Black Bear Signs Cannes Winner Sandra Wollner and Sundance Prize-Winner Stephanie Ahn
Black Bear's management division has signed two of 2026's most decorated festival filmmakers: Sandra Wollner, whose feature Everytime won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and Stephanie Ahn, whose debut Bedford Park took the Special Jury Prize for Debut Feature Film at Sundance in January. Both directors join the roster of manager Joanne Roberts Wiles, whose clients include Gregg Araki, Karyn Kusama, Cooper Raiff, and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Deadline).
For Wollner, the signing arrives as Everytime builds toward its US release on 25 September through distributor 1-2 Special. The film will screen in the Centrepiece section at the Toronto International Film Festival and in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival before reaching audiences — a festival run that now spans three of the autumn season's most closely watched showcases.
Wollner, born in Leoben, Austria, studied documentary directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and now lives and works in Berlin. Her first feature, The Impossible Picture, received the German Film Critics' Award for Best Feature Film in 2018. Her graduation film, The Trouble With Being Born, premiered in the Encounters section of the 70th Berlinale in 2020, won the Special Jury Award there, and went on to collect more than twenty international prizes, including Best Feature Film and Best Director at the Austrian Film Awards (Deadline).
Ahn's path to the deal runs through a different festival pipeline. Bedford Park, her directorial debut, premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2026, where it received the Special Jury Prize for Debut Feature Film. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film for worldwide distribution and will release it on 22 September — three days before Everytime reaches US screens. Bedford Park is also booked at the Busan, Stockholm, and Taipei international film festivals. Its producers include Gary Foster, Chris S. Lee, Nina Yang Bongiovi, and Theresa Kang (Hollywood Reporter).
Ahn, based in Brooklyn, earned her filmmaking degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and worked as an editor on films including The Girls and My Old Lady before directing. Her screenplays have been recognised as finalists by Cinequest, the Austin Film Festival, the Final Draft Screenwriting Contest, ScreenCraft's Film Fund, and Rooftop Films' Filmmakers Fund, and were featured at The Gotham's Independent Project Forum (Deadline).
What makes this pairing worth noting is the calendar. Two first-look festival discoveries, both carrying major jury prizes, both landing in US theatres within the same week of late September, now share representation at a company known for shepherding auteur-driven work. For audiences, that means two of the year's most talked-about festival titles will be in play simultaneously — and the people who made them have just aligned behind the same manager.
