Festival Predictions

2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Published on November 17, 2020

A Fox Searchlight project that has been fermenting for some time now and that got a firm greenlight October 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina will see the day in 2021 – but Searchlight (post Disney merger) might sit the early part of 2021 if they don’t have firm plans for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Michael Showalter the helmer behind The Baxter, Hello, My Name Is Doris, The Big Sick, and The Lovebirds directs Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker and Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker with a supporting cast comprised of Chandler Head who plays the younger Tammy Faye, Cherry Jones, Sam Jaeger, Vincent D’Onofrio, Gabriel Olds, Mark Wystrach, Frederic Lehne, and Jay Huguley. Penned by Abe Sylvia, this is informed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s docu The Eyes of Tammy Faye – which premiered at Sundance in 2000.

Gist: An intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker, rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.

Production Co./Producers: Kelly Carmichael, Jessica Chastain, Gigi Pritzker, Rachel Shane.

Prediction: PREMIERES

U.S. Distributor: Searchlight Pictures.

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).