Festival Predictions

2013 Cannes Film Festival Predictions: Nacho Vigalondo’s Open Windows

Published on April 2, 2013

#81. Nacho Vigalondo’s Open Windows

Gist: A man (Elijah Wood) obsessed with an abducted actress (played by adult crossover star Sasha Grey) attempts to discover what’s happened to her, following clues and footage made available to him over an iPhone. Vigalondo, who says the feature was inspired by De Palma’s Blow Out (which happens to be a film heavily inspired by Blow Up), will see us following the action from the POV of a laptop connected to the internet, and thus, the audience will become the protagonist.

Prediction: We’re predicting a Directors’ Fortnight slot for Vigalondo’s latest, and it would be his first title to premiere at Cannes. His 2007 breakout hit Time Crimes landed him a Toronto premiere for his 2011 follow-up, Extraterrestrial. Though filmed in Spain, this is the director’s first film headlined by American stars, and we hope that Elijah Wood, who seems to be on a tour of Spanish based thrillers (he also stars in Eugenio Mira’s next title, Grand Piano) fares better here than Alex de la Iglesia’s The Oxford Murders.

Related Topics:2013 Cannes Film Festival, Nacho Vigalondo, Open Windows

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.