EXCLUSIVE: Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Belgian filmmaker Véronique Jadin’s first narrative feature, Employee of the Month, from the Paris-based international sales agent Reel Suspects. The dark comedy will roll out in theaters early next year, with a wide release across home entertainment and digital platforms to follow.

Employee of the Month follows the middle-aged Inès (Jasmina Douieb), who has long been a diligent employee of the small wholesale household products company, EcoCleanPro. Tasked with mentoring a young trainee, the sarcastic Melody (Laetitia Mampaka), Inès embraces her role. However, while she treats her work seriously, her male counterparts and her boss consistently belittle her, ordering her to do menial tasks.

With her patience running out and under Melody’s blasé gaze, Inès meets with Patrick (Peter Van den Begin) to ask for a raise. Surprisingly, the situation quickly spins out of control and an accidental crime is committed, with both Inès and Melody then being forced to decide how to cover their tracks and clean up their mess.

Employee of the Month was an Official 2022 Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival and Montreal’s Fantasia Fest. Jadin directed from her script co-written by Nina Vanspranghe, with Sebastian Schelenz producing.

“In her very accomplished debut, Veronique deftly utilizes outlandish and comic scenarios to soften the sharp edges of her workplace satire,” said Film Movement President, Michael Rosenberg. “However, she also manages to make some very valuable points about sexism and misogyny in the workplace, and we’re excited to bring her feature-length film to audiences across North America.”

“We are very excited to team up with Film Movement for the release of EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH,” added Reel Suspects’ Managing Director, Matteo Lovadina. “Their know-how and audience base perfectly fits Veronique’s vision of the dark comedy genre.”

Film Movement is a North American distributor founded in 2002 that has also recently acquired the documentary Art Talent Show, which won the Proxima Grand Prix at the 2022 Karlovy Vary Film Festival; Wen Shipei’s Cannes 2021 Camera d’Or nominee, Are You Lonesome Tonight?; Kamila Andini’s Indonesian period drama Before, Now & Then, which won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2022 Berlinale; Hà Lệ Diễm’s doc Children of the Mist, which won Best International Feature Award at DocAviv; multi-Palme d’Or nominee Dominik Moll’s Cannes-selected crime thriller The Night of the 12th; and Lui Ruijun’s 2022 Golden Bear nominee, Return to Dust.