Brainstorm Media Nabs North American Rights to ‘American Sweatshop,’ Lili Reinhart’s Social Media Thriller

There’s no greater pleasure than the buzz of a film that seeps under your skin and stays with you after the credits roll, and American Sweatshop does just that. Brainstorm Media has acquired North American distribution rights to the festival hit, which made waves at its World Premiere this year at SXSW. Directed by Riverdale star Lili Reinhart in her most scandalous performance to date, this social media thriller mystery is not just a game for our web-age paranoia, but gets a stranglehold on it.

Directed by Emmy nominee Uta Briesewitz (Stranger Things, Severance) in her feature debut, American Sweatshop is a thrilling idea on high with the pacing of a psychological horror and the satire of a dystopian drama. The film explores a world that we all participate in every single day but barely ever think about: the people behind the curtain who wipe our online lives squeaky clean.

Plot: The Moderators Behind the Curtain

Reinhart plays Daisy Morris, a content moderator for a popular social media site. Her job? Scanning and erasing the most explicit, hateful, and traumatizing content on the internet. From violence to hate speech, Daisy’s unit is a human firewall, fighting humanity’s darkest desires pixel by pixel. And yet when one particularly violent clip takes hold in her mind, she sets out to track its origin, leaving the safety of her virtual world and navigating a raw, in-the-flesh maze.

Matthew Nemeth’s (City on a Hill) script grounds the narrative in unnerving reality, and it’s a gradual descent into modern horror that feels all too real. It’s rather less Black Mirror fantasy and closer to documentary horror.

A Star Reborn: Reinhart Unplugged

We’ve seen Lili Reinhart tackle emotional drama (Chemical Hearts) and whip-smart satire (Hustlers), but American Sweatshop peels back another layer of her range. This isn’t Betty Cooper with a flashlight. Reinhart’s Daisy is raw, unraveling, and dangerously relatable. She doesn’t just carry the film, she drags us into the murky, morally ambiguous waters of digital trauma with her.

Briesewitz’s directorial work is precise and deliberate. As the one behind the eye on prestige television, transitioning to features makes sense. Her sensibility remains rooted in the gray areas, both aesthetic and ethical. For her, an antiseptic cubicle is a battle of the mind, and any autoplayed video is an armed weapon.

A Supporting Cast Worth Clicking On

Abetting Reinhart is an excellent supporting cast: Daniela Melchior (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Fast X) comes alive as a fight-hardened co-worker, Josh Whitehouse (Daisy Jones & The Six) is slick but untrustworthy sidekick material, and Joel Fry (Game of Thrones, Yesterday) brings weight to the desperation racing narrative. Together, they form a tight yet fractured microcosm of burnout in the digital age. 

The Real-Life Horror of Online Labor

Briesewitz speaks on the emotional price behind the occupation at the center of the film:

“To view a playful meme on a social media platform is just as easy as viewing the most violent images nobody should ever be exposed to... These places of content moderation can be seen as a Petri dish experiment, showing us what the darkest corner of the internet will do to our souls.”

In a society where AI can produce content but not cause harm, American Sweatshop brings the price of human moderation into stark, terrifying focus.

Backed by Hollywood Heavyweights

If the premise and cast weren’t captivating enough, the film also boasts a production pedigree to die for. It’s supported by industry players like Anita Elsani (Operation Napoleon), Jason Sosnoff (The Survivor), and the legendary Barry Levinson (Rain Man), with Lili Reinhart serving as both executive producer.

Coming Soon: A Thriller That Asks, Why Are We Still Watching?

Brainstorm Media CEO Michelle Shwarzstein said it best:

“American Sweatshop is a timely thriller that taps into our collective anxieties about the digital world and the unseen labor behind it… We’re excited to partner with this extraordinary team.”

Due out in North America this fall, American Sweatshop is shaping up to be one of the most intense indie thrillers of the year, taut, disturbing, and unflinchingly true. For those who like their social commentary tart and their mysteries coated in digital dread, it’s one to update your feed for.