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Tribeca film fest seals a deal on Dutch slasher movie

By Steven Zeitchikwriter 
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The Tribeca Film Festival has seen one of its first feature deals. IFC Midnight, the distributor’s genre label, has acquired U.S. rights to ‘Saint,’ a dark, Dutch-language take on the Santa Claus mythology.

Dick Maas’ slasher film, which premieres tonight at the festival, imagines a different kind of Saint Nick, one who fulfills a gruesome prophecy in which children are kidnapped, killed and then presented to their parents as presents. The film centers on a teen who tries to save Amsterdam from the threat.

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‘Saint’ follows last year’s Finnish-language tale ‘Rare Exports,’ another European film that offers a story of a sinister Santa.

Tribeca, which kicked off last night, earlier this week saw food doc ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ sold to Magnolia Pictures. That movie also premieres tonight.

-- Steven Zeitchik

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Steven Zeitchik

Steven Zeitchik is a former Los Angeles Times staff writer who covered film and the larger world of Hollywood for the paper from 2009 to 2017, exploring the personalities, issues, content and consequences of both the creative and business (and, increasingly, digital) aspects of our screen entertainment. He previously covered entertainment beats at Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, has contributed arts and culture pieces to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times and has done journalistic tours of duty in Jerusalem and Berlin. While at The Times he has also reported stories in cities ranging from Cairo to Krakow, though Hollywood can still seem like the most exotic destination of all.

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