The (Virtual) AFM Hot List

Studio blockbusters (No Time to Die, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) are sucking up all of the oxygen and booking up all of the screening slots in movie theaters, leaving the streamers to take the place of specialty distributors. SALES UTA (domestic), Protagonist Pictures (international) Helen and Teacher DIRECTOR Wash Westmoreland stars Millicent Simmonds, RachelBrosnahan BUZZ Biopics remain a safe bet for independent distributors, and this project, featuring AQuiet Place star Simmonds as legendary deaf and blind activist Helen Keller (Brosnahan plays her teacher, Anne Sullivan) also screams awards season success. sales Cornerstone Lee DIRECTOR Ellen Kuras stars Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law BUZZ Arguably the most star-studded package at AFM this year, this World War II drama follows the incredible career of Lee Miller (Winslet), a glam fashion model who in midlife became a war photographer exposing the atrocities of Nazi Germany. SALES CAA Films (domestic), HanWay Films (international) Paradise Highway DIRECTOR Anna GuttO stars Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo BUZZ Star-driven action thrillers are catnip for mainstream distributors, who will be piling in on this feature starring Oscar winner Binoche as a truck driver smuggling illegal cargo and Freeman as the FBI operative hot on her trail.