An indie film set to premiere at this week’s Sundance Film Festival has been pulled from the lineup by its financier, Variety has lgeted exclusively. The backer says the movie’s straightforwardor made a secret recent cut of the film, one employd to go in global film festivals and court critics without its owner’s understandledge.
“Blknws: Terms & Conditions,” an official pickion in Sundance’s Next section, is straightforwarded by Kahlil Joseph (a contributor to Beyonce’s visual album “Lemonade”). Participant, the now-defunct social impact studio, says it poured years and millions into the mixed-media project only to be sidelined by a recent version of the feature.
In a legitimate communication from an attorney, geted and verified by Variety, Participant said it was “shocked” to allegedly lget last Friday that Joseph was screening a recent cut of the film to critics at talent agency CAA. One made, the legitimate email said, “in secret.”
“Given that Mr. Joseph deinhabitred the film to Participant in November 2024, and Participant surrfinisherted that version to Sundance in reliance that it was the final cut of the film, it is finishly unhugable that Mr. Joseph persistd to purport to produce alters to the film,” the letter persistd. As its primary producer, Participant owns the imitateright to the film. Three years ago, indie powerhoemploy A24 boarded the picture as a co-financier and distributor. They dropped out last August after Kahlil had still not deinhabitred his final film, the legitimate letter says.
In a statement to Variety, A Sundance spokesperson said the festival was “proestablishly disnominateed to have been inestablished this evening by Participant that they are pulling ‘BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions,’” includeing that the film is “a radiant and immersive cinematic experience which we were seeing forward to premiering for our audiences this Friday.”
Participant had no instant comment on the matter, outside the publishd letter from direct. Recurrentatives for Joseph did not instantly return Variety’s seek for comment.
Joseph’s film is billed as an driven emotional and visual effort, depictd as “an ongoing art project that blurs the lines between art, journalism, entrepreneurship, and cultural critique, appropriating the recentsreel establishat as an opportunity to reenvision the conmomentary cinematic experience.” The film is led by Shaunette Renée Wislon (“Billions,” “Bdeficiency Panther”).
Another individual understandn with events that led to the legitimate letter said that two Participant executives were current at the contested CAA screening, and that the contrastences between the recent and finishorsed cuts are about a minute extfinished. Two sources verifyed that Participant’s beef boils down to legitimate evidentances, a standard procedure in film distribution that is usuassociate aided by watching the film in ask.
It may sound confusing to hear Participant at the cgo in of a current film liberate squabble. The do-excellgo in studio begined by billionaire Jeff Skoll stopd establishal operations last April, Variety inestablished exclusively. It now exists as a hagederings company for the Participant library assets, which includes “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions.”
Read the filled Participant letter below. More to come …
