Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #64. Dead & Beautiful – David Verbeek

Dead & Beautiful

For his seventh narrative feature, Dutch director David Verbeek continues to pursue his unique cultural and co-production infusions with Dead & Beautiful, a Taiwan set vampire tale produced by Erik Glijnis and Leontine Petit (The Lobster, 2015) and lensed by Jasper Wolf (Monos, 2019). Verbeek’s cast includes Gijs Blom, Aviis Zhong, Yen Tsao, Anna Marchenko and Philip Juan. Verbeek’s third feature, R U There, was programmed in Un Certain Regard in 2010 and he won the Return of the Tiger Award in Rotterdam for 2011’s Club Zeus, a festival he returned to in 2013 with How to Describe a Cloud (plus short film “Immortelle”). Verbeek competed in the first edition of TIFF’s Platform program in 2015 with Full Contact.

Gist: A group of decadent and spoiled teenagers in Taiwan awaken to find they’ve turned into vampires after a night of revelry. Eventually, despite their embrace of their immortal new trappings, friendships become tested.

Release Date/Prediction: Promos for the title were unveiled at AFM in 2019, and we’re thinking Verbeek has the potential to return to Cannes, likely in Director’s Fortnight or Un Certain Regard, in 2020.