Bareiša’s sophomore feature launched his festival career at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, where it won Leopards for Best Direction and Best Performance (for Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevičius). Recently, the film received the Best Baltic Director Award in the Baltic Competition of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), a Special Mention at the 11th Riga International Film Festival, as well as special compliments from the jury of the 22nd Zagreb Film Festival (ZFF), as there was no special mention foreseen in the ZFF’s competition.

Klementina Remeikaite of Lithuanian Afterschool produced the film in coproduction with Matiss Kaza of Latvian Trickster Pictures, and with support from the Lithuanian Film Centre, the National Film Centre of Latvia, Eurimages, LRT and the Latvian broadcaster. Alpha Violet is handling the sales.

Drowning Dry is the second film by Bareiša to be selected as Lithuania’s candidate for the Oscars, after Pilgrims / Pilgrimai (Afterschool) in 2022. Pilgrims was also released in the USA by Dekanalog.