‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ Added to the Sundance Film Festival Lineup as it Gets a New Trailer

The Sundance Film Festival is only a couple of weeks away, but they’ve added a pair of new world premieres to go along with their already announced slate. The more attention grabbing of the two is Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah, one of the last remaining Oscar hopefuls to be seen by the public. This isn’t the first time that a major studio film has had a surprise premiere at Sundance. Recently we’ve seen Get Out and Jupiter Ascending show up at the festival the month before their public release, with the former of course going on to mammoth success, and the latter not so much. 

Judas and the Black Messiah tells the story of an FBI informant William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) as he works to feed the feds information about the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers, in particular their chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). Kaluuya is being heavily tipped to earn a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in the film, which would be his second nomination after his Best Leading Actor nod for Get Out three years ago. 

King’s film will be released by Warner Bros. in theaters and on HBO Max (for 30 days) on February 12th, but Sundance attendees will be able to see it a little early. The Oscar hopeful premieres on Sundance’s digital platform on Monday, February 1st at 6:00pm MT and will screen via satellite at theaters and drive-ins across the country. Those venues participating with Sundance are listed below: 

THE PLAZA THEATER PRESENTED BY ATLANTA FILM SOCIETY
1049 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA, 30306

DAD’S GARAGE DRIVE-IN PRESENTED BY ATLANTA FILM SOCIETY
569 Ezzard St SE, Atlanta, GA, 30312

JOURDAN-BACHMAN PIONEER FARMS PRESENTED BY AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
10621 Pioneer Farms Drive, Austin, TX, 78754

SIDEWALK DRIVE-IN
1801 1st Ave. N., Birmingham, AL, 35203

SIDEWALK FILM CENTER AND CINEMA
1821 2nd Ave N, Birmingham, AL, 35203

SPOTLIGHT CINEMAS CAPITAL 8 PRESENTED BY THE LUMINAL THEATER
201 Columbia Mall Blvd, Suite 211, Columbia, SC, 29223

THE TEXAS THEATRE PRESENTED BY AVIATION CINEMAS
231 W. Jefferson Blvd., Dallas, TX, 75208

MOONSTRUCK DRIVE-IN PRESENTED BY HOUSTON CINEMA ARTS SOCIETY
100 Bringhurst St, Houston, TX, 77020

FILMSCENE AT THE CHAUNCEY
404 E. College St, #100, Iowa City, IA, 52240

THE SPEED ART MUSEUM
2035 S. 3rd Street, Louisville, KY, 40208

MALCO SUMMER DRIVE-IN PRESENTED BY INDIE MEMPHIS
5310 Summer Ave, Memphis, TN, 38122

RIVERVIEW THEATER PRESENTED BY FILMNORTH
3800 42nd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, 55406

BELCOURT DRIVE-IN
2102 Belcourt Ave, Nashville, TN, 37212

THE LOFT OPEN AIR CINEMA
3233 East Speedway Blvd., Tucson, AZ, 85716

ADMIRAL TWIN DRIVE-IN PRESENTED BY CIRCLE CINEMA
7355 E Easton St, Tulsa, OK, 74115

CIRCLE CINEMA
10 S Lewis Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74104

STARLITE DRIVE-IN PRESENTED BY MAMA.FILM
3900 S Hydraulic Ave, Wichita, KS, 67216

Along with the announcement of the film’s Sundance premiere, Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah, which you can view below: 

The other newly announced premiere might not have as big a profile as King’s film, but will surely find its audience as it premieres exclusively on Sundance’s digital platform on Sunday, January 31st at 6:00pm MT. The feature debut of director Ali El Arabi, Captains of Zaatari is an Egyptian documentary that tells the story of two aspiring professional football players living in a Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan. When a talent scout visits the camp, the two friends hope that this is their ticket out of there.