Quiver Acquires North American Rights to Bella Ramsey’s Sunny Dancer

Bella Ramsey’s next film is officially heading to North American theaters. Quiver has acquired North American rights to Sunny Dancer, the coming-of-age comedy that stars Ramsey in the lead role, with sales on the deal handled by Embankment Films. The pickup is the latest milestone for a project that first turned heads in the Cannes market back in 2024 and went on to open the Generation 14plus section at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, where it picked up a Crystal Bear nomination.

Ramsey plays Ivy, a teenager in remission from cancer whose parents sign her up for what she derisively calls “chemo camp,” a summer retreat for young people affected by the disease. It is a markedly different kind of role for Ramsey, who has spent the last several years buried in the scale and scrutiny of The Last of Us and Game of Thrones, and they have been candid about how much they needed exactly that kind of change of pace. Speaking around the film’s Berlinale premiere, they described the shoot, which included emotional therapy scenes and a reckless lake-jumping sequence filmed in the cold of a Scottish March, as one of the best stretches of their career so far. Ramsey has said they went into the project bracing for cringe, only to come out of it revived, crediting director George Jaques’ script and the small, close-knit shoot with pulling them out of a burnout they did not fully register until they were on set.

That performance is already generating some of the strongest buzz of Ramsey’s career outside of their franchise work. Early reactions out of Berlin have been enthusiastic, with several critics and festivalgoers drawing comparisons to coming-of-age favorites like Booksmart and Lady Bird and singling out Ramsey’s turn as Ivy as a standout, calling it a performance that carries the emotional weight of the film with real precision. Sunny Dancer already has UK and Irish distribution locked in through True Brit Entertainment, which is planning a theatrical release for August 14, alongside a long list of other international deals. With Quiver now attached for North America, Ramsey’s film is lining up a proper theatrical run stateside in the months ahead, though an exact release date for that market has not yet been announced.