‘Misericordia’ Distributor Janus Films Wins Unifrance Distribution Prize for Robust and Witty Release

Arthouse stalwart Janus Films took home the second annual Unifrance Distribution Prize at this year’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, collecting $11,646 in recognition of its handling of Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.”

Picked up out of Cannes in 2024, the darkly comic thriller enjoyed a high-profile fall festival run and an awards campaign that landed it on the four-film shortlist for France’s submission for the international feature film Oscar. While it ultimately fell short of an Oscar slot, “Misericordia” more than made up for it with critical acclaim, winning the Louis-Delluc Prize, being named best film of the year by Cahiers du Cinéma, and earning enthusiastic praise from John Waters, who called it “an impossibly perverse thriller…leaving the audience stunned by sexual plot twists and a lulu of an ending.”

As Janus prepared the film’s U.S. theatrical rollout last March, the distributor leaned into precisely the qualities that prompted Waters’ exclamation: “Yikes! This one’s off the rails!”

“It would have been easy to market it as a straight thriller or a romance, but we deliberately leaned into the film’s true tone,” Janus Films’ Benjamin Crossley-Marra said. “It’s a subtle mystery with humor, genuinely creepy undertones, and a sense that something isn’t quite right.”

To reflect the film’s elegance, irreverence, and odd, lyrical mood, Janus commissioned key art from poster designer Maks Bereski (aka Plakiat), using a single core image as the foundation of a multimedia push. “In today’s environment, your imagery has to work everywhere—from a theater lightbox to a 4×5 Instagram post,” Crossley-Marra explains. “That artwork really took off online, and we adapted it across platforms.”

The distributor also rolled out a playful social-media strategy drawing on the film’s visual textures and motifs, including an interactive map of premiere locations, each represented by a different mushroom. “Audiences could find their city, see their mushroom, and then come to a screening with Alain in attendance,” Crossley-Marra added. “It made for a fun and effective campaign.”

Janus will next harness synergy across platforms for its upcoming releases of Hlynur Pálmason’s “The Love That Remains,” Sergei Loznitsa’s “Two Prosecutors,” and Carla Simón’s “Romería,” spotlighting the directors and their earlier films on the Criterion Channel to drive theatrical interest as well.

“We’re always looking for ways to reach new audiences,” said Crossley-Marra, who oversees social media for both Janus and Criterion. “Interestingly, younger viewers are going to theaters more than the generation above them. They’re seeking the theatrical experience and are focused on experiences in general. And a film like ‘Misericordia’ is certainly an experience.”