Sales Deal Report / Published 2026-10-30

Finecut Closes Tokyo Sales for Journey There and Hong Sangsoo's Nowhere to Lay My Eyes

Seoul's Finecut closed territory deals at TIFFCOM for Kim Jin-yu's Journey There and Hong Sangsoo's Locarno winner Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, adding France, Japan and more.

A conceptual illustration of a single closed film canister standing on a plain blue-grey background.
Conceptual editorial illustration; not a photograph of any person and not a poster for either film.

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Finecut announced the deals on Friday, the last day of TIFFCOM in Tokyo, according to The Hollywood Reporter; Variety reported the same buyers without a Tokyo dateline.
  • Journey There sold to KDDI in Japan, Lev Cinema in Israel, Izagur Media in Mongolia and Andrews Film in Taiwan, with Kairos Distribution taking inflight rights.
  • Nowhere to Lay My Eyes added Carlotta in France, Mimosa in Japan, Kligger in Argentina and The Stone and the Plot in Portugal on top of six earlier territories.

The sales were announced on TIFFCOM's final day

Finecut announced both batches of deals on Friday, the third and final day of TIFFCOM, the content market that runs alongside the Tokyo International Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Variety reported the same buyers without a Tokyo dateline, describing the Seoul-based sales company as fresh from Busan's Asian Contents & Film Market and on its way to the American Film Market.

The difference is about dating as much as emphasis. THR ties the announcement to the Tokyo market and its closing day, which puts the news on Oct. 30; Variety treats the sales as a slate update released between Busan and AFM and posts them on Oct. 29 at 6:06 p.m. PT. THR puts the market in its headline and opens with it; Variety leads with the films' festival record and reaches the market context in its closing paragraphs. Both outlets list the same buyers for both films, and neither gives a deal value for any territory.

Journey There sold across four territories

Journey There went to KDDI Corporation in Japan, Lev Cinema in Israel, Izagur Media in Mongolia and Andrews Film in Taiwan, and Kairos Distribution acquired inflight rights, according to both reports. Variety places Kairos in the same sentence as the theatrical buyers and calls the rights inflight; THR lists the airline rights as a separate line. Neither report says whether the four territorial deals cover theatrical, streaming or both.

The film is the first Korean production for Justin H. Min, whose credits include Netflix's Beef and The Umbrella Academy and Kogonada's After Yang. Kim Jin-yu directed it, and it is his second feature after Bori, which took two prizes at the 24th Schlingel International Film Festival. Kim's own company, Pado, produced the film. Variety names Min in its headline as the Beef actor; neither report gives his role or his character's name.

Nowhere to Lay My Eyes added four territories

Hong Sangsoo's film added Carlotta Films for France, Mimosa Films for Japan, Kligger for Argentina and The Stone and the Plot for Portugal. Those four join earlier sales to The Cinema Guild for North America, Filmgarten for Austria, Hugoeast for China, Atalante for Spain, Cola Films for Taiwan and the Institute of Contemporary Arts for the U.K. Both reports print the earlier list in the same order.

Counted together, the lists put the Hong film in ten territories, against four plus inflight rights for Journey There. Neither report explains why the two titles were announced in one batch, whether the deals were closed in Tokyo or earlier, or how the earlier round was concluded. The absence of that sequence is what makes the buyer lists read as a scoreboard rather than a story. Ten territories on one title and four plus inflight rights on the other is a difference in reach at this stage of the market, and neither report ranks the two films against each other.

Journey There opened in Korea on Oct. 28

The two reports describe Journey There's story a little differently. Variety says the drama centres on a middle-aged widow who begins getting ready for her own journey and is drawn into relationships she never saw coming in the apartment she has just moved into. THR says it follows a middle-aged woman who, after losing her husband, begins preparing for a journey of her own and finds unexpected connections in her new apartment. The widow detail appears only in Variety; the bereavement only in THR.

THR dates the Korean release to Oct. 28 and lists festival appearances in Moscow and at the New York Asian Film Festival. Both reports add invitations to the Paris and London Korean film festivals, with Variety calling the Moscow and New York stops earlier and the Paris and London ones more recent. Neither says when the film will open in any of the four new territories. Journey There had been in Korean cinemas for two days when the announcement was made, which places the international sales after the domestic release rather than ahead of it.

Hong's 35th feature won three prizes at Locarno

Nowhere to Lay My Eyes is Hong's 35th feature and won three prizes at the 79th Locarno Film Festival: best direction, best performance for Kim Minhee and the Ecumenical Jury Prize. Both reports carry the same three awards and the same edition number. Only THR calls the jury prize independent, which is a description of the award rather than a fourth prize.

The film reunites Hong with Kim and Kwon Haehyo and marks his first collaboration with Choi Myeonggil, whose credits include the television series Durian's Affair; Jeonwonsa Film Co. produced. Variety names the earlier films the two regulars appeared in, By the Stream and What Does That Nature Say to You. THR is the only one of the two to describe the story: a woman who travels with her brother to visit their mother on Jeju Island after a decade apart.

Finecut's next stop is the American Film Market

Both reports put Finecut at AFM next with a slate that includes the animated Long Long Night, which will have its first market screening in an English-dubbed version. Variety adds that the film already has invitations from Toronto, Busan and Sitges, and places Dora in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight and in Busan's Gala Presentation section. THR names July Jung as the director of Dora, the Cannes Directors' Fortnight selection, and describes Wi-Fi Love in the Palace as a fantasy period romance starring The Boyz member Kim Young-hoon.

What the reports leave out is the commercial detail: no prices, no minimum guarantees, no territory-by-territory release plans and no comment from any of the buyers. The confirmed record is the buyer list, the festival and market history of both films, and Finecut's stated next market. Related files on this site include the 2026 BFI London Film Festival winners, the Rotterdam and IFFR 2027 first world premieres and the New York theatrical run of Only Living Pickpocket.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. 'Beef' Actor Justin H. Min's 'Journey There,' Hong Sangsoo's Locarno Winner 'Nowhere to Lay My Eyes' Rack Up International Sales for Finecut — Variety
  2. Tokyo: Finecut Inks Deals for Justin H. Min's 'Journey There,' Hong Sangsoo's 'Nowhere to Lay My Eyes' — The Hollywood Reporter
Keep the thread.

Follow Film to find related stories on your next visit.

THE WEEKLY EDIT

The week, made clear.

Stories worth understanding, brought together in one weekly edition.

Share this page

Instagram, TikTok & other apps

Copy the page link, then paste it where your chosen app supports links. You choose whether to send or publish.