Festival Predictions

2022 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Katie Aselton’s Mack & Rita

Published on November 23, 2021

After directing her first two features (both Sundance entires) in The Freebie (2010) and Black Rock (2012), Katie Aselton would move more into her acting career. So it was a big deal when it was announced that production on her third feature would begin in March of this year with a cast with the likes of Diane Keaton and Taylour Paige in the lead. With cinematographer Sean McElwee lensing in Los Angeles, this was written by Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh.

Gist: Mack and Rita follows Mackenzie Martin is tired of doing all the things she has to do to keep up and get ahead in her 30’s. Since she was a little girl, raised by her Grammie Martin, her deepest wish has been to be just like her Grammie, comfortable in her own skin, great at saying “no” and largely unburdened by what other people think of her.

Production Co./Producers: Fifty-Four Pictures’ Alex Saks, Diane Keaton, Stephanie Heaton-Harris, Jina Panebianco and Dori A. Rath.

Prediction: PREMIERES.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Endeavor/Fortitude (domestic,international).

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).