Sundance Winner ‘Ricky’ Launches Kickstarter for Independent Release

There’s no shortage of acclaimed movies at film festivals that fail to find distribution. We remind people of just how many there are every season. But, as of late, the enterprising producers behind some of these titles have found more creative ways to get their movies out to the public.

One such movie, “Ricky,” is doing just that.

“Ricky,” director Rashad Frett’s film that won the Sundance Directing Award at last year’s Sundance, is going the self-distribution route and will be released theatrically on March 20, 2026, IndieWire can reveal exclusively. Though the producers of “Ricky” are partnering with Blue Harbor Entertainment to help facilitate the release, with the film opening in select cities, it is a true independent release with the filmmakers retaining the movie’s rights.

Today, they’re launching a Kickstarter campaign to help support its release effort, offering the chance for audiences to gift tickets to at-risk organizations and communities. Find the fundraiser here, and watch the first trailer for the film above.

“Ricky” had plenty of enthusiasm and interest coming out of Sundance. IndieWire’s review out of the festival called first-time director Frett a “major force” to watch. And though it attracted some distribution offers, Steelo Brim, a producer on “Ricky,” told IndieWire that none of the options were quite right. It’s a project that he and his partners put their “heart and soul” into, and they didn’t want to see its rights tied up for the next 20 years.

“None of them felt right or like they had our best interests at heart. We wanted our voice and messaging to be as pure or real to the independent audience,” Brim told IndieWire. “I know we’re in a super blessed position to be able to independently release. I think about getting creative around it, and looking at the industry and the current landscape, and I feel like we have to get creative in the industry if we want to stay alive, not just with our camera and scripts, but with how we distribute and how we market and how we get our art out to the masses. Because if we don’t do that, then independent film will die.”

“Ricky” stars Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”), and Titus Welliver, and it’s a film about a 30-year-old ex-offender now navigating life after 15 years in incarceration. The film explores the threat of recidivism and how few resources the title character is offered after he leaves prison despite having spent his entire adult life there, making finding stability even more difficult and out of reach.

“This all-too-familiar premise might lend itself to melodrama, but ‘Ricky’ emerges as a marvelously understated examination of one man’s struggle to achieve stability,” IndieWire’s review reads. “Frett and Lin Que Ayoung’s nuanced script mines rich specifics from the tropes of its story, as the film delves into Hartford’s Caribbean American community with the same attention to detail that it explores post-prison life and the threat of recidivism.”

Brim says that given the film’s subject matter, “Ricky” has a very specific audience that needed to be targeted to inner cities and other at-risk communities, and it would be much more impactful there than at an art house theater in Oklahoma.

“We were with a whole different company and committed to them, and we realized in our early stages that a copy and pasting of a traditional marketing strategy or plan wouldn’t be enough for this film,” Brim said. “I wanted to make sure that this film could touch the right people in the right communities that are impacted most by the judicial system or our imprisonment system.”

In order to reach that group, the Kickstarter will give backers who donate tickets the chance to participate in virtual Q&As with Frett and Que Ayoung, receive signed posters, and will have their names added to the credits. Backers can also host private virtual screenings or provide access directly to other organizations, as well as buy out an entire theater for audiences who wouldn’t otherwise get to see the film. Brim is working with Kickstarter and Fandango to make sure funds are allocated evenly across markets, and the more pre-sales the film receives, the longer it can hope to remain in theaters.

“Ricky” is opening in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Oakland, Atlanta, Memphis, Houston, Kansas City, Detroit, Chicago, and other cities.

James, at IndieWire’s Sundance Studio last year, described why “Ricky” was so timely and important, especially for audiences who may be in a similar situation as his character.

“Ms. Ralph has a line in the film where she says ‘He’s been out for 21 days, and he’ll be lucky to make it to 30,’” James said. “And that line really hit home for me, because every day is a victory in itself. Every day that you can just survive another day and have the opportunity to get work, to normalize your life. People don’t realize the daily obstacles that people in that position really have to go through.”

“This film resonates far beyond incarceration,” Frett added in a statement. “Whether someone has lived that experience or simply recognizes their own struggle in Ricky’s journey, our goal is to spark real conversations about re-entry, resilience, and the human cost of starting over. At the same time, we want to shine a light on the state of independent filmmaking itself — an art form at risk in today’s industry. That’s why we chose to take the film’s future into our own hands and put audiences at the center of this journey.”

The film is produced by Steelo Brim, DC Wade, Josh Peters, Pierre Coleman, Simon Taufique, and Mark Steele, in association with Ossetra Films. James and Bay Mills Studios are executive producers on the project. Blue Harbor Entertainment, which launched in 2023, is handling all U.S. rights for “Ricky.”