Sundance: Autlook Boards ‘The Painter and the Thief,’ ‘Acasa – My Home’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Vienna-based Autlook Filmsales has acquired two titles ahead of their world premieres in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, taking place from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2.

In “The Painter and the Thief,” an artist befriends the thief who stole her paintings, and makes him her muse. She becomes his closest ally when he is severely hurt in a car crash, and needs full-time care, even if her paintings are not found. But then the tables turn. The film is helmed by Norwegian director Benjamin Ree, whose debut feature documentary “Magnus,” about a chess grandmaster, played at Tribeca Film Festival in 2016.

More from Variety

• Oprah Drops Russell Simmons Accuser Doc From Apple Slate Two Weeks Before Sundance Premiere

• BMI's Sundance Programs to Include Composer Roundtable and Lisa Loeb-Led 'Snowball'

• Sundance: 2020 New Frontier Program Features Underwater VR, Chomsky A.I.

“The Painter and the Thief” is produced by Medieoperatørene in collaboration with VGTV. Autlook holds worldwide rights. The European premiere has been confirmed for the Rotterdam Film Festival.

“Acasa – My Home” follows the Enache family – nine children and their parents – who have lived in perfect harmony with nature in the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta for two decades. When the area is transformed into a public national park, the family is forced to leave behind their unconventional life and move to the city, where fishing rods are replaced by smartphones and idle afternoons are now spent in classrooms.

Directed by investigative journalist and activist Radu Ciorniciuc, “Acasa – My Home” is produced by Monica Lazurean-Gorgan for Romania’s Manifest Film (“Chuck Norris vs. Communism” – Sundance, 2015, “Touch Me Not” – winner of the Golden Bear, Berlinale, 2018), in co-production with Hanka Kastelikova and Alina David for HBO Europe, Umit Uludag for German Corso Film and Kinocompany’s Ari Matikainen from Finland.

Autlook holds international rights, excluding HBO’s feed in Central and Eastern Europe, and Spain, and pay TV rights in Scandinavia.

Autlook will start sales at Sundance, and take both films to the European Film Market in Berlin.

Best of Variety

• Oscars 2020 Predictions: Who Will Get Nominated?

• The Best Music Books of 2019 (a Lot of Them, Anyway)

• The Best TV Performances of the Decade

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.