Luca Guadagnino’s gay love story “Call Me by Your Name” was one of the first deals of the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, Sony Pictures Classics picked up the movie ahead of the fest, and according to the studio’s chiefs, it was a project they had their eye on from the very beginning. Tom Bernard and Michael Barker stopped by the Variety Studio presented by Orville Redenbacher’s at the Sundance Film Festival to talk about what drew them to the film.

“Luca Guadagnino is a director Sony Classics has been interested in and wanting to work with since his first film,” said Barker. “His film ‘I Am Love,’ which was a big success with Tilda Swinton, was a film we really liked and we did not distribute.”

“It always felt like a film that belonged with us,” he added of “Call Me by Your Name.” “It’s exotic, it’s romantic, it’s sensual, it’s got texture of Europe, and it really shows off a kind of master in the filmmaking of Luca Guadagnino.”