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2012 Sundance Predictions: Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s What Maisie Knew
Scott McGehee and David Siegel got their career starts at the festival with Suture (1993) followe by The Deep End (2001), but they haven't been back in a good decade. With a higher profile project - an adaption of a Henry James novel starring Alexander Skarsgård, Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan with Onata Aprile (from Cassevetes' Yellow) they have a valid reason to return. Filming on What Maisie Knew finished rather late in the year --- so this is perhaps a weak prediction guess but a welcomed one when you consider producer Daniela Taplin Lundberg's great relationship with the fest.
2012 Sundance Predictions: Edet Belzberg’s Watchers of the Sky
Belzberg won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for Children Underground (2001) and she last attended the fest with The Recruiter in 2008, and while Park City has done Darfur before my feeling is that Watchers of the Sky (which works from a Pulitzer Prize winner and goes about the region via the POV of modern day heroes aka as humanitarians) will find a slot in the U.S docu or Spotlight Docs section.
2012 Sundance Predictions: M.Blash’s The Wait
Another title that I pegged as a prediction for last year's fest, but not only did this not show up in Park City but M. Blash's sophomore pic wasn't shown anywhere else including perhaps the more probable lieu of Cannes (where his debut film. Lying was shown back in 2006). Photographed by the excellent Kasper Tuxen (3 Backyards, Beginners), I hope to see this second effort will debut at the beginning of the year. The Wait stars Jena Malone, Chloë Sevigny and Luke Grimes.
2012 Sundance Predictions: Jessica Oreck’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga
Jessica Oreck was at last year's festival with her short film, Venus - but she broke onto the docu scene with Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo. She continues in the format but leaves the bugs at home with the fresh Cinereach funded docu with a unique title, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (which she discussed in our interview with her). This could either fit in the World Docu Comp or Spotlight Doc section.
2012 Sundance Predictions: Untitled Joe Berlinger Paul Simon Documentary
Since his 1992 Sundance winning debut Brother's Keeper, Joe Berlinger has been a mainstay with the festival. He last premiered 2009's Crude at the fest and recently mentioned that he is hoping to bring a Paul Simon doc to the fest - we expect it there and we expect it to be nothing like his last music-related doc, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.
