UPDATED WITH STATEMENT FROM SUNDANCE: Twinless, a very hot title at Sundance, has been pulled from the festival’s streaming site due to piracy.
This is the second movie on the fest’s portal to be pulled after online leaking. Yesterday we told you first that the fest award winning documentary Selena y Los Dinos was dropped from the Sundance site after making its way on TikTok, etc.
The Mazerunner and High Road actor Dylan O’Brien plays twin brothers Rocky and Roman. Rocky dies tragically, and his lover Dennis (Sweeney who stars, directs and wrote the movie) feels responsible. He befriends Roman in a twin grieving therapy circle, pining for his late lover. There’s some spicy sex scenes in Twinless, however, there were also spoiler scenes leaked.
Twinless was part of Sundance’s opening day films and out of the gate counts 100% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics.
Sundance requires those movies in competition to be part of their online portal. Twinless won the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic and a Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting for O’Brien.
Sundance began streaming its lineup during Covid, and continued the practice after the live-edition returned in 2023. The Sundance streaming portal is five years in the running. The streaming facet of this year’s edition began on Jan. 30 and shuts down before midnight tomorrow, Feb. 2. The whole idea of the portal has divided the industry that frequents Sundance. The fest reported in 2021 that half million people tuned into their streaming portal to watch movies. TIFF implemented a similar streaming practice for their lineup during Covid and even during its return-to-person in 2021, however, they have since abandoned it realizing that such portals are a target for piracy.
Republic Pictures is the acquisition label for Paramount Pictures. They made the James Sweeney directed and written bromance dramedy for a cost in the single digits. One source close to the movie tells us that “buyers are circling the movie like planes at O’Hare airport”.
Below is Sundance’s statement on the situation:
The film Twinless was a victim of some copyright infringement on various social media platforms, therefore the Festival in partnership with the filmmakers have made the decision to remove the film from the Sundance Film Festival online platform. We regret that online ticket holders will no longer be able to access the film.
For any single ticket holder who has not yet viewed the film, your account will reflect a voucher so you may select another film to screen. We intend to keep the Sundance Film Festival platform fully available for all remaining films.
We acknowledge and regret the disappointment this may cause. However, part of our commitment to advocating for independent filmmakers is ensuring that they can protect the art that they have created — now and in the future.
We take copyright infringement extremely seriously and intend to fully cooperate with local, state, and federal law enforcement on all piracy-related issues.