Festival Predictions

2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Dash Shaw’s Cryptozoo

Published on November 17, 2020

Here’s hoping that Jason Schwartzman is among the so far announced voice cast for what shall be another psychedelic mushroomy offering by the uber talented Dash Shaw. In the works most likely after the release of 2016’s My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea, Shaw’s Cryptozoo landed a San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Fellowship for the project and was recently part of the Sundance Institute And Skywalker Sound Announce Composers And Directors For 2020 Film Music And Sound Design Lab.

Gist: A hand-drawn animated feature modeled after 1960s underground comic books about cryptozookeepers who struggle to capture a Baku (a legendary dream-eating hybrid creature) and they begin to wonder if they should display these rare beasts in the confines of a cryptozoo, or if these mythical creatures should remain hidden and unknown.

Production Co./Producers: Electric Chinoland’s Kyle Martin, Jane Samborski, Craig Zobel.

Prediction: NEXT

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).