Next month, American filmmaker Julian Schnabel will be honored with the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.
Schnabel’s latest film In the Hand of Dante will have its world premiere at the festival, with a star-studded cast including Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Jason Momoa, and Martin Scorsese, who is also credited as executive producer.
So far, very little official footage from the film has been released to the public; not even a trailer. Yet through unauthorized channels, including public pirate sites, a full screener copy leaked online a few days ago.
The pirated copy lists “a friend” as the source, without further context. Aside from the opening and closing scenes, the film is in black and white and clearly lists a “for screening only” watermark, as shown below.
A high-profile leak of this nature is concerning, all the more so because it’s not the only screener that was released by over the past few days. Copies of other unreleased films including The Best Thing About Christmas, Agon, Life Is, and Extreme Family also appeared online.
These are mostly independent films with relatively small budgets and limited promotion.
What further stands out is that several titles have an Italian connection. In the Hand of Dante is based on a novel about the famous Italian poet and was filmed in Sicily, Venice, and Rome. The Best Thing About Christmas is a project from Italian director Paolo Genovese, while Agon is an Italian production directed by Michele Riondino.
Life Is by prominent Mexican director Lorena Villarreal doesn’t have an obvious Italian connection. Instead, the leaked screener copy has an “EFICINE Producción” watermark, referring to the fiscal stimulus program for movies in Mexico.
Finally, it’s worth highlighting that we also spotted an screener release of Michael Shanks’ horror movie Together, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently in theaters.
What is clear is that someone with either authorized or unauthorized access to these screener copies is leaking them to the public. This is reminiscent of earlier screener leaks by the group EVO, which shared similar advance copies before the group was busted in late 2022.
For these independent titles, a pre-release leak can be financially devastating, impacting potential distribution deals and box office returns. Understandably, the creators and rightsholders of the recently leaked films will be determined to find out where the current breach originated.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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