Festival Predictions

2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Kogonada’s After Yang

Published on November 13, 2020

Perhaps some of the futuristic elements in Kogonada‘s sophomore feature are the reason why it didn’t join A24’s Zola and Minari at last year’s edition of Sundance. We’re hitting the two year mark since Kogonada went into production with After Yang – a bonafide Sundance selection that enlisted the services of Haley Lu Richardson, Colin Farrell, Justin H. Min and Jodie Turner-Smith from Queen & Slim fame. Kogonada was a major break out Sundance back in 2017 with Columbus, and this time out the South Korean-born American filmmaker had the chance to work with Pieces of a Woman (read review) cinematographer Benjamin Loeb.

Gist: Based on a short story by Alexander Weinstein, After Yang follows a father and daughter as they try to save the life of their robotic family member.

Production Co./Producers: Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan, Paul Mezey, Per Capita Productions’ Theresa Park.

Prediction: U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

U.S. Distributor: A24.

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).