Festival Predictions

2014 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Sydney Freeland’s Drunktown’s Finest (First Look!)

Published on November 18, 2013

There’s been a whole bunch of recent buzz happening on Sydney Freeland’s directorial debut, a dramatic number that wraps the coming-of-age, teenage rebellion, queer cinema with a Native American touch all into one. Currently in the post-production phase, the successful Kickstarter funding campaign to lock down the final elements means that Drunktown’s Finest (which wrapped principle photography this summer) is in the fast-track portion of the timeline which must be exciting for the helmer after a development that included a trio of Sundance Institute workshop stints (2009 Native Lab, 2010 Screenwriter’s Lab, and 2010 Director’s Labs). Check out the first look below.

Gist: Starring Jeremiah Bitsui, Kiowa Gordon and Lora Martinez-Cunningham, this Three Native American teenagers; a rebellious father-to-be, a devout Christian girl, and a promiscuous transsexual, learn they may be the next generation of medicine people for their tribe.

Production Co./Producers: Chad Burris (Mosquita y Mari) and Mateo Frazier

Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Competition would be a prime spot.

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).