Apple Buys Sundance Mountain-Climbing Documentary ‘The Last First: Winter K2’
Apple Original Films has landed global rights to “The Last First: Winter K2,” a sports documentary that recently premiered at Sundance Film Festival.
Directed by Amir Bar Lev, “The Last First” captures a 2021 extreme mountain climbing expedition to scale K2, the second-highest peak in the world. It’s told through the lens of mountaineers — Icelander John Snorri Sigurjónsson and Pakistani father-son team Ali and Sajid Sadpara — who are competing to be first to summit K2 in the winter, when the mountain’s conditions are the cruelest. In a press release, Apple said “The Last First: Winter K2” takes viewers “the icy heights and unpredictable weather of K2 and reveals a surprising and layered story — one of strategy and determination, class and caste, money and power — all under life and death circumstances.”
“At its core, this is a profoundly human story about the cost of ambition and the people left searching for answers,” said producers Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens of Propagate Content. “Amir approaches the film with empathy and precision, and we’re honored to see it reach a worldwide audience through Apple TV after such a powerful Sundance debut.”
In Variety’s review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman described “The Last First” as “engrossing, […] but not exhilarating,” adding that “it’s not another climb-every-mountain doc of daredevil glory. It’s a movie that shows us the dark side of literally getting high.”
Sundance sales have been glacial; Olivia Wilde’s dinner-party comedy “The Invite” sold to A24, crowd-pleaser “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and horror thriller “Leviticus” was nabbed by Neon. But other festival favorites like “Josephine,” “Wicker,” “Union County” and “Chasing Summer” remain without buyers.
Apple’s major Sundance acquisitions over the years include the Oscar-nominated documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” musical dramedy “Flora and Son” and Academy Award-winner “CODA.”
Directed by Amir Bar Lev, “The Last First” captures a 2021 extreme mountain climbing expedition to scale K2, the second-highest peak in the world. It’s told through the lens of mountaineers — Icelander John Snorri Sigurjónsson and Pakistani father-son team Ali and Sajid Sadpara — who are competing to be first to summit K2 in the winter, when the mountain’s conditions are the cruelest. In a press release, Apple said “The Last First: Winter K2” takes viewers “the icy heights and unpredictable weather of K2 and reveals a surprising and layered story — one of strategy and determination, class and caste, money and power — all under life and death circumstances.”
“At its core, this is a profoundly human story about the cost of ambition and the people left searching for answers,” said producers Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens of Propagate Content. “Amir approaches the film with empathy and precision, and we’re honored to see it reach a worldwide audience through Apple TV after such a powerful Sundance debut.”
In Variety’s review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman described “The Last First” as “engrossing, […] but not exhilarating,” adding that “it’s not another climb-every-mountain doc of daredevil glory. It’s a movie that shows us the dark side of literally getting high.”
Sundance sales have been glacial; Olivia Wilde’s dinner-party comedy “The Invite” sold to A24, crowd-pleaser “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and horror thriller “Leviticus” was nabbed by Neon. But other festival favorites like “Josephine,” “Wicker,” “Union County” and “Chasing Summer” remain without buyers.
Apple’s major Sundance acquisitions over the years include the Oscar-nominated documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” musical dramedy “Flora and Son” and Academy Award-winner “CODA.”