After making a run late in the festival as being the big critical darling of Sundance, then moving on to another successful appearance at SXSW, the tiny indie Sound of My Voice has finally snagged a distributor to match all that critical buzz. According to Variety Fox Searchlight has finally picked up the film for distribution in North America, Australia and the UK, though no release date has yet been set.

If you'd asked me four months ago when I walked out of Sound of My Voice's Sundance screening which distributor should have been picked it up, I definitely would have said Searchlight. The movie isn't exactly as candy-colored or immediately packageable as some of the distributor's other hits, but it's got a central mystery and a breakthrough performance from Brit Marling that gives it some serious commercial potential. I wasn't as enamored with the movie as some of my fellow Sundance attendees-- below you can watch the video blog I recorded with Matt Patches at the time to try to work out our feelings on it-- but it's got a lot of merit to it, and given that the filmmakers planned Sound of My Voice as the beginning of a long series exploring the cult at the center of the story, I'm excited this distribution deal makes it all the more likely we'll see the next chapter.