Festival Predictions

2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Rebecca Hall’s Passing

Published on November 20, 2020

One of the most anticipated directorial debuts for a 2021 unveiling comes via actress Rebecca Hall. Based on Nella Larsen’s first published in 1929, production on Passing began October 2019 in Los Angeles. Written by Hall, she enlisted Alexander Skarsgård, Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and André Holland. Cinematographer Eduard Grau is also onboard.

Gist: A 1920s Harlem Renaissance story that explores the practice of racial passing, a term used for a person classified as a member of one racial group who seeks to be accepted by a different racial group.

Production Co./Producers: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Rebecca Hall, Picture Films’ Margot Hand, Janet Tittiger, Forest Whitaker.

Prediction: WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available.

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).