MUBI has acquired worldwide rights to Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman’s “Nuisance Bear,” the company announced Wednesday.
The film received its World Premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it played in the U.S. Documentary Competition and won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize.
MUBI will announce release plans in the near future.
“Nuisance Bear” marks the feature debut of Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, expanding on their acclaimed 2021 short of the same name, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. The feature is an immersive, character-driven portrait of a polar bear navigating a world reshaped by human presence.
In her review of the film, TheWrap’s Elizabeth Weitzman wrote: “Turning a short into a full-length film, however, requires not just a desire to say more, but much more to say. We could feel the taut intention beneath the quiet observation of the 14-minute short — but with so much time to fill in the longer version, passion ultimately wins out over precision.”
Osio Vanden and Weisman said in a statement: “A ‘nuisance bear’ is defined as a bear that has lost its fear of humans. The animals we label as unwanted often reveal a great deal about us. We were drawn to a bear no one wanted because its story felt deeply human. We began this film more than ten years ago, at a time when we were falling in love — with each other, and with the world of these bears. Our aim has always been to create bold, original nonfiction films, and we are thrilled to be partnering with MUBI, a company that champions cinema, to bring Nuisance Bear to audiences worldwide in theaters and beyond.”
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