Festival Predictions

2017 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Matt Ruskin’s Crown Heights

Published on November 24, 2016

A rather remarkable, perhaps rare, but not unheard true life story of false imprisonment and the type of stubborn dedication it selflessly takes to make a wrong into a right, for his sophomore feature film following 2012’s Booster (Special Jury Prize winner at SXSW), filmmaker Matt Ruskin began lensing Crown Heights all the way back in September of 2015 and was profiled in a Sundance Institute about the editing process. Also moonlighting as a producer on other gigs (he was a consulting producer on the Sundance preemed (William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe) , this Independent Filmmaker Project project (which was lensed by dp Ben Kutchins) stars Keith Stanfield and Nnamdi Asomugha in a drama that tests and teaches the merits of friendship. On This American Life it sounds to unfathomable to be true, on paper this sounds like a powerful, award friendly drama.

Gist: When Colin Warner (Stanfield) was wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend Carl King (Asomugha) devoted his life to proving his innocence.

Production Co./Producers: Nnamdi Asomugha (Beasts of No Nation), Natalie Galazka (Permanent), Matt Ruskin (The Infiltrator), Lila Yacoub (Moonrise Kingdom).

Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Comp or could end up at either SXSW or Tribeca.

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

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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).