THINKFilm has acquired all North American rights to “Shortbus,” John Cameron Mitchell’s eagerly anticipated sophomore film, which had its rousingly successful world premiere as a special out-of-competition presentation at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival. The deal, which concludes one of the most competitive and far-ranging bidding wars in recent independent film history, was jointly announced by THINKFilm President and C.E.O. Jeff Sackman, and the film’s producers, Howard Gertler and Tim Perell of Process and John Cameron Mitchell. THINKFilm will open the film commercially this fall. “Shortbus” explores the lives of several characters living in present-day New York as they navigate the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex. Male and female, straight and gay, the characters find one and other — and eventually find themselves — when they all converge at a weekly underground salon called “Shortbus,” a mad nexus of art, music, politics, and polysexual carnality.
The director, John Cameron Mitchell, debuted his film, “Shortbus,” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, to unanimous acclaim.
His first film, “Hedwig And The Angry Inch,” was a gay, cult sensation.
