Dark Star Pictures has acquired the North American rights to Brandon Daley‘s feature debut, “$Positions,” ahead of its Quebec premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival.
Per an official synopsis, “$Positions” follows a “blue-collar Midwesterner as he attempts to save his family from the throes of poverty by investing their savings into speculative cryptocurrencies. As his investment strategy decays into a full-blown gambling addiction, he sends his life into a nightmarish anxiety-inducing downward spiral.”
The film stars Michael Kunicki, Vinny Kress, Trevor Dawkins and Kaylyn Carter. Jake Bloom and Ben Gojer produced “$Positions,” while executive producers include Eddie Linker, Steve Lanus and Amar Gupta. Tax credit financing was handled by Missing Link Films.
“$Positions” had its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year and is slated for a theatrical release in early 2026 from Dark Star Pictures.
“After spending years working on my debut feature, I am so excited that ‘$Positions’ has finally found a distribution partner with Dark Star Pictures,” said writer-director Daley. “I make visceral comedies that provoke a wide range of feelings, such as nausea and/or anxiety, so Dark Star really felt like a perfect home for us. ‘$Positions’ is a story about hope in the face of hopelessness; having faith that things are bound to work out despite the fact that they never have before. Much like my protagonist, it’s not my logic that got me to this point, but instead my unrelenting faith.”
Michael Repsch, president of Dark Star, said: “‘$Positions’ is an incredibly refreshing film in that it explores the human element in the cryptocurrency world, something that we have not quite seen before in the fiction film space. Writer/Director Brandon Daley has crafted a wildly entertaining ride that will take audiences through the gamut of emotions when experiencing this film, and we look forward to getting it to them in a wide array of ways.”
The deal was brokered by Repsch on behalf of Dark Star and Linker and Daley on behalf of the filmmakers.
