United Artists Films (UAF) has acquired international rights to Maggie Greenwald's Songcatcher, which won the Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Performance at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Songcatcher, which stars Oscar nominee Janet McTeer and Aidan Quinn, is produced by ErgoArts in association with the Independent Film Channel (IFP). The deal marks the second IFP-backed picture that UAF has picked up from this year's crop of Sundance titles, following Karyn Kusama's acclaimed Girlfight which the company acquired during the festival.

Songcatcher follows a musicologist at the turn of the 20th Century who passes the summer with her schoolteacher sister in the Appalachian mountains, discovering ancient Scots-Irish ballads that have been passed down intact to the current inhabitants. Trimark Pictures has North American rights.