Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #104. Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry

BlackBerry

The Dirties (2013) and Operation Avalanche (2016) filmmaker Matt Johnson makes his long awaited return to features with this blast to the past. Featuring Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Cary Elwes and Martin Donovan, BlackBerry (which IFC Films picked up during filming) moved into production last summer. This revolves around the players around the world’s first smartphone, which enjoyed a meteoric rise in the early 2000s only to meet a catastrophic demise. Niv Fichman, Matthew Miller, Fraser Ash and Kevin Krikst produced the project.

Gist: This describes the rise and fall of the once-ubiquitous device as its Canadian parent company Research in Motion floundered in legal disputes and eventually lost its market advantage to competitors such as Apple and Samsung. At the heart of the story is the business relationship between co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

Release Date/Prediction: We thought this would be a sure bet for Sundance, but perhaps SXSW lassoed the film. A domestic distribution date is pending.