EXCLUSIVE: Oscillosope Laboratories has settled on its U.S. release plan for Mistress Dispeller, the acclaimed documentary from filmmaker Elizabeth Lo (Stray), Anonymous Content and Impact Partners. The film is set to open theatrically at IFC Center in New York City on October 22, opening in Los Angeles on October 24, with a national rollout to follow.
World premiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, where it won two awards, Mistress Dispeller is currently rated 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Lo’s sophomore feature, on the heels of 2021’s Stray — chronicling the life of a stray dog out on the streets of Istanbul — follows a woman in China desperate to save her marriage as she hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband’s affair.
Since Venice, the film has gone on to play festivals including Toronto, Camden, Chicago, DOC NYC, and Camerimage, where it won the Golden Frog Grand Prix for Best Documentary Feature, recently screening at CPH:DOX 2025. Along the way, it’s received more than a dozen festival awards, as well as multiple nominations at the Cinema Eye Honors.
The film is a production of After Argos Films and Marcona Media, and is presented by Anonymous Content and Impact Partners in association with CMP and The Concordia Studio Fellowship. The producing team included Lo, Emma D. Miller (What We Leave Behind), and Maggie Li (Ascension). EPs are Jenny Raskin, Kelsey Koenig, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Nick Shumaker, Jessica Grimshaw, David Levine, Dawn Olmstead, Rahdi Taylor, Davis Guggenheim, Steve Cohen, and Paula Froehle. Co-executive producers are Lauren Haber and Marni E. J. Grossman. We were first to report on the project back in 2022.
In a statement shared with Deadline ahead of the film’s release, filmmaker Lo said, “We’re thrilled to release Mistress Dispeller with Oscilloscope, whose passion and enduring commitment to distributing independent films in cinemas is what every filmmaker dreams of and what our industry needs. We’re so proud to partner with them to bring this film about love and family to audiences across the US.”
