Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #32. Steven Soderbergh – High Flying Bird

Published on November 21, 2018

Taking a page not from Sean Baker, but from his own proclivity to shoot on the format which best suits the narrative’s needs, Steven Soderbergh pulled out an iPhone 7 (much like Unsane) and had a production budget of under 2M for High Flying Bird — a sports drama (recently acquired by Netflix). We’d love to see as a secret screening experience in Park City. With a cast comprised of Andre Holland, Zazie Beetz, and Melvin Gregg, this was in the can pretty much once production was completed back in April.

Gist: Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the story is set during a pro basketball lockout and centers on a sports agent (Holland) who presents a rookie basketball client (Melvin Gregg) with an intriguing and controversial proposition. Beetz plays the associate of Holland’s character.

Production Co./Producers: Ken Meyer (Unsane), Joseph Malloch.

Prediction: Premieres section or a secret screening and official comp in Berlin type of set up.

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).