Festival Predictions

2018 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Jim Hosking’s An Evening with Beverly Luff

Published on November 14, 2017

Heavy on the gag….reflex, Jim Hosking‘s feature break out debut (a 2016 Sundance Park City at Midnight selection) was what could categorically be called heavy on gags, and other off-putting elements. His sophomore project, which enlisted Aubrey Plaza, Craig Robinson, Emile Hirsch, Jemaine Clement and Matt Berry, and began lensing this past February in Eureka, California, will decidedly be different than The Greasy Strangler (winner in a pair of 2017 AIFA categories). On paper, An Evening with Beverly Luff promises to deliver keen knee slapper moments of a different tone and tune.

Gist: Written by David Wike and Hosking, this follows Lulu Danger (Aubrey Plaza), whose unsatisfying marriage takes a fortunate turn for the worse when a mysterious man (Craig Robinson) from her past comes to town to perform a mysterious event called An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn; For One Magical Night Only.

Production Co./Producers: Park Pictures’ Sam Bisbee and Theodora Dunlap (The Hero), WigWam Films’ Oliver Roskill, Lucan Toh, Emily Leo (Under the Shadow), Rook Films’ Andy Starke (Free Fire).

Prediction: With a significantly larger budget to work with than his previous film, the go to section for this would be premieres.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. UTA (domestic). Protagonist (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).