PARK CITY, UTAH — As Sundance enters its final days, fears of a sluggish market have given way to high-profile buys, including Magnolia Pictures’ deal for Humpday and Lionsgate Films closing a pact for James Strouse’s The Winning Season.

The many Canadian works screening here haven’t entirely been excluded. While the four Canadian films screening in competition at Sundance have yet to get picked up, Max Perrier’s The Ante, part of Slamdance, has been acquired for North American distribution by Panorama Entertainment.

Ante, which screened in the narrative feature competition, follows down-on-his-luck Sam Bailey, who makes a wrong turn on a country road that escalates into a nightmare. Panorama is planning a festival run for the film, followed by a platform theatrical release in late spring 2009.

‘The gamble paid off,’ Perrier, who is based in Montreal, told Playback Daily. ‘We set out shooting this feature in scope 35mm with pocket change in the hopes the feat would get people talking. Now we’ve got distribution. And good one, too. Panorama saw the incredible production value we sacrificed into this film and now, hopefully, the broader audience and industry will too.’

Slamdance runs through Friday, while the Sundance festival concludes Sunday. One Canadian film, Jason Eisener’s Treevenge, has already won ‘honorable mention in short filmmaking’ at Sundance.