Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #97. The Father – Florian Zeller

Published on December 31, 2019

The Father

French playwright Florian Zeller makes his directorial debut in 2020 with UK production The Father (of note, he directed a stage version of his play The Mother in 2019 starring Isabelle Huppert). Academy Award Winner Olivia Colman headlines an impressive ensemble, which includes Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Williams, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Mark Gatiss. DP Ben Smithard (Downton Abbey; Blinded By the Light) lenses the project, produced by Philippe Carcassone, Simon Friend, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt and Cristophe Spadone. This particular play by Zeller was previously adapted in 2015 as Floride, starring Sandrine Kiberlain. Notably, Kiberlain also starred in Daniel Auteuil’s 2018 adaptation of Zeller’s Lovers of My Wife.

Gist: Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons; Atonement) adapts Zeller’s play in this version, which concerns an aging father who refuses to accept assistance from his loved ones.

Release Date/Prediction: The Father will premiere at Sundance 2020 in their Premieres program on January 27th.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.