In one of the first sales out of SXSW, Cartuna and Dweck Productions have teamed up on a new distribution venture, Cartuna x Dweck and acquired Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover which made its Texas premiere at the festival.
In Dead Lover, Glowicki stars as a lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses. When she finally meets her dream man (Ben Petrie), their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love. Also starring in the film are Leah Doz and Lowen Morrow,
Dead Lover which premiered in the Midnight section at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival is the sophomore feature from writer, director, and actor Grace Glowicki. Following its debut at Sundance, the film screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Göteborg Film Festival, with forthcoming stops at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans and the Los Angeles Festival of Movies.
The screenplay was co-written with Petrie and is produced by Glowicki, Petrie, and Yona Strauss. Matthew Miller, Olivia Nieuwland, Lexi Tannenholtz, and Rhianon Jones and Tristan Scott Behrends of Neon Heart Productions serve as Executive Producers.
“We feel touched by kismet to be working with Cartuna X Dweck! Individually, both companies are stalwart champions of independent voices in cinema, and we’re in love with their vision for a united superfront putting out movies with a fresh, individualized approach. Ben, Yona, and I are thrilled to be putting our brains together with them on rolling out Dead Lover!“ said Grace Glowicki.
Glowicki’s first breakout came with her performance in Ben Petrie’s 2016 short Her Friend Adam, which earned her a Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance from the Sundance Film Festival. Tito, her directorial debut feature—which she acted in and wrote—premiered at the 2019 SXSW and was awarded the Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award.
Cartuna launched its film distribution arm last year with a focus on animation, DIY, and cult cinema. It began as a Blu-ray label, most notably for the physical release of the runaway indie-hit Hundreds of Beavers, which had a busy month both surpassing $1 million in the worldwide box office and 10,000 Blu-ray discs sold. Dead Lover marks the first all-rights acquisition for the company and the first in a newly minted partnership with Dweck Productions. K
“We firmly believe that we are at the early stages of a historic creative movement,” says James Belfer, founder and CEO of Cartuna. “Inventive, boundary-pushing storytellers need more distribution support now than ever. This collective of producers has opted to take matters into our own hands and it’s our sincere hope that it will inspire others to do the same.”
Hannah Dweck, owner and co-founder of Dweck Productions added, “What Grace and her collaborators have dug up from their creative depths is like nothing I’ve ever seen before and we are so honored to be a part of this infinitely imaginative team. We can’t wait to set this exuberantly unrestrained, disgusting, beautiful, smelly, exhumed corpse of a rom-com loose on the world!”