Fall Festival Sales: Golden Lion Winner 'Woman Unknown' Goes to Cohen Media Group

Cohen Media Group has acquired U.S. rights to "Woman Unknown," May el-Toukhy's Golden Lion winner from this year's Venice Film Festival, in a deal struck out of AFM (the American Film Market). The Danish film also earned star Mathilde Arcel the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and it's Denmark's official Oscar submission.

The wave of fall festival sales extends far beyond Venice. With Toronto running its first-ever market, and Telluride, Venice and New York all loaded with available titles, distributors have been buying aggressively — hunting for another breakout like last year's "Obsession."

What does the Golden Lion winner actually deliver?

El-Toukhy, previously known for "Queen of Hearts" and "The Crown," has made a post-World War II period drama. It follows a former housekeeper set to marry a household's wealthy patriarch; as she plans an extravagant dinner party, buried parts of her past resurface — specifically her connection to Denmark's postwar witch hunts of Nazi collaborators. The review cited called it an "angry, despairing film" with a "Haneke-level bleakness in its assessment of human nature." Cohen Media Group recently also bought the Isabelle Huppert comedy "All About Corinne," which played TIFF after premiering at Locarno.

The full slate of fall deals

• Sony Pictures Classics took sweeping rights to "The Julia Set" — the U.S., Benelux, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, the U.K., Eastern Europe (excluding Poland), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel and Asia (excluding Singapore). Niki Byrne's TIFF Special Presentations premiere stars "One Battle After Another" breakout Chase Infiniti as a math prodigy recruited into an elite prep course culminating in "the most punishing exam in mathematics," while falling for her teaching assistant, Pascal (Christopher Briney).
• Strand Releasing picked up Hanaël El Yousfi's directorial debut "The Daughters of Abraham," a TIFF Discovery title about a Muslim and a Jewish friend whose Marseille summer is disrupted by family tensions. It won an Audience Award and a Special Prize for its cast at Angoulême, opens in France December 30, and reaches North America in 2027.
• Black Bear boarded a Nahnatchka Khan rom-com starring Greta Lee, Rebecca Ferguson and Carrie Coon, which wrapped production in September.
• 1-2 Special acquired Jacqueline Lentzou's Venice Horizons Best Director winner, a Greek coming-of-age story about a 15-year-old girl, a new classmate named Phaedra, and signs from a dream world. It's Lentzou's second feature after 2021's "Moon, 66 Questions," and gets a theatrical release in 2027.
• Sony Pictures bought Roshan Sethi's action-thriller starring Michelle Yeoh as a surgeon abducted and forced to operate on a mysterious patient — a departure for the "A Nice Indian Boy" director and "The Resident" co-creator. Sony dated it for April 2, 2027, a rare major-studio festival buy.

The bigger money and the streamers

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster closed a deal that could surpass $10 million for Joshua Giuliano's TIFF Midnight Madness title, originally set up at the Independent Film Company and Shudder — clearly chasing another "Obsession." HBO Documentary Films took North American TV and streaming rights to "Rapinoe," Rebecca Huntt's TIFF Docs opener about Megan Rapinoe, which leans into her progressive politics, including kneeling with Colin Kaepernick, over her two World Cup titles, Olympic Gold and Ballon d'Or.

Roadside Attractions and Vertical will release Lauren Miller Rogen's "Babies" in early 2027 — a comedy starring her husband Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick and Kate Berlant, with Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Zach Cherry, Ed Helms, Ashley Park, Sharon Stone and David Strathairn in support. Focus Features dated Simon Stone's Ian Charleson drama, starring Andrew Scott, for late November — the same slot it gave "Hamnet" last year. And Netflix, which didn't take worldwide rights, picked up Danny Boyle's Venice opener "Ink," about the birth of The Sun tabloid and the partnership between editor Larry Lamb (Jack O'Connell) and Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce).

The pattern is clear: with fewer unsold world premieres in Toronto this year, buyers moved fast and paid up, and most of these titles now sit on the 2027 release calendar.