Vertical has acquired North American rights to writer-director Hailey Gates’ satire Atropia.

The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic features. Gates’ feature-length film debut, starring Alia Shawkat (Severance, The Old Man), Callum Turner (Masters of the Air, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore), Chloë Sevigny (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans), Jane Levy (The Problem with People, Evil Dead), Tim Heidecker (Him, What We Do in the Shadows), Lola Kirke (Sinners, Three Women), Zahra Alzubaidi (Dark Justice), Chloe East (Heretic, The Fabelmans), Jamie McShane (Task) and Tony Shawkat (Karla, Three Kings) is set for release in theaters this December.

When an aspiring actress (Shawkat) in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier (Turner) cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance. Welcome to Atropia: an invented land just close enough to Los Angeles for Hollywood set builders to create the fake villages, but far enough away that the performers who live on-site are not exactly flourishing in their acting careers.

Inspired by real military training camps in the California desert, Gates originally conceived the project as a documentary but was encouraged to write the screenplay after a conversation with her Challengers director Luca Guadagnino, who eventually came on board as a producer. Recently, Grammy-winning creative director Imogene Strauss joined the marketing campaign to help bring Atropia into the real world.

Shared Gates: “I’m absolutely chomping at the bit for people to see this movie! I couldn’t be more thrilled that it’s found a home with Vertical, a company that wants to take bold, creative swings when it comes to releasing independent films. I’m so excited that audiences will get the chance to experience it on the big screen.”

“Hailey has created an impressive film debut featuring a fantastic cast led by Alia and Callum. Atropia is a unique story set in a rarely seen world from an exciting new filmmaker. Vertical is thrilled to be releasing this biting satire later this year,” added Vertical Partner Peter Jarowey.

The film was produced by Guadagnino, Naima Abed and Emilie Georges (Paradise City), Lana Kim and Jett Steiger (Ways & Means), and executive produced by Gates, Shawkat, Mike Spreter, Scott McGehee, David Siegel, and KC Wallace. Additional below-the-line talent includes director of photography Eric K. Yue (I Saw the TV Glow, A Thousand and One), production designers Megan Fenton (Cora Bora) and Ashley Fenton (Master Gardener), editors Madeleine Gavin (Beyond Utopia, Captain America: Brave New World) and Sophie Corra (Friendship), and costume designer Angelina Vitto (Skincare, Euphoria), with music by Max Whipple (The Civil Dead), Ari Balouzian (Ren Faire, Some Kind of Heaven), and Robert Ames (We Live in Time) and casting by Mark Bennett (Longlegs, Zero Dark Thirty).

The deal was negotiated by Jarowey and SVP of Acquisitions Tony Piantedosi on behalf of Vertical and by UTA Independent Film Group and WME Independent on behalf of the filmmakers. International sales are represented by Paradise City Sales.