MetFilm Sales has acquired worldwide sales rights to "Boatbuilders," a documentary by Sundance-winning director Luke Lorentzen that profiles a wooden boatbuilding community in Maine. The film will have its world premiere in the Open Section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on 7 September, giving it a high-profile launchpad before it is pitched to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival Market in mid-September.

The documentary follows the roughly 60 workers of the Brooklin Boat Yard over four seasons as they hand-build a 56-foot sailboat, and is Lorentzen's third feature after the Oscar-shortlisted "Midnight Family" and "A Still Small Voice," the latter of which won the 2023 Sundance US Documentary Best Director Award. It will have its North American premiere as the opening film of the Camden International Film Festival on 17 September. The film is produced by Kellen Quinn and Lorentzen for Hedgehog Films, with Lorentzen also serving as cinematographer and editor, and features a lengthy list of executive producers including Chuck and Deborah Royce and Ben Fowlie.