Obscured Releasing Picks Up Smartphone Documentary Ahead of Hamptons Premiere
Obscured Releasing has acquired North American distribution rights to The Drug in Our Pocket, a documentary about constant smartphone use among young people, ahead of its world premiere on Saturday. The deal was reported by Deadline on 2 October 2026. It gives the young distributor control of the cinema release in the United States and Canada, what the industry calls domestic.
The film is directed by Anne Sundberg and produced by Sundberg and Beth Kojima. It focuses on how heavy phone use affects teenagers and younger children. The Hamptons International Film Festival, where it launches, describes it as an examination of how smartphones have radically reshaped childhood, adolescence and mental health, according to the Hamptons International Film Festival.
The world premiere is set for Saturday 3 October at 12:00 PM at the Regal UA in East Hampton, New York, as part of the Hamptons festival, listed in the festival programme guide. Sundberg is a festival alum. She will also join the festival's Morning Talks session on making an impact with documentary film.
The timing is tight. The acquisition was announced one day before that first public screening. The film was among the first titles named for this year's edition, the 34th Hamptons festival.
The release plan starts with festivals, then moves to cinemas. An Oscar-qualifying run is expected in autumn 2026, followed by a limited theatre release in early 2027. An Oscar-qualifying run is a short, booked cinema run that makes a documentary eligible for Academy Award consideration. A limited release means it opens in selected cities rather than everywhere at once.
After Hamptons, the documentary will play the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis and the Newport Beach Film Festival in Southern California. Those stops are a familiar route for non-fiction films. They build press, reviews and word of mouth before tickets go on sale to the wider public.
The deal was negotiated by Sundberg and Kojima on behalf of the production and by Bill Guentzler and RJ Millard on behalf of Obscured Releasing. Millard and Guentzler launched Obscured Releasing in 2025 as a distribution organisation. Executive producers on the film include Regina K. Scully, Jenna Bush Hager, Crystal McCrary McGuire, Ashley Graham, Lizzie Tisch and Jonathan Tisch.
What makes this stand out for a general audience is the subject itself. Most families live this debate daily. Phones at the table. Phones in the classroom. This film arrives with a cinema plan already in place, and its first audience will see it in East Hampton this weekend.
