Dark Star Pictures Picks Up 'Test', a Gay Bodybuilding Drama, for U.S. and Canada
Dark Star Pictures has acquired United States and Canadian distribution rights to 'Test', a gay bodybuilding drama, and plans a 2027 cinema release. Variety reported the deal on 21 October 2026.
Distribution rights are the permission to sell tickets and put a film in cinemas in a given territory. Here the territory is the United States and Canada, which the trade calls domestic. Michael Repsch of Dark Star Pictures and Bill Straus of Bridge Independent negotiated the agreement on behalf of the filmmakers, Variety said.
The film is set in the world of amateur bodybuilding. It follows Eddie, a closeted young man from small-town Ohio, played by Brock Yurich. Yurich also wrote the screenplay, which The Hollywood Reporter describes as semi-autobiographical. Sam McConnell directs.
The cast includes Tammy Blanchard, Matthew Morrison, Paloma Garcia-Lee, Evan Hall and Mike Edward. It is a production of Tandem Pictures and Hardball Entertainment, with Julie Christeas, Daryl Freimark and Yurich as producers.
The film has spent much of 2026 on the festival circuit. It had its world premiere at SXSW London, and it went on to win the Audience Award for best narrative feature at the Provincetown International Film Festival. It also took the Jury Award for outstanding first narrative feature at Frameline, the Emerging Narrative Feature Award at Queer Screen in Sydney, and the Canal+ Jury Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival.
The film is also screening at NewFest in New York City on 21 October. It appears in the lineup for Frameline50, where McConnell is expected to attend. Frameline describes it as a character study of body and spirit that defies sports genre conventions. Earlier, it had its Minnesota premiere at the Twin Cities Film Fest, followed by a Q&A with McConnell.
The story is built on a clash. The Hollywood Reporter says its bodybuilder is torn between his sport and his devout faith. The Out on Film festival puts it more starkly, describing a championship dream that collides with substance abuse.
Festivals like these are where many films find their buyers. A distributor that acquires a film at this stage will decide when and how it reaches audiences, and Dark Star's 2027 plan is the next date on the calendar for 'Test'.
