After Zola premiered with a bang at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, it looks like it may finally be coming to theaters (and likely on-demand and digital download) sometime next year. Right now, A24 plans to release it on June 30, 2021.
Directed by Janicza Bravo, the film stars Taylour Paige, Keough, Colman Domingo and Nicholas Braun. It is based on the infamous 2015 Twitter thread by A’Ziah King, who was a consultant on the film and involved in its production.
We did it, Joe. #Zola in theaters 6/30/21 https://t.co/mstb8VAHY7 pic.twitter.com/skTvpRoMbP
— A24 (@A24) December 18, 2020
The official description: “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” Thus began the odyssey of one A’Ziah King, aka ZOLA. From acclaimed writer/director Janicza Bravo, Zola’s stranger than fiction saga, which she first told in a now-iconic series of viral, uproarious tweets, comes to dazzling cinematic life. Zola (newcomer Taylour Paige), a Detroit waitress, strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani (Riley Keough), who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida. What at first seems like a glamorous trip full of “hoeism” rapidly transforms into a 48-hour journey involving a nameless pimp, an idiot boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters, and other unexpected adventures in this wild, see-it-to-believe-it tale.
Our Sundance review reads: “Bravo continues to be a filmmaker to watch and these obnoxious characters will stay with viewers for some time.”
No trailer has been released yet besides a very short teaser that dropped in August. But if the release date holds, we should see a trailer for Zola in the coming months.
