Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #14. Olivia Wilde – Booksmart

Published on November 20, 2018

After more than a decade in front of the camera, actress Olivia Wilde turned music video directing gigs of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros into a directorial debut payday with key prod houses as backers. Booksmart features Billie Lourd, Kaitlyn Dever and Lisa Kudrow (Jason Sudeikis also lends a hand). Filming took place earlier in the year. This could be among the bigger clout directorial debuts featured at the fest.

Gist: Based on an original script by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, with initial revisions by Susanna Fogel, and current revisions by Katie Silberman, this follows Dever and Feldstein’s characters, who, on the eve of their high school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends suddenly realize that they should have worked less and played more. Determined never to fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.

Production Co./Producers: Annapurna’s Chelsea Barnard, David Distenfeld, and Megan Ellison, Gloria Sanchez Production’s Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay.

Prediction: Premieres category or a showing at Tribeca.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). TBD (international)

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).