It’s been more than three years since Xavier Dolan‘s debut, I Killed My Mother, played at Cannes — for context: the same festival that showed Inglourious Basterds, The White Ribbon, Thirst, and Doctor Parnassus — and, only after the premiere of his third outing, Laurence Anyways, have signs emerged that it’s finally coming our way.

To the relief of some arthouse mavens, Variety reports that Kino Lorber will be giving Mother a U.S. opening; dates or general times are not available, though a lack of distribution for Laurence means it could be the one Dolan film that comes out this year. The film’s a (partially autobiographical) domestic drama starring the writer-director as “a recently out-of-the-closet Quebecois teenager living in suburban Montreal with his single mother [Anne Dorval].” If you, like I, have been interested in seeing where Dolan really started out, we’re all in luck. Now it’s just a matter of Kino getting Mother out there in a respectable capacity.

Variety have a second distribution item, in which we learn that Matthew Lillard‘s directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules the World, will get a domestic opening by way of ARC Entertainment — just not in a typical fashion. As opposed to a theatrical release that starts in a couple of cities and expands from there on out, ARC will show Fat Kid on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour and at screenings sponsored by Tugg. Here’s how it works: The director plans to “directly engage the film’s punk rock fan base so they can set up Tugg screenings of the film along the course of the tour.”

Jacob Wysocki (Terri), Matt O’Leary (Brick, Lone Ranger), and Billy Campbell (The Killing) star in the film, an adaptation of K.L. Going‘s novel, which follows an overweight teen who finds new reasons to live after joining a punk rock band. Our review from SXSW was mixed; there was praise for Fat Kid‘s sweetness and heartfelt nature, but some of it is said to have felt tonally imbalanced. Nevertheless: When all the fancy distribution methods conclude and the film’s available for my own viewing, I’ll probably take time to see what all the fuss is about.

Is it a relief to see Dolan’s debut finally get some U.S. attention? Will Fat Kid‘s distribution plan work?