--- title: "How a secret A24 film left Europe waiting: Turkey first, France on Dec. 30" description: "‘You Can See Everything’ hits the UK Nov. 20, France Dec. 30; fans drive across the Polish border instead" author: "Luis Goa" published: 2026-10-31T10:30:35.287Z modified: 2026-10-31T14:02:50Z url: https://rews.cc/a/how-a-secret-a24-film-left-europe-waiting-turkey-first-franc-4f4597 language: en tags: ["movies", "distribution", "fomo", "a24", "nathan-fielder", "culture"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # How a secret A24 film left Europe waiting: Turkey first, France on Dec. 30 *‘You Can See Everything’ hits the UK Nov. 20, France Dec. 30; fans drive across the Polish border instead* By Luis Goa · October 31, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/how-a-secret-a24-film-left-europe-waiting-turkey-first-franc-4f4597 ## In brief - Fewer than 10 of A24’s 300 staff knew the film existed before its September Telluride debut, delaying international planning - Release dates: Turkey already open, Australia and Portugal Nov. 12, UK Nov. 20, Spain Dec. 24, France Dec. 30 - A Berlin fan drove two hours to Szczecin, Poland, to watch a preview screening and drove 93 miles home the same night - The film grew from about 855 US theaters to over 2,600, with roughly 600 more added for Halloween weekend - Palace Cinemas reported its fastest single-day pre-sales since Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour film Six weeks before it started vying for the No. 1 spot at the US box office, fewer than 10 people at the 300-person distributor A24 knew that *You Can See Everything* existed. That fact — reported by the Wall Street Journal and repeated in [CNN’s account of the film’s frustrated foreign fans](https://cnn.com/2026/10/31/entertainment/you-can-see-everything-foreign-release) — explains most of what has happened since: Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s nearly three-hour meta-documentary about Elizabeth Holmes is a hit in the US and Canada and, as of this week, essentially unwatchable in Western Europe. The gap is structural, not a decision to withhold the film. According to a source close to A24 who spoke to CNN anonymously, the secrecy that produced a surprise unveiling at the Telluride Film Festival in early September also meant the rest of the studio could not pre-plan foreign releases — the exhibitor talks, ratings-agency negotiations and marketing plans that normally happen months in advance. Keeping the project to fewer than 10 insiders kept the secret, and reset every international clock to zero. ![A vintage-style illustration shows a large blue film reel with tangled red and blue film stretching toward red cinema seats on a textured cream background.](https://rews.cc/img/77919c9550315d798270ded38f88706d1ac1961e.webp) ## The release calendar So far the film has opened officially only in Turkey, though some Polish cinemas are running previews. Australia and Portugal get it Nov. 12, the UK on Nov. 20, Spain on Dec. 24 and France on Dec. 30. Germany and Austria have no dates yet: Sony Pictures won a bidding war for distribution across Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Africa, India, South Korea, Greece, Scandinavia, Germany and Austria, and a Sony representative said dates are “still being finalized” but that the company is “working to bring it to audiences across our territories as quickly as possible.” A24, which distributes its own pictures in the UK and Australia, has struck separate deals elsewhere in Europe — which is how Portugal ends up six weeks ahead of the neighboring Spain. ## Two hours across the border When the wait exceeds the fan’s patience, geography does the rest. Ilia Krasilshchik, a 39-year-old Berlin resident, drove two hours to Szczecin, Poland, watched the film with Polish subtitles at a preview screening, and drove the 93 miles back the same evening, after a friend who had made the same trip suggested it. “I love that we did it,” he told CNN. “It’s impossible to watch this movie in Western Europe right now. It’s just impossible.” ![A car approaches a raised barrier on a winding rural road leading to an illuminated outdoor cinema entrance beneath a coral evening sky.](https://rews.cc/img/d288a4b23638ff919d80c2431254b380d38e94f7.webp) Jonathan O’Brien, 30, in Melbourne — where the film arrives Nov. 12 — described the wait as an information-security problem: muting keywords on social media and averting his eyes while scrolling. “You want to see the movie, but you also want to have seen the movie,” he said. “It’s like being late to the party, and everyone cool has already left.” Viral posts on X have circulated a doctored poster reading “You Can’t See Anything,” and Reddit threads criticizing the international schedule have drawn thousands of upvotes. Australians on a one-month delay also know the movie’s opening will be part of the Oscar conversation, which raises the spoiler stakes further. ## Why the gap exists Slow foreign rollouts are normal for smaller films, which rarely open simultaneously across markets. What is abnormal here is the cause. “Reminder that no one in the world even knew this film existed six weeks ago,” the studio source told CNN. “It was launched as a true surprise and delight and first of its kind. In order to keep it secret, a lot of the process for film release in other regions have just begun.” The secrecy was the marketing strategy; the staggered calendar is the invoice. ![A vintage projector wrapped in red ribbons casts a large padlock silhouette across three screens in a textured red, teal, and navy room.](https://rews.cc/img/21ca06cbe1e44e64ecff96a6a20e4f3941d68d8c.webp) On the domestic side, A24 staggered the release on purpose and it worked. The film opened in roughly 855 theaters — a large footprint for a documentary — expanded to more than 2,600 in its second weekend, and adds about 600 more this Halloween weekend as it competes for the top of the chart. The studio source concedes nobody predicted the demand for a nearly three-hour documentary on a heavily covered subject: “You never know how the world is going to react.” Demand signals abroad back that up. Palace Cinemas, which operates 25 cinemas in Australia, reported faster single-day pre-sales for the film than for any title since Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert documentary, according to the source close to A24. Whether those pre-sales hold through a six-to-twelve-week window of internet spoilers is the open question; pre-sales measure enthusiasm at announcement, not patience at week eight. Some fans are opting out of the experiment. O’Brien is travelling to the US next week for work and plans to see the film while transiting through Washington, jetlag notwithstanding. “The moment I mentioned to my friends that I’ll very likely go see it in America before them,” he said, “it was immediately like, ‘You better not say a goddamn thing about this.’” Spaniards who cannot wait until Dec. 24 now have a shorter route than Krasilshchik’s: Lisbon is closer than Szczecin was from Berlin.