HanWay Films has sold The Julia Set, Niki Byrne’s coming-of-age drama starring Chase Infiniti, in every territory, adding 12 distribution deals to Sony Pictures Classics’ October pact for the US and much of the world, Variety reported on 12 November. Terms were not disclosed.
The new buyers include SND for France, Vuelta Germany, Sphere for Canada, Front Row for the Middle East and Synapse Distribution for Latin America. Two months after its Toronto premiere, a first feature has no territory left to sell, and the conversation moves from closing deals to planning a 2027 release across a dozen distributors and a US specialty label.
Key facts
- Film: The Julia Set, written and directed by Niki Byrne, her feature debut
- Cast: Chase Infiniti, Christopher Briney, Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, Nina Hoss
- Earlier deal: Sony Pictures Classics took the US and key international territories, announced on 16 October, in a deal negotiated with HanWay and Gersh
- New deals: 12 distributors covering Canada, France, Germany, Latin America, the Middle East, Poland, Singapore and more
- Release: 2027; no dates announced
The deals
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) bought the film in October for the US, Benelux, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, the UK, Eastern Europe except Poland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel and Asia except Singapore. At the time, the company said the response in Toronto pointed to “a great theatrical success”.
According to Variety, the buyers now added are Sphere (Canada), Cinesky Pictures (airlines), MegaCom Films (former Yugoslavia), SND (France), Vuelta Germany (Germany), The Film Group (Greece), Synapse Distribution (Latin America), Front Row (Middle East), Kino Świat (Poland), Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais (Portugal), Shaw Renters (Singapore) and Bir Film (Turkey).
Read against SPC’s October list, most of the new deals fill obvious gaps. The two carve-outs in SPC’s deal, Poland and Singapore, have gone to Kino Świat and Shaw Renters. Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Turkey were not in SPC’s territories and now have local buyers. One line does not reconcile on the published lists: MegaCom’s former Yugoslavia sits inside the “Eastern Europe (excluding Poland)” that SPC was reported to hold in October, and neither company has said how that region was divided.
“Nothing speaks louder than these three words: sold out, worldwide,” Byrne said in a statement carried by Variety. Gabrielle Stewart, HanWay’s chief executive, said the company looked forward to working with SPC and the other buyers on “a fantastic campaign for 2027”.
The film
Infiniti plays Julia Fischer, a mathematics prodigy recruited into an elite preparation course that ends in the most punishing exam in the field, who falls for her teaching assistant, Pascal (Briney). Isaacs plays Pascal’s overbearing father and Anderson his mother, who helps Julia see the chance in front of her. Hoss, Carmen Ejogo, Chloe Bailey, Nico Hiraga, Liz Lin and Alex Dillard complete the cast.
It is Infiniti’s second feature, after her debut in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. The film is produced by Potato Salad Cosmic Domination and Shaun Sanghani, in association with companies including SSS Entertainment, Grapevine Films, Gotham Group, Good Future Films and Vacancy Film Fund. Its producers include Jeffrey Penman, Nick Scherma, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein of The Gotham Group and Lee Stollman, and Anderson is also credited as a producer.
Who is selling
HanWay, the London sales company run by Stewart, is also handling Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn’s Mare Nostrum, with Antonio Banderas, which Buena Vista has reportedly taken for Latin America. SPC has kept buying through the autumn, including Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Violette.
Our reading
The sell-out was reported four weeks after SPC’s deal and in the middle of the American Film Market, which runs in Los Angeles from 10 to 15 November and where HanWay is exhibiting. For the film itself, the selling is over and the work becomes delivery and release planning. The next test is the 2027 pattern: whether SPC and the local distributors open close together, or let the US release set the pace for everyone else.
Sources
- Variety, Chase Infiniti coming-of-age drama The Julia Set sells out for HanWay (exclusive, 12 November 2026)
- The Hollywood Reporter, Chase Infiniti’s The Julia Set acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for US, international territories (16 October 2026)
- Screen, Sony Pictures Classics acquires US, UK, territories on TIFF premiere The Julia Set (October 2026)
- HanWay Films, website (The Julia Set still and TIFF listing link)
- American Film Market, AFM 2026 dates (10–15 November, Los Angeles)
- TIFF, The Julia Set film page