverson began investigating the purchase of the world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, by Shuanghui International Holdings, a company backed by China’s government, he couldn’t have envisioned how this 2014 merger of pig sales would lead to an eight-year journey through top secret emails, unlikely American farmlands, and the distant shores of Zambia. With an earth-shattering story like this, you’d expect sharp twists and unpredictable turns, and factual incongruities that pull us deeper into this narrative’s multiple rabbit holes.

You’ve heard the expression, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Well, “The Grab” makes the case that society had best brace itself for disorder, since certain parties are gobbling up the world’s food and water resources while the rest of us are distracted by other things. Produced in association with the Center for Investigative Reporting, “Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s astonishing, eye-opening doc hits us with the idea that the next world war won’t be fought over ideology, oil or border disputes, but basic resources like meat, wheat and water, none of which should be taken for granted.

Experts call this field “food security,” and the entire system is more fragile than it looks. World populations are climbing while water resources are dwindling, which has led countries such as Saudi Arabia and China to seek farmland on other continents. Among its myriad examples, “The Grab...

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Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s SeaWorld exposé Blackfish wasn’t an easy documentary to watch, but it was an easy documentary to get hooked by, which I don’t think is intended as a fish pun. The anger and sadness from Blackfish kick in after only a few minutes and are sustained for over 80 minutes.

After turning her directing attentions to scripted features (plus FX’s recent Children of the Underground), Cowperthwaite returns to the documentary world with The Grab, a new feature that is in all ways a tougher film to embrace. The Grab thrusts viewers into a complicated world without prelude, examines a problem that isn’t necessarily clear even to the onscreen heroes and, unlike Blackfish, spends much of its running time without an obvious point of sympathy or hissable villain.

There are, however, rewards to the toughness of The Grab. Its...

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With few big sales titles available at TIFF this year — a Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin two-hander and Lin-Manuel Miranda-produced YA feature excepted — business coming out of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival looks muted at best.

The vast majority of TIFF films already have domestic distribution in place — with studios and indie players like Neon and A24 looking to use the North America festival as an awards season springboard. What’s left is a smattering of sales titles, Cannes holdovers and a handful of out-of-festival buyers’ screenings to stir up interest.

Focus Features’ production and acquisitions head Kiska Higgs is optimistic that the sluggish indie theatrical market will eventually bounce back from its Covid slump and pull people away from streaming services — “I can’t imagine a world in which I want to be on my couch for any second longer than...

This year’s Torotnto International Film Festival is back in full force with an impressive slate of movies, in-person crowds and distributors eager to fill up their pandemic-depleted slates. But the acquisition titles on display this year may not be the splashy, commercial, gala movies that once made Toronto unique on the fall festival circuit.

Multiple distribution executives and sales agents told TheWrap that while they were eager to leave behind the “ghost town” of last year’s TIFF and settle in for days of movies and premieres just like it was 2019 all over again, many of this year’s buzziest titles up for sale lean especially toward the indie variety or are playing in TIFF’s Discovery section of emerging or first-time directors.

There’s no shortage of available movies and plenty of buyers with a need to fill out their slates for 2023. But experts are split as to...

Back in person for the first time since before the pandemic, the Toronto International Film Festival will make its grand return with a slate that builds on its expansion from previous years. The 2022 lineup boasts the world premieres of several high-profile films, including Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and the Billy Eichner comedy “Bros.” However, there are a number of hot titles due to screen at the festival that have yet to be acquired. Documentaries by the likes of “Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite and narrative features led by stars such as Margaret Qualley, Brian Cox and Tessa Thompson just may incite a bidding war. Here are 15 buzzy sales titles to watch.

“Sanctuary”

After leading Claire Denis’ Cannes prizewinner “The Stars at Noon,” Margaret Qualley continues to shine bright with “Sanctuary.” In this Special Presentations showing, she...