‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ to Premiere at Sundance Film Festival

Alice Glass If the Sundance Film Festival loves a success story, the fest is likely to fall head over heels for director Kate Tsang.Her coming-of-age adventure “Marvelous and the Black Hole,” which premieres Jan.

EXCLUSIVE: In the first big deal of the 2021 virtual Sundance Film Festival, Apple has landed worldwide rights to CODA, for a number just north of $25 million. That sets a new a Sundance acquisitions record — above the $22.5 million that Palm Springs received last year from Hulu/Neon. But this time, all the premiere watching and all night auctioning was done far from the slopes of Park City. It came down to a pitched battle between Apple and Amazon.

Angelique Jackson For more than two decades, Gareth Jones had spent late January and early February in snowy Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival. But on Thursday night, Jones didn’t have to get on a plane to attend the annual film festival.

CODA was the right film to start this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. Writer-director Siân Heder’s coming-of-age drama about a girl who is the only hearing person in her deaf family premiered last night in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The pic was well received among buyers, and we hear there have been multiple offers already.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros’ Judas and the Black Messiah may have been set in the late 1960s, but it could have very well taken place in 2021 as it puts a glaring spotlight on the treatment of the Black community, activism and identity.

As the Sundance Film Festival kicked off virtually amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, founder Robert Redford made a brief appearance during the opening night welcome ceremony from Park City, Utah. Redford, who skipped for the second year running the opening press conference earlier in the day, was not personally featured on screen.

Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson pointed to one unexpected advantage of going virtual with a reimagined 2021 edition during a surging coronavirus pandemic. "I can be a festival director and not wear pants," Jackson joked during an opening online press conference held via Zoom as Sundance kicked off on Thursday.

Sundance Film Festival as snow drifts and thin air. The mountaintop gathering highlights the best of indie film and shines a light on the next generation of Tarantinos and Soderberghs.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorGLAAD is teaming up with Outfest to host the first virtual Queer House during the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Slightly delayed due to the pandemic, the American Film Institute announced their annual top 10 lists for 2020, and, as always, there were numerous surprises.

In Judas and the Black Messiah filmmaker Shaka King dives deep into the story of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and William O’Neal, who served as an FBI informant to help silence Hampton and the BPP.

There may be slightly fewer films for this year’s virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival, but most of them are still up for the prestigious honors set to be announced on February 2. Today, Sundance announced 22 jurors who will make up seven juries judging the U.S Dramatic, U.S.

Natalie Oganesyan editorThe Sundance Film Festival announced 22 jurors that will bestow this year’s awards at the digital ceremony taking place Feb. 2.

With less than two months to go before Genius: Aretha finally hits the small screen, the Oscar nominee who is portraying the Queen of Soul is hitting this year’s Sundance Film Festival as one of the shindigs’ jurors.

In Warner Bros.' Judas and the Black Messiah, Daniel Kaluuya plays Fred Hampton, the former chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and a co-founder of the Rainbow Coalition, whose killing in a 1969 raid was the result of an FBI counterintelligence operation. That government plot placed a petty thief named William O'Neal (played in the film by LaKeith Stanfield) undercover to infiltrate the party's dealings and undermine its community organizing.

Last year, as the second wave of COVID-19 swept through Europe, bringing many countries back into lockdown, the folks at the Cannes Film Festival revealed plans for alternative dates for the event if the typical May timeframe wasn’t a possibility. Let’s call May “Plan A” and the alternate dates in June/July were “Plan B.” Well, it appears Cannes is well past Plan A and already looking at Plan B…while drafting up a possible Plan C.

Clayton Davis The music branch has been notorious for high-profile disqualifications and ineligibilities in the last few years (prominent examples include “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Cloud Atlas” and “There Will Be Blood”). Last week, the BAFTA Awards website released a draft of what films are eligible for the upcoming show, set to take place on April 11, with nominations being announced on March 9.

Playing iconic characters comes with real pressure.

In Judas and the Black Messiah, Daniel Kaluuya is the late Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the Black Panther party, who was assassinated over 50 years ago, at the age of 21. The British-born, Oscar-nominated Kaluuya has featured in such screen gems as Get Out and Black Panther, Widows and Queen & Slim.