FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Abramorama Acquires SXSW Grand Jury Best Doc Winner SHUFFLE
SHUFFLE Poster
Shuffle won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature when it world premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Since then, the film has garnered additional prizes, including the Jury Award for Best Documentary, the Audience Award for Best Documentary, and the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the 2025 Lighthouse International Film Festival, as well as the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2025 Flyover Film Festival. Abramorama will present special screenings of the film in association with Kinema in October and November before its official theatrical release in Q1 2026. Shuffle has qualified for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar® at the 2026 Academy Awards.
“Shuffle represents exactly the kind of fearless, important filmmaking that Abramorama is committed to bringing to audiences,” said Abramorama’s Damon G. Smith, SVP Business Growth and Creative Strategy, and Karol Martesko-Fenster, CEO. “Benjamin Flaherty has crafted a deeply personal yet universally urgent documentary that exposes critical flaws in our addiction treatment system. This film doesn't just inform—it has the power to save lives by helping people navigate a system that too often prioritizes profit over recovery.”
Shuffle began its Academy Awards® qualifying run in Dallas, TX at The Angelika Film Center, on September 12 during National Recovery Month as a recipient of the first ever Screen Dallas initiative sponsored by the Dallas Film Commission. Screen Dallas is a new initiative that annually awards one documentary filmmaker with a fully underwritten, week-long theatrical release, offering them a powerful launch platform for the film. Additionally, Screen Dallas hosted a red-carpet premiere for Shuffle on September 23rd at the Texas Theater.
“We're honored that Shuffle was selected as the inaugural recipient of our Screen Dallas initiative,” said Dallas Film Commissioner Katie Schuck. “This powerful documentary exemplifies our mission to support filmmakers whose work tackles vital social issues. Benjamin's courage in sharing his own story while investigating this systemic crisis makes Shuffle exactly the kind of impactful cinema we want to champion.”
Shot over the course of three years, Shuffle follows three individuals whose lives depend not on getting into treatment, but on getting out alive. While shining a light on the insurance-fueled cycle of addiction treatment fraud spreading across the country, the filmmaker serves as narrator using his own experience as a roadmap. These personal stories provide the framework for a public investigation with the help of an FBI informant, an insurance analyst and the former Executive Director of a Philadelphia- based treatment facility. Shuffle unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of profit.
“Making Shuffle was both the most difficult and necessary project I've ever undertaken,” said director Benjamin Flaherty. “By sharing my own recovery journey, and those of the brave participants in the film, I hope to give viewers the tools to recognize and avoid the predatory practices that plague our treatment industry. Shuffle is the story of thousands, if not millions of people whose lives hang in the balance of a system that needs urgent reform.”
Shuffle (USA, 81 minutes, English) Abramorama presents an Avocado Pictures/Bleach Films production in association with Low Hanging Fruit Studios/Object & Animal. “Shuffle”. Edited by Robin Schwartz, Benjamin Flaherty, Jacquie Soohen. With original music by Matthew J Dougherty, and doodles by Tom Sears. Sound Design/Mix by John Warrin. Executive Produced by Justin Benoliel, Benjamin Flaherty, Carra Greenberg, Erin Malloy, Jon Paskoff, Susan Raiten, Rostam Zafari, Emma Ratcliffe, and Dylan Mulick. Cinematography by Benjamin Flaherty. Produced By Carra Greenberg, Benjamin Flaherty, Scott Paskoff, Harris Fishman. Co-Produced By Erin Malloy, with Caroline Libresco as Consulting Producer. Written and directed By Benjamin Flaherty. An Abramorama North American Theatrical Release. For more information, please visit www.stoptheshuffle.com.
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About Screen Dallas
Screen Dallas is a new program from the Dallas Film Commission that annually awards one feature length documentary with a fully sponsored, week-long theatrical release, offering filmmakers a powerful platform to qualify for the Academy Awards and connect with Dallas audiences. In collaboration with local film festival programmers, Screen Dallas aims to attract filmmakers to Dallas and spotlight exceptional documentaries screened at local festivals, as any documentary shown at a Dallas festival will automatically be considered for the program.
About Kinema
Kinema is a global film distribution and community screening platform that empowers creators and audiences to connect through in-person screenings, live virtual events, and direct-to-audience rentals. For more information, visit Kinema.com.
About Abramorama
Abramorama is a leading innovator in worldwide event cinema, theatrical distribution, marketing, and rights management for nonfiction, narrative and music centric films. For more than 25 years Abramorama has provided best-in-class strategic services to Intellectual Property stakeholders including acclaimed filmmakers, major networks, premier record labels, digital platforms and high-profile artists including AARP, Amazon, Laurie Anderson, Apple, Atlantic Records, The Beatles, Concord Music Group, Green Day, Steven Gyllenhaal, HBO, Hulu, Melanie Martinez, MSNBC, National Geographic, Netflix, PBS, Pearl Jam, Dawn Porter, Showtime, SONY, Oliver Stone, Universal Music Group, Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Music, and many more. Through a powerful global network of cinema exhibition partners, digital media channels, cross platform facilitators, and affinity marketing partners, Abramorama strategically implements a unified distribution and audience activation plan for each title and has successfully distributed and marketed hundreds of films. For more information, please visit, www.abramorama.com.
Sophia Clements
Falco Ink.
sophiaclements@falcoink.com
SHUFFLE Teaser
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