ACQUISITIONS / DISTRIBUTION / CASE STUDY
Isabel: from Berlin to a UK release
A Brazilian film crossed the festival circuit before Conic bought its UK-Ireland rights. The London premiere is a stop on that route, not its finish.
The news about
Isabel is a territorial deal, not a festival prize.
Screen International reported that Conic has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Gabe Klinger's Brazilian drama and plans a cinema release in early 2027. Urban Sales handles international sales. That division of work is the story: a sales agent takes a film to buyers, while a local distributor takes responsibility for finding its audience in a particular market.
The deal arrives before the film's UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.
Isabel had its world premiere in the Berlinale's Panorama programme in February, then played Sydney in June; Screen also lists Zurich and Rio de Janeiro ahead of London. A festival itinerary can build visibility and give buyers and audiences several ways into a film. It is not, by itself, a cinema release. Conic's purchase gives the UK and Ireland a named release partner and a planned window.
A local route for a São Paulo story
Marina Person plays a sommelier trying to leave a Michelin-starred restaurant and open her own neighbourhood wine bar. Person co-wrote the screenplay with Klinger. The film's subject is local and specific: work, ambition and money in São Paulo. Its route to viewers is international. Brazil and France are listed as countries of production by the Berlinale, and the sales and UK distribution roles sit with different companies.
Those distinctions matter more than the shorthand that a festival "discovered" a film.
Variety reported in February 2025 that Urban Sales was bringing the film to the European Film Market while it was in post-production. RT Features had joined the production. The film was being positioned for buyers before its Berlin premiere a year later. The Conic deal is one later step in that longer commercial life, not proof that one screening caused the sale.
What London can, and cannot, do A UK premiere gives the distributor a chance to introduce the film to press and a local audience before the planned release. How Conic will position it, which cinemas will book it and whether festival attention carries into early 2027 remain open questions. Screen's report establishes the buyer, territory and intended theatrical window; it does not give a deal price, a screen count, campaign plan or box-office forecast.
The useful case is the handoff. Urban Sales sells across borders; Conic has taken one territory; London may help make that territory's audience aware of the film. The outcome will be clearer only when a release plan and actual bookings emerge. For now, Isabel shows why a premiere and a distribution deal should be read together, without treating either as the end of the story.