Festival Predictions

2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Andrew Dosunmu’s Beauty

Published on November 16, 2020

Synonymous with Sundance as all of his works have premiered there, Andrew Dosunmu‘s could technically see his fourth feature land in the Premiere section portion of the fest and essentially follow in the footsteps of a beautiful body of work in Restless City (2011), 2013’s Mother of George (read review) and Where Is Kyra? (2017). A queer, romantic drama is based on a screenplay by the one and only Lena Waithe, Beauty features Gracie Marie Bradley and Aleyse Shannon (2019’s Black Christmas) with supporting players in Giancarlo Esposito and Sharon Stone. Production began in the fall of 2019 in New York City, and somewhere along the way, the project landed on Netflix’s doorstep. This time out Dosunmu enlisted the services of cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (At Eternity’s Gate).

Gist: This is the tale of Beauty, an up-and-coming young singer with a glamorous career ahead of her, and Jasmine, a butch queer woman who falls for her. Their love for each other soon hits a snag when one’s family and strict religious upbringing threaten to end their burgeoning romance.

Production Co./Producers: Michael Ellenberg, Rishi Rajani and Lena Waithe.

Prediction: PREMIERES

U.S. Distributor: Netflix.

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).