Last month, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex went to the Sundance Film Festival to premiere Cookie Queens. Cookie Queens is the Girl Scouts documentary directed by Alysa Nahmias and executive produced by Prince Harry and Meghan. The response at Sundance was overwhelmingly positive, with early reviews praising the doc and big crowds at the screenings. I waited to hear news of the documentary being purchased, but there was no news during the festival or afterwards. There were rumors that Netflix passed on buying Cookie Queens, but I don’t know if that’s true. What I do know is that weeks after Sundance, Cookie Queens is still without a distributor. Alysa Nahmias spoke to Newsweek about it:
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s latest film about Girl Scouts is competing in a “really awful” market, which has been “so hard for many of us,” according to the film’s director.
Cookie Queens debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and received a standing ovation, as well as positive reviews from U.S. outlets, which will have been a relief to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after a difficult response to Meghan’s Netflix series, With Love, Meghan.
However, there has not yet been any public confirmation that the film has sold to a distributor, and in fact, the International Documentary Association reported that: “A few of the nonfiction titles came to the Festival with distribution, but the vast majority of documentaries were still looking for a home—with not a single reported acquisition deal so far.”
Alysa Nahmias, Cookie Queens director and producer, told the International Documentary Association: “The market is really awful right now and it’s been so hard for so many of us. We can choose to feel powerless—or maybe we are powerless—but I do want to believe that things can change.”
What’s crazy is that the past fifteen, twenty years has seen a boom in documentary filmmaking and a growing audience for documentaries and docuseries. But if there is a slowdown in the doc market, it probably reflects the wider economic crisis in entertainment. Like, this is a literal recession indicator. But yeah, it sucks that no one is buying Cookie Queens and it sucks that the haters will “blame” Harry and Meghan. The documentary feels like it would be at home at HBO/Max. It also feels very PBS-y to me. Additionally, we heard this week that Cookie Queens will be screened at SXSW next month! Maybe Harry & Meghan will go to Austin.
🆕 “Cookie Queens” the cute documentary executive produced by Prince Harry and Meghan has been officially selected to be spotlighted at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival. From March 12-18 in Austin, Texas. 🎬🎞️#HarryandMeghan #CookieQueens #SXSW2026 pic.twitter.com/K78yPSJVfa
— ChrisBaronSmith (@ChrisBaronSmit1) February 12, 2026
From CB: Here are coats and fashion like Meghan’s. More in our shopping post.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Park City, UT Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted arriving at the screening of the movie “Cookie Queens” during Sundance 2026, in Park City, Utah. Pictured: Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 25 JANUARY 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Park City, UT Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted arriving at the screening of the movie “Cookie Queens” during Sundance 2026, in Park City, Utah. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 25 JANUARY 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Park City, UT Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted arriving at the screening of the movie “Cookie Queens” during Sundance 2026, in Park City, Utah. Pictured: Prince Harry BACKGRID USA 25 JANUARY 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Park City, UT Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted arriving at the screening of the movie “Cookie Queens” during Sundance 2026, in Park City, Utah. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 25 JANUARY 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Park City, UT Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted arriving at the screening of the movie “Cookie Queens” during Sundance 2026, in Park City, Utah. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 25 JANUARY 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
The major networks have been taken over by Trump billionaires. Their vision and focus for media and entertainment has shifted the industry in a different direction over the past 12 months. 😔
We’re in the “Melania” era of documentaries so I don’t know why anyone is surprised.
It looks so cute. I hope it lands somewhere bc I want other Girl Scouts to be able to see it. And just other girls .
As an adult I would also love to see it. Hopefully it will still get picked up.
Same. Adults too. There is a wider audience but I’m just thinking how cool it is for young girls to see it. But hey, boys too. I could be wrong but I think it will get picked up at some point. Maybe bc of the economy, for not as good of a deal as they’d like. Apparently, Melania sucked up Amazon’s budget.
Harry, Meghan really dropped the ball early on when they didnt combat/respond to tabloid lies. I love how Tom Cruise sued the pants off anyone who made slanderous comments about him. That made ppl think twice. Huge Harry/Meghan fan but Im not sure their prestige, the kind they had back in 2020, and the goodwill they had stateside, can ever truly and fully be restored. They allowed their names to be tarnished.
Stop concern trolling. They have in fact sued people. Stop pretending like they haven’t. No one can afford to sue over every little thing. Seems to me that they’re doing just fine.
No need to be ugly. I think they are saying they allowed stories to go without a denial/correction/statement way too many times. It was weird because I thought they had a PR team but their strategy sucked. I’ve quite liked their more current strategy. It was too late for much of it though. I understand they can’t and don’t want to address every story but they should have pushed back more imo.
The documentary market is not good at the moment and to link Cookie Queens not being picked up yet to Harry and Meghan is pretty ridiculous! Thanks to them this tiny documentary about Girl Scout cookies has got international press! It does sound like you are concern trolling tbh. Most of the festival documentaries haven’t been picked up! Considering the overwhelming media attacks they have faced for daring to exist outside the institution they are doing remarkably well! Of course they have made mistakes in not pushing back on certain stories but to link that to Cookie Queens is weird tbh and really sounds like a troll talking point!
Going back and reading the article, it actually says that NONE of the nonfiction films that premiered at Sundance have found distribution.
Not a one. That seems like the bigger story here.
@Jais wow that actually is the bigger story. None of the docs have been picked up? That’s an interesting dynamic and speaks to how studio’s are spending their money. It’s just like how everyone got first look deals after the rush of just throwing money for development deals and podcasts at everyone in 2019-2020. I don’t know whether that’s a recession indicator or not, or whether it’s an indicator that studios aren’t making as much money on the return as they were in the past and are being more parsimonious.
But, as usual they will take industry-wide trends and things and make it seem like that’s a failure on behalf of Harry and Meghan. To the extent that even supporters keep questioning whether they should be doing something different instead of realizing that they’re part of the same ecosystem as everyone else.
Why are you being so nasty about someone respectfully sharing their opinion? They didn’t criticize Harry and Meghan, they questioned their approach. We’re allowed to have conversations about celebrities without you taking things so personally.
Thanks.M for setting the record strait with.that.ole.troll.THERESAJANES.they always in the mix.
💯
Their prestige in 2020? In July of that year the hatred against them was so bad Meghan had her miscarriage. And it was being funded not only by royal offices but by major right wing media organizations. You can’t outsue that.
Tom Cruise is backed by Scientology money. Harry and Meghan aren’t.
And their legacies aren’t being tarnished by tabloid reports over a cookie documentary.
If your comment is genuine and not bot-produced, it’s very strange honestly.
What prestige did they had in 2020? They were being smeared at that time by the Royal Family. But thanks for your concern.
At the earth day or whatever it was in central park, they were unanimously cheered. The Majority of the USA was on their side. Then MAGA got hold and that is that. Thanks for YOUR concern, which you can use to keep you warm at night.
@ThersaJanes, I’m not seeing this tarnishing you speak of. Every time the Sussexes drop a new video, it gets millions of views. Remember Harry and his spot on Colbert? Meghan is selling out her products left and right. I still didn’t get the chocolate, lol. So, if that is what you want to call “tarnished” or unpopular then it looks pretty good to me. I bet that bunch in the UK wishes they had it this good. The Sussexes are not the ones being heckled about a predator in their midst.
The problem with trying to deny most of the stories is that eventually you will fail to deny one, and then even more people will assume it’s true, by “they’ve denied every one, but not this one” logic.
That’s easy for a celebrity that has 1 or maybe 2 rumours published in a year, but these two had a new silly story written about them almost daily.
Excuse me but they have sued. Major U K tabloids that have produced all the lies. Harry has gone to court 3 times in 3 different cases in the last couple of years. The results royal reporters who have been let go and are now depending on YT and Substack for a income. Several have been caught up in the blagging cases that Harry as brought. And if you look at these tabloids circulation numbers they are in the toilet. Readers are not buying the H& M lies anymore and are dumping these papers.
The doc market is very bad and is flooded with cheap, hagiographic celeb-focused docs with little to say. I hope a more thoughtful distributor takes a chance.
I’m not worried about this. I think the film be seen somewhere at some point. This is Jack Royston once again using Harry and Meghan for clicks.
Maybe the doc market is difficult these days. However, anything coming from jack royston I read with mistrust as he is not truly competent nor report fairly when it’s about the Sussexes. Even this is a reported conversation, not one he had with Nahmias. All we know right now is that we don’t know.
Is As Ever reported as a failure by Netflix?
I love how the article says none of the documentaries have been picked up — but the hate train makes it seem like ONLY Cookie Queens didn’t get picked up.
Also, even if that was the case, the Entertainment industry is mostly a risky business. You roll the dice and see what comes up. A lot of “You win some, you lose some.” These entertainment writers know that and it sucks that they just glom on to the hate H&M agenda for clicks .
I mean there have been scores of movies with high profile directors and an amazing cast who flop at the box office–you just never know how projects are gonna land with the public.
Entertainment is tough right now like you said. Netflix is in the middle of that fight with Paramount over Warner Brothers, Disney is in flux, PBS lost its funding from the government so it may be a while before the documentary gets picked up. But I guess it’s like pilots of TV shows, sometimes even with great casts and stories, they don’t get picked up.