Birds of Paradise is a 2021 American dance drama film written and directed by Sarah Adina Smith, based upon the 2019 novel Bright Burning Stars by A.K.

It stars Kristine Frøseth, Diana Silvers, Caroline Goodall, Eva Lomby, and Jacqueline Bisset.

The students at the school are all competing for "the prize"; a contract with a ballet company which will be awarded to the best male and female dancers.

On her first day, she makes a comment about Ollie, a renowned former student who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge.

The altercation leaves Marine disheveled, resulting in criticism from the academy's exacting headmistress, Madame Brunelle.

As they prepare for the dance which will determine the winner of the prize, they, along with most of the other female students, hope to be paired with Felipe, who is widely regarded as the best male dancer at the academy.

Marine performs an impromptu dance sequence which ends with her knocking over a tray of drinks and injuring her feet on the broken glass.

Kate encounters financial difficulty paying for new shoes and is helped out by fellow dancer Gigi.

As the day of the prize draws nearer, Kate rises in the class rankings, while Marine often struggles.

The students learn of another opportunity: dancer and choreographer Benjamin Mouton is going to offer one of them the job as understudy to his principal ballerina.

In February 2020, it was announced that Sarah Adina Smith would write and direct Birds of Paradise, a drama film based upon the novel Bright Burning Stars by A.K.

Kristine Froseth, Diana Silvers, and Jacqueline Bisset would star, and Amazon Studios would distribute.

[6] Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com wrote, "Director Sarah Adina Smith has a gift for striking images and creating intriguingly spooky moods, bordering on gothic", but criticized the plot as "overstuffed" and said the film did not feature enough dancing.

[7] Heather Hogan of Autostraddle commented, "My main struggle with Birds of Paradise is it doesn’t seem to know it’s pretty campy — which is especially jarring when things swerve south in the second half of the film.