Eliot Spitzer Doc, Mike Leigh's Latest Acquired as Fest Buys Pick Up

I don't know what it means that Tribeca and Cannes are running about even on their 2010 festival acquisitions to date, but there you have it: Alex Gibney's terrific Untitled Eliot Spitzer Doc and Mike Leigh's Palme d'Or front-runner Another Year are both spoken for, according to announcements this afternoon.

And both films landed at the distributors most favored to pick them up: Spitzer with Magnolia Pictures, and Another Year with Sony Pictures Classics. Expect significant Oscar pushes for both this fall. Spitzer will likely trump Gibney's other Magnolia release Casino Jack and the United States of Money in the lead-up to awards season, squaring off in the end against Charles Ferguson's corrosive financial-collapse exposé Inside Job -- another Cannes darling awaiting distribution. [CORRECTION: SPC bought Inside Job ahead of Cannes and brought the film to the festival. I regret the oversight.] That wait is over for Leigh's drama, for which SPC will probably chase nominations in all the major categories (particularly writing and acting).

Congrats also to Xavier Dolan's indie Heartbeats, which IFC Films just now picked up out of Cannes as well. Stay tuned for more as wallets open throughout the remainder of the week...