Sheffield DocFest has announced Brett Morgen‘s Moonage Daydream will open this year’s festival, which runs from June 23 to 28.
Written, directed, edited and produced by Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Cobain: Montage of Heck, Jane) and released internationally by Universal Pictures Content Group, the film is described as a genre-defying immersion into the art and music of David Bowie.
The opening night of Sheffield DocFest will see the “people’s premiere” of the film, following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The screening will take place at Sheffield City Hall, some 50 years after Bowie first played the historic venue in June 1972. It also marks director Morgen’s in-person return to Sheffield DocFest for the first time since 2015, when Cobain: Montage of Heck screened at the festival.
Morgen’s film is the first such project to be made with the support of the David Bowie Estate, which granted the filmmaker unprecedented access to its collection of more than five million assets, including rare and never-before-seen drawings, recordings, films and journals.
“Moonage Daydream feels like an extension of Bowie’s imagination — dazzling, slippery and iconic,” Sheffield DocFest interim CEO Clare Stewart said in a release. “It’s a documentary that will thrill Bowie fans and film lovers alike, and we are delighted to welcome Brett back to open Sheffield DocFest at the legendary City Hall where Bowie played 50 years ago this June.”
Sheffield DocFest, now in its 29th year, returns in 2022 as a fully in-person event. The full program will be announced on May 31.