Cineverse Picks Up Cannes Winner ‘A Useful Ghost’ for U.S. Release

Cineverse has boarded North American distribution on Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prix winner “A Useful Ghost,” the Thai dark comedy led by Davika Hoorne, with plans for a limited theatrical release followed by streaming on its flagship platform; financial terms were not disclosed. The deal hands first-time writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke his widest U.S. exposure and answers weeks of fan lobbying for a stateside rollout after the picture’s buzzy festival debut.

The 130-minute feature centres on March, a grieving factory worker who discovers that his late wife Nat now possesses their vacuum cleaner, an absurd premise Boonbunchachoke uses to probe class anxiety and eco-crisis. Critics’ Week programmers praised the film’s blend of satire and tenderness when it bowed on 17 May, eventually awarding it the section’s top prize after a lengthy standing ovation.

Backed by producers in Thailand, France, Singapore and Germany, the €18 million production was shot around Bangkok and the industrial Eastern Seaboard during the 2024 monsoon season, with cinematographer Pasit Tandaechanurat capturing a pastel-hued dystopia shaped by particulate smog. International rights are handled by Brussels-based Best Friend Forever, whose sales push at Marché du Film secured more than a dozen territory deals ahead of Cannes, including Mubi for the U.K. and Cinéart for Benelux.

Boonbunchachoke has said he wrote the story after Thailand’s 2014 coup, using a “haunted household appliance” to smuggle critiques of historical erasure past domestic censors. U.S. commentators such as The Playlist argue that the film’s humour will translate, likening it to a mainstream gateway into Southeast Asian arthouse cinema.

With Cineverse now steering release strategy, analysts who watched the company turn micro-budget chiller Terrifier 2 into a sleeper hit predict a slow-burn platform run timed to feed awards-season chatter and Thailand’s forthcoming Oscar submission decision.