Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2013: #80. Gregg Araki’s White Bird in a Blizzard

Published on January 11, 2013

White Bird in a Blizzard

Director/Writer: Gregg Araki
Producer(s): Why Not Productions’ Pascal Caucheteux and Sebastien Lemercier
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Eva Green, Shailene Woodley, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Jacob Artist and Dale Dickey.

Extremely diligent in adapting novels for the big screen (Mysterious Skin is by far the best in his filmography), Gregg Araki’s expertise is the teen/youth generation segment of the population and with White Bird in a Blizzard, the novel’s lead character is equal parts teen angst and young adult’s first steps. A moody, knock-out type performance could determine what kind of shelf-life Shailene Woodley ultimately has when it comes to future lead roles.

Gist: Based on the novel by Laura Kasischke, this is about a young woman (Shailene Woodley) whose life is thrown into chaos when her mother (Eva Green) disappears.

Release Date: Filming began rather late in 2012, so if post-production phase is expeditive – this could be readied in time for a Cannes showing (where Kaboom was slotted as an out-of-comp selection) but the more logical route is for Venice-TIFF showings and then a U.S premiere at Sundance ’14.

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).