Festival Predictions

2018 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Joshua Leonard’s Behold My Heart

Published on November 14, 2017

If Joshua Leonard‘s third film gets inserted in the ’18 edition, it’ll be the project that had the luxury of having the longest post time prior to submission. After a lengthy career in front of the camera, and now part of the L.A filmmaker indie clique, Leonard lensed Behold My Heart back in November of 2015, and seeing that his debut film premiered in Park City and no article on Leonard and Sundance would be complete without mentioning the folklore of 1999’s Blair Witch Project, there is a legit shot that Behold My Heart follows in the footsteps of 2011’s The Lie (here is our interview with the filmmaker). Marisa Tomei produces and leads a cast comprised of Timothy Olyphant, Mireille Enos, a younger Charlie Plummer, David Call, Emily Robinson, Nik Dodani and Sakina Jaffrey. If this latest film is anything close to his directing debut, we can expect a sobering honesty and further escapism, and we’d be just as excited at seeing Tomei venturing in what could be another In the Bedroom rocky type drama.

Gist: Written by Leonard and Rebecca Lowman, this is about a mother and her teenage son (Plummer) in the aftermath of tragedy who must forge into uncharted territory in order to move on with their lives.

Production Co./Producers: Autumn Productions’ Mary Pat Bentel, David Hansen and Johnny Mac (Midnight Swim), Bella Vida Productions’ Marisa Tomei (Loitering with Intent), Through Films’ Marcus Cox and Karrie Cox (Tangerine).

Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Competition followed by a SXSW or Tribeca showing possible.

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

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).