Festival Predictions

2024 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls

Published on November 10, 2023

When Focus Features moved Ethan Coen‘s Drive-Away Dolls from the fall festival slate to it’s current February 23rd release date we can imagine that Sundance and Berlinale programmers started salivating and wouldn’t it be a swell narrative if Ethan returns to Park City exactly four decades after launching his career with Grand Prize winning Blood Simple? Co-written with his wife Tricia Cooke, this stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein with supporting players in Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal and Colman Domingo. Zola and Eileen cinematographer Ari Wegner and composer Carter Burwell brought their magic to the crime caper.

Gist: This follows Jamie (Qualley), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian (Viswanathan) who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

Production Co./Producers: Tricia Cooke, Robert Graf, Robert Graf and Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

Prediction: Premieres.

U.S. Distributor: Focus Features.

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).