Oscilloscope Buys Sundance Winner Shame and Money for North America
Summary
Visar Morina's Kosovo drama won Sundance's World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, which now qualifies it for the international feature Oscar under the Academy's festival route.
"Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Shame and Money, the third feature from writer-director Visar Morina, Variety reported on October 28. The distributor plans a theatrical release in early 2027.
The film, written by Morina and Doruntina Basha, follows a couple in their forties who lose their livelihood on a rural Kosovo farm after a family dispute and move to Pristina in search of work and housing. Astrit Kabashi, Flonja Kodheli, Kumrije Hoxa, Fiona Gllavica and Alban Ukaj star. It won the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance's World Cinema Dramatic Competition, which Variety noted makes it eligible to compete for the international feature Oscar under new Academy rules, and it has since won prizes at FilmFest Munich, Prifest and the ODA Film Festival.
The Yellow Affair handles world sales and has closed deals for France, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Indonesia, and Eksystent Filmverleih released the film in Germany in September. Oscilloscope president Dan Berger called it a ""subtle, searingly real and ultimately humane"" portrait and an indictment of ""an economic system constructed to keep too many people down."" "
