2015 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Patrick Wang’s The Grief of Others

Hard to fathom that one of the most anticipated indie films for 2015 (and potential Sundance entry) is one that features a former soap stars (Wendy Moniz and Trevor St. John) and actress/former SNLer Rachel Dratch (see set pic). Part of breed of folk (Drew Tobia, Nathan Silver, Joel Potrykus, Mark Jackson) who are being noticed for their micro-budgeted contributions to the American indie film landscape, is filmmaker Patrick Wang. He unassumingly made ripples into waves with the In the Family, a four-star film that initially got rejected by the top tier fests, but lathered up terrific word-of-mouth support from influencers. Reading like an Ingmar Bergman portrait, The Grief of Others commenced shooting this past April in an inner-suburb located in New York City.

Gist: Based on the novel by Leah Hager Cohen in which a couple’s (St. John and Moniz) baby dies 57 hours after his birth and the parents try to return to their previous lives and struggle to regain a semblance of normalcy for themselves and their two children.

Production Co./Producers: Jim Cummings, Vanishing Angle’s Erich Lochner and Matt Miller, Ben Wiessner with Patrick Wang

Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Competition would be the ideal section.

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

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