Festival Predictions

2017 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Marius A. Markevicius’ Ashes in the Snow

Published on November 30, 2016

We’ve got Drake Doremus’ oft-used screenwriter in Ben York Jones, The Diary of a Teenage Girl starlet Bel Powley and a docu filmmaker who preemed his tale of oppressed 1992 Lithuanian basketball (The Other Dream Team) in Park City and you’ve got Sundance written all over this possible entry. Considered a buzz title at the recent AFM, Marius A. Markevicius could make a three-pointer at the buzzer with Ashes in the Snow. Martin Wallström also stars.

Gist: Based on the book by Ruta Sepetys and screenplay by Ben York Jones, in 1941, an aspiring artist and her family are deported to Siberia amidst Stalin’s brutal dismantling of the Baltic region. In a seemingly hopeless place, love is the only means of survival.

Production Co./Producers: Chris Coen (Special Correspondents), Marius A. Markevicius.

Prediction: World Dramatic Comp.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). Radiant Films Intl. (international)

[related]2017 Sundance Film Festival Predictions[/related]

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).