Sundance Title ‘If I Go Will They Miss Me’ Boarded by Salaud Morisset (EXCLUSIVE)

Paris- and Berlin-based company Salaud Morisset has boarded international rights to Walter Thompson-Hernández’s first feature “If I Go Will They Miss Me” ahead of its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival as part of the Next section. UTA Independent Film Group is handling U.S. rights.

The film is adapted from Thompson-Hernández’s short film, awarded with the Short Film Jury Award in the U.S. Fiction category at Sundance Film Festival in 2022. It is produced by Josh Peters, Saba Zerehi and Ben Stillman.

Combining social and magical realism, the film follows 12-year-old Lil Ant, who struggles to connect with his dad. He soon begins to see surreal, almost spectral visions of boys drifting around his neighborhood, revealing a link between father and son, laying bare the threads that bind family, legacy and place.

François Morisset, founder and managing director of Salaud Morisset, said, “We were immediately drawn to Walter Thompson-Hernández’s singular voice. Set within a working-class neighborhood of Los Angeles, the film explores complex family bonds with both lyricism and deep authenticity, while highlighting the power of dreams and imagination to carry us forward. We are proud to stand behind Walter’s vision and to accompany a filmmaker whose work feels both intimate and quietly powerful.”

Thompson-Hernández is a Southeast Los Angeles-born and raised writer-director and Sundance Lab alum. He began his career at the New York Times, where he worked as a global subculture reporter from 2018 to 2021. During that time, he authored the book “The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America’s Heartland,” which is currently being adapted by Searchlight Pictures.

In 2021, he was named one of Variety’s “10 Storytellers to Watch.” In 2022, he was recognized by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the “25 New Faces of Film.”

He was awarded with the Short Film Jury Award in the U.S. Fiction category at Sundance in 2022 for “If I Go Will They Miss Me.”

In 2025, he directed “Shooting Guards,” a feature-length documentary for Netflix, and debuted his first narrative feature, “Pipas (Kites),” at Tribeca, where it received a Special Jury Prize for bold storytelling. He was recently named as one of “10 Directors to Watch” by Variety.