New York indies Cartuna and Dweck Productions have acquired North American rights for Grace Glowicki’s thriller Dead Lover as the first acquisition of their newly announced joint distribution venture Cartuna x Dweck.
The partners acquired the film out of SXSW where the Canadian thriller made its Texas debut after world premiering at Sundance in the Midnight Section.
In between times, the film has also played the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Göteborg Film Festival, with forthcoming stops at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans and the Los Angeles Festival of Movies.
Glowicki also stars in Dead Lover as a lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses. When she finally meets her dream man (Ben Petrie), their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love.
Dead Lover is Glowicki’s second directorial feature credit after 2019 drama Tito in which a terrified man on the run from sexual predators takes refuge in an abandoned house where he is disturbed by a cheerful neighbor, played by Petrie.
Cartuna launched its film distribution arm last year with a focus on animation, DIY, and cult cinema. It began as a Blu-ray label, most notably for the physical release of the runaway indie-hit Hundreds of Beavers, which had a busy month both surpassing $1 million in the worldwide box office and 10,000 Blu-ray discs sold.
Dead Lover marks the first all-rights acquisition for the company and the start of a newly minted partnership with Dweck Productions. The will be give the film a theatrical release. A date has yet to be set.
Kurt Ravenwood, Partner of boutique ad agency and indie production studio SRH and producer of Hundreds of Beavers, will join the release to provide marketing strategy for the film.
“We firmly believe that we are at the early stages of a historic creative movement,” says James Belfer, founder and CEO of Cartuna.
“Inventive, boundary-pushing storytellers need more distribution support now than ever. This collective of producers has opted to take matters into our own hands and it’s our sincere hope that it will inspire others to do the same.”
Hannah Dweck, owner and co-founder of Dweck Productions alongside Theodore Schaefer, added: “What Grace and her collaborators have dug up from their creative depths is like nothing I’ve ever seen before and we are so honored to be a part of this infinitely imaginative team. We can’t wait to set this exuberantly unrestrained, disgusting, beautiful, smelly, exhumed corpse of a rom-com loose on the world.”
Recent credits for Dweck Productions, which produces and finances, include Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point (IFC Films), Joel Potrykus’s Vulcanizadora (Oscilloscope), Dustin Guy Defa’s The Adults (Universal), and Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going To The World’s Fair (Utopia/HBO).
Glowicki’s first breakout came with her performance in Petrie’s 2016 short Her Friend Adam, which earned her a Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance from the Sundance Film Festival.
She and Petrie co-wrote the screenplay for Dead Lover. They are joined in the cast by Leah Doz and Lowen Morrow.
The movie is produced by Glowicki, Petrie, and Yona Strauss. Matthew Miller, Olivia Nieuwland, Lexi Tannenholtz, Rhianon Jones and Tristan Scott Behrends of Neon Heart Productions serve as Executive Producers.
“We feel touched by kismet to be working with Cartuna X Dweck. Individually, both companies are stalwart champions of independent voices in cinema, and we’re in love with their vision for a united superfront putting out movies with a fresh, individualized approach. Ben, Yona, and I are thrilled to be putting our brains together with them on rolling out Dead Lover,“ said Glowicki.
Cartuna has quietly been assembling a slate of films for distribution with forthcoming titles to be announced later this year.
The deal was negotiated by Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms, and Joe Yanick of Yellow Veil Pictures on behalf of the filmmakers and James Belfer on behalf of Cartuna x Dweck.
