Sawyer Studios

03/30/2026

We love working with the team at Greenwich Entertainment year after year, and their 2026 slate is particularly strong! They just opened the wonderful FANTASY LIFE at Angelika Film Center in NYC, grossing $39k for the weekend, and will be expanding into multiple additional cities this Friday, April 3rd. For fans of Noah Baumbach and Woody Allen (you know what I mean...), this one is for you.

Writer/Director/Star Matthew Shear assembled an incredible cast that includes Amanda Peet’s first film role in a decade, along with Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet and Holland Taylor.

For theater/showtime info, visit https://fantasylifemovie.com/

03/23/2026

While we are genre-agnostic here at Sawyer Studios, a majority of the films we work on are obviously in the art-house space.

But every so often, we get to veer into other territories, including family animation with our long-time client Viva Pictures, who just released the delightful film THE POUT-POUT FISH.

We wanted to take a minute to congratulate them on this release, which landed at #9 in the US Box Office this weekend, grossing $1,500,000.

Nick Offerman voicing a grumpy Ocean Pout is almost TOO perfect. Just look at that mug...

03/16/2026

An annual highlight for Sawyer Studios is working with NEON on their Awards campaigns, starting with I, TONYA almost a decade ago. Two Best Picture wins later (ANORA, PARASITE), it is a true privilege to collaborate with one of the most exciting distributors in the country year after year. Their taste is unparalleled, and this year’s slate was a true embarrassment of riches.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE is a brilliant, masterful film, and we couldn’t be happier that it won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film last night. You can still see it in theaters as well as VOD, and it hits Hulu next week.

https://films.neonrated.com/sentimental-value/

Watch the trailer, find screenings & book tickets for Sentimental Value on the official site. In theaters November. Brought to you by NEON. Directed by Joachim Trier. Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning.

03/05/2026

We are so excited to be working with Joint Venture, our newest client, on their film ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT, which opens on Friday at Film Forum in NYC before expanding across the country.

We can try to summarize what this film is in our words, but the official synopsis perfectly encapsulates what makes it so very, very special: A celebration of life filled with raw honesty, surreal bursts of imagination, and brazen irreverence, ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT shows us what it really means to live happily, truthfully, and hilariously. In this Sundance award winning documentary, André Riccardi sets out to chronicle his final journey after receiving a diagnosis he could have prevented, through comedic vérité storytelling and fantastical stop-motion interludes.

There are special Q&As on Friday 3/6, Saturday 3/7 and Thursday 3/12. Friday is sold out, and the other two are closing in on selling out. So act fast! This is a beautiful, funny, heartfelt film that will stick with you long after the credits end. Don’t miss it.

https://filmforum.org/film/andre-is-an-idiot

For additional cities, go to https://andreisanidiot.film/tickets

12/08/2025

Congratulations to our longtime client NEON on racking up 21 Golden Globe nominations this morning, the most of any distributor!

Every awards campaign we have partnered with them on, starting with the I, TONYA campaign many moons ago, has been a helluva ride, including two Best Picture wins (ANORA, PARASITE).

This year is shaping up to be one of the most exciting years yet for them, with a whopping 4 Best Picture nominations (3 for Drama, 1 for Comedy/Musical), and a staggering FIVE of the 6 nominations for Best Motion Picture: Non-English Language. Truly incredible.

Neon scores the most noms of any film distributor, while Netflix dominated the television categories.

12/04/2025

Today’s review of THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER in The New York Times astutely stated “Imogen Poots’s fantastically expressive performance as the adult Lidia transforms this movie (the feature directing debut of Kristen Stewart) from punishing to mesmerizing.” We agree!

It has been fantastic working with the team at The Forge on the release of this poetic, beautiful and very personal film... with awards-worthy performances across the board, including Jim Belushi (seriously!) as Ken Kesey.

The film opens tomorrow for a one-week qualifying run in New York (Village East) and Los Angeles (Laemmle Royal). For all you LA folks, don’t miss a special Q&A with Kristen after the 7p screening on Saturday (12/6).

It will be back on the big screen on January 9th... keep an eye on www.thechronologyofwater.film for details!

10/30/2025

We are beyond ecstatic to be working with Row K Entertainment on the release of legendary Director Gus Van Sant’s new film DEAD MAN’S WIRE.

Celebrating his 40th anniversary as a filmmaker, this is his first new film in 7 years, and is an incredible return to form. This is a guy that has made so many classics.... TO DIE FOR, DRUGSTORE COWBOY (I still won’t put a hat on a bed because of that film!), GOOD WILL HUNTING, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, ELEPHANT, MILK... and the list goes on and on.

This new one fits right in with those masterpieces. The teaser trailer was just released this week. With a cast that includes Bill Skarsgard, Coleman Domingo, Cary Elwes, Darce Montgomery (from Stranger Things) and some guy named Al Pacino, this is one you can’t miss!

Look for it in theaters in January!

His revolution was televised. Watch the official teaser trailer for Gus Van Sant's 'Dead Man's Wire' starring Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, M...

10/04/2025

Every so often, a film release comes to us that is very near and dear to our hearts.

The team at Sawyer Studios are huge fans of the podcast WTF with Marc Maron. We are obsessive listeners, and have advertised on it numerous times in the past. Timed to coincide with the podcast winding down this month, our friends at Utopia Movies are releasing the fantastic documentary about Marc called ARE WE GOOD?, and we are lucky enough to be working with them on it.

The film opens today in NY and LA, followed by special Nationwide screenings on Oct 5th and 8th. And if you’re in the LA area, Marc and Director Steven Feinartz are doing a special Q&A on October 10th at the Aero Theatre, moderated by comedy legend Larry Charles.

Showtimes and links to buy tickets are at https://www.iconicreleasing.com/events/are-we-good/tickets/

09/18/2025

It has been a minute since we posted on Facebook. We have been hard at work all summer driving audiences to see various films in Theaters and On Demand. Now... while we love all of our children equally, every so often a film comes around that makes us giddy with excitement to be supporting. It has been such a pleasure to collaborate with the filmmakers at WHEELHOUSE CREATIVE, Inc. and Music Box Films on the VOD release of the incredibly entertaining documentary SECRET MALL APARTMENT, now available on all VOD platforms.

After a wildly successful and lengthy theatrical run earlier this year where this self-distributed film grossed a whopping $850k, it is finally available to watch at home. Do not miss out! This is easily one of our favorite films of the year... and with a 98% Critics and 90% Audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, clearly we are not alone.

If you have seen it, please comment below and let us know what you thought of it!!

In 2003, eight Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment inside a busy mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. Far more than a prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all involved.

06/20/2025

Sawyer Studios has been partnering with various independent film distributors of all sizes for decades. While today’s projects are of course top-of-mind, it is fun to look back at the history of the company to shine a light on some of the more memorable campaigns we have worked on. So let's hop into our DeLorean and travel back to 1982.

Kino International was on the hunt to secure the distribution rights to re-release the 1956 classic Western GIANT, starring James Dean, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor, but Director George Stevens’ Estate held the rights and were reluctant to commit to any deals. The then-President of Kino, the late, great Donald Krim, was tasked with proactively presenting the campaign strategy and layouts to the Estate before they would agree to releasing the rights to the film. Arnie Sawyer (who is still our very active CEO) presented an idea that modernized the film’s positioning with of-the-moment pop culture relevancy. At the time, one of the most omnipresent ad campaigns was the Levi's 501 button-fly jeans for women, which happened to organically already share some DNA with an iconic image from the film. Marrying these elements created artwork that was both classic and timely. Kino loved it, as did the Director’s Estate, and the film saw its high-profile re-release with our artwork serving as the focal point of the campaign.

The artwork was so universally embraced that years later it was used for an AIDS fundraising group on the side of a building on Sunset Blvd! And after seeing the poster, Quincy Jones called requesting a poster for his office. We complied, of course, but sadly never received the followup album cover assignment. :)

06/06/2025

This is a very special weekend for us, as we worked on campaigns for films opening today with two long-time clients. While very different on the surface, they share one very important trait… they are beautiful, life-affirming films.

Opening exclusively in NYC at the Quad with Q&As tonight and tomorrow, Abramorama has the honor of releasing THE LAST TWINS, about the never-before-told story of an unsung hero of the Holocaust, Erno “Zvi” Spiegel, who risked everything to save dozens of young twins from almost certain death at Auschwitz. Narrated by Liev Scheiber, this is a powerful and emotionally searing documentary you don’t want to miss. It opens in LA next week, followed by a National rollout.

And then there is THE LIFE OF CHUCK from our friends at NEON, opening in 8 cities this weekend before a wide rollout next weekend. This is the kind of film that is best experienced with as little information as possible. Don’t watch the trailer. Don’t read a review. It won the People’s Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival for a reason. A stunning film with a stand-out, career-high supporting performance from Mark Hamill.. and if the Force is with him, he should be in the year-end awards conversation. This is the Oscar statue you are looking for…