Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016: #71. Jed Kurzel’s Ivan Lendl Never Learnt to Volley

Published on January 7, 2016

Ivan Lendly Never Learnt to Volley

Director: Jed Kurzel
Writer: Jed Kurzel

Composer Jed Kurzel, and brother to filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Snowtown; Macbeth) makes his directorial debut with Ivan Lendl Never Learnt to Volley, a project the brothers devised together. A black comedy based on their own experience as tennis prodigies as teenagers, French actor Denis Menochet will star as a fanatical father obsessed with seeing his son become a professional tennis champion, no matter the cost. Jed Kurzel has collaborated on his brother’s features, as well as composing scores for a variety of successful Austrialian director’s films, such as Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014) and John Maclean’s Slow West (2015).

Cast: Denis Menochet

Production Co./Producer(s): Warp Films’Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw, Justin Kurzel

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic) Madman Entertainment (Austrialia/New Zealand).

Release Date: Justin Kurzel’s 2011 debut The Snowtown Murders premiered at Cannes in Critics’ Week. Filming was supposed to have taken place in the latter half of 2015 in Europe and Australia, so we may see Jed Kurzel follow in his brother’s footsteps in 2016.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.