I Want Your Sex Opened Sundance with a Bidding War

By The Backlot

@backlotfriends

A man and a woman face each other at close range, lit in cool blue and red, with abstract projected art visible in the background.

Gregg Araki has been making films about desire and disorder since 1992. The Living End. Doom Generation. Mysterious Skin. Small budgets, real provocation, devoted following.

I Want Your Sex is different. It premiered at Sundance in January and immediately caused a bidding war. Magnolia Pictures won it for seven figures. Critics are calling it Araki's most accessible film yet, with Olivia Wilde playing an artist who pulls her new assistant, Cooper Hoffman, into a world of obsession and control that eventually tips into something darker.

Charli XCX is in it. So is Daveed Diggs. Shot in Los Angeles over 26 days. Exactly what you'd expect from Araki, but built to reach more people.

If you know his work, this is the one that finally gets him into the wider conversation. If you don't, watch Mysterious Skin first. Then see this. In theaters July 31.

Quick Facts

I Want Your Sex Opened Sundance with a Bidding War

DirectorGregg Araki

CastOlivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Daveed Diggs

GenreDrama, Comedy

Release2026-07-31

Runtime90 min

RatedN/A

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Gregg Araki made Mysterious Skin and Doom Generation. His new film caused a Sundance bidding war. I Want Your Sex is in theaters July 31. #IWantYourSex #Backlot

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Gregg Araki made Mysterious Skin and Doom Generation. His new film caused a Sundance bidding war. I Want Your Sex opens July 31. #IWantYourSex #Backlot

Gregg Araki has been making films about desire and disorder since 1992. The Living End. Doom Generation. Mysterious Skin. Small budgets, real provocation, devoted following.

Charli XCX is in it. So is Daveed Diggs. Shot in Los Angeles over 26 days. Exactly what you'd expect from Araki, but built to reach more people.

If you know his work, this is the one that finally gets him into the wider conversation. If you don't, watch Mysterious Skin first. Then see this. In theaters July 31.