Festival Predictions

2014 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Kimberly Levin’s Cantuckee

Published on November 18, 2013

Before it was known as Cantuckee, Kimberly Levin’s Land of Tomorrow successfully found some coin via Kickstarter and then had stints at the IFP Lab and the U.S. in Progress in ’12. Looking back at the fest’s history, specifically with regards to the U.S Dramatic Comp category, all it takes is one programmer to champion a micro-budgeted project and set it up against the big boy indies – and this sure feels like one of those Davids among Goliath. Featuring Joanne Kelly, Tom Bower and Alex Shaffer from Win Win and The Lifeguard fame, the drama will benefit tremendously from the presence of composers Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans.

Gist: Set in a rural community in Kentucky, this tells the story of Betty, a wife and mother who fights to save her family’s farm-supply business. When her husband Frank falls ill and their son Finley gets into college, the financial pressures become too much, and Betty commits an unthinkable crime for the sake of her loved ones.

Production Co./Producers: Kurt Pitzer

Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Competition is a long shot, but not impossible.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
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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).