Lionsgate has acquired the worldwide rights to Daveed Diggs’ Sundance opening-night selection, Blindspotting. 

The critically-acclaimed film stars Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Tisha Campbell-Martin.

Co-written by Diggs and Casal, it follows a recent parolee (Diggs), along with his friend (Casal), navigating their rapidly-gentrifying community in Oakland.

It will be released from Lionsgate’s Codeblack Films and Summit Entertainment label later this year.

In a review of the film, Shadow and Act‘s Aramide Tinubu wrote “Its dialogue is what’s most brilliant about Blindspotting. Casal and Diggs use raps and rhymes interspersed with traditional discourse. It’s not a straightforward story about present-day race relations, toxic masculinity, and immaturity by any means. Instead, what’s so refreshing about this film is that Diggs and Casal along with Lopez have taken the time to say something real.”

According to Variety, CBS Films, Neon and MoviePass were all circling the film.

It has been a relatively quiet Sundance for distributors, with only a few immediate pickups so far and only one seven-digit deal (Assassination Nation).