Festival Predictions

2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker’s Unlocking the Cage

Published on November 25, 2015

Not everyone in the docu community is fortunate enough to roll at Alex Gibney or Amy Berg-like speeds. Similar to our off-target crystal ball prognostications of Yance Ford’s Strong Island, we’re also celebrating a third year prediction for this game-changing docu to break into the socially conscious film festival. With all signs finally pointing towards a 2016 release (they’re currently working on the score) Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker’s will surely stir up crowds with Unlocking the Cage – in essence a doc on the last remaining frontier by docu pioneers.

Gist: Follows attorney Steve Wise’s fight to give animals personhood rights and break down the legal wall separating them from humans.

Production Co./Producers: Rosadel Varela (Control Room). Executive Producer: Frazer Pennebaker (King of Pastry).

Prediction: U.S. Documentary Competition or Non-Comp Documentary Premieres.

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

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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).