David Byrne Announces 70mm Concert Film 'Who Is the Sky?,' Directed by Brady Corbet
David Byrne has announced a new concert film, Who Is the Sky?, shot on 70 millimeter film and directed by Brady Corbet, the writer-director behind the 2024 film The Brutalist. The film was captured over multiple nights in Baltimore — Byrne's hometown — during his most recent tour, and release details will be unveiled at a later date, Pitchfork reported on 27 August 2026.
The choice of format was Corbet's. In a statement, Byrne said the director told him he wanted to shoot the show in 70mm because the format captures the wide visual scope of the production. Seventy-millimeter film is a large-format stock that yields a wider, higher-resolution image than standard cinema projection — the same gauge used on productions ranging from Lawrence of Arabia to Oppenheimer, and rarely deployed for concert films.
The tour itself features Byrne with an ensemble of 13 musicians, singers and dancers in constant motion, according to Yahoo Entertainment. That staging carries over from the live show behind Who Is the Sky?, Byrne's first new studio album since 2018's American Utopia, ABC News reported in September 2025. The album is released on the Matador Records label, and Byrne's official website lists a black LP pressing at $24.00 USD.
The new film is a follow-up to Byrne's 2020 concert film American Utopia, which was directed by Spike Lee and released in 4K, The Guardian noted in June 2026. Where Lee's film translated the Broadway staging of the American Utopia show for HBO, Corbet's production turns to a different tour, a different format and a different city.
Byrne's website also features a watch section with a video titled What Is the Reason For It? featuring Paramore's Hayley Williams, suggesting the album's visual rollout extends beyond the concert film itself. No further release format or distribution partner for the concert film has been confirmed.
For fans of the live show, the 70mm choice matters because it means the film will demand — and reward — a cinema screen. For the wider industry, it pairs an artist with a proven live-film track record and a director whose most recent feature, The Brutalist, was itself shot on large-format stock and built its visual identity around scale. Whether that combination reaches wide theatrical distribution or a streaming platform first is among the details still to come.
