Autlook Filmsales has acquired international rights to Union Town, a new documentary from two-time Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple, ahead of its world premiere at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival Variety.

The film will screen in Venice's Open section, a programming strand for works shown out of competition, before crossing the Atlantic for its North American premiere in the TIFF Docs 2026 programme at the Toronto International Film Festival Variety. According to the Venice Biennale's official listing, Union Town is a USA production with a runtime of 106 minutes Venice Biennale.

Kopple spent three years filming Union Town, which chronicles essential workers in New York City's last-mile delivery industry — the final leg of the supply chain that gets parcels from warehouses to doorsteps. The documentary interweaves labour struggles inside UPS and Amazon with those of the mostly immigrant, app-based bike delivery workforce, set against a resurgence of organised labour in the city Variety. The Venice Biennale's listing describes the film as the third in a triptych on labour rights by Kopple Venice Biennale.

That trilogy stretches back five decades. Kopple won her first Oscar for Harlan County, USA (1976), a landmark documentary about a Kentucky coal miners' strike, and her second for American Dream (1990), which examined a bitter meatpacking strike in Minnesota. Harlan County, USA screened at the very first Toronto International Film Festival in 1976 TIFF.

Autlook's deal also covers those two earlier films — though with territorial limits. The Berlin-based sales agent holds rights to Harlan County, USA and American Dream excluding North America, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland Variety. Both titles were recently re-released by Janus Films in 4K restorations in theatres across the United States Variety.

Union Town is produced by Kopple, Hannes Hosp and Peter Palandjian, with Palandjian and Glenn Rigberg serving as executive producers. Stephanie Fuchs is the CEO of Autlook Filmsales Variety.

For a festival audience, the appeal is obvious. Kopple has spent her career documenting workers on the picket line, and Union Town brings that lens to gig-economy delivery riders and warehouse workers — a story unfolding in real time on city streets. The TIFF Docs 2026 slate, which also features world premieres on subjects including Megan Rapinoe, Edward Said, cowgirls, wine makers and alt-country musicians, places Kopple's film among a broadly international selection TIFF.

Venice runs first. Toronto follows. Where Union Town lands after that — a streaming deal, a theatrical run, or both — will depend on what buyers see on the Lido.