Festival Predictions

2024 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back to Black

Published on November 7, 2023

Of all our Sundance predictions this item might be our Hail Mary prediction we find Back to Black. Cannes programmers would be keen on grabbing it for what would be a nice Out of Compeition slot and since lensing was closed out last April means that there’ll be the extra load of having a blazing soundtrack. Either way — both fests would be great launching pads for the film and actress Marisa Abela who takes on Amy Wineshouse and her beehive coiffe. For her fourth feature film, Sam Taylor-Johnson also nabbed Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville — O’Connell portrays Blake Fielder-Civil, Marsan and Manville play Amy’s father and grandmother, Mitch Winehouse and Cynthia Winehouse. Matt Greenhalgh wrote the screenplay.

Gist: The film will delve into the life and career of Winehouse, beginning with her early days in the early 2000’s as a North London jazz musician and culminating in her rise to fame as a Grammy-winning singer.

Production Co./Producers: Debra Hayward, Alison Owen.

Prediction: Premieres.

U.S. Distributors: Focus Features.

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).