Eric Lavallée

His unforgettable, unclassifiable and somewhat off-putting (the animal cruelty aspect) 13-minute short (The Aluminum Fowl) travelled from Park City to Rotterdam and made a splash on the Croisette back in 2006. I'm looking forward to what kind of world James Clauer (see pic above) is looking to explore and the visual treatment of his text with his feature debut, which is backed by those who produced by the same folk who backed Michael Tully's Septien (Sundance - 2011). What we do know is that we think that this might have been based on a 2007 short film and besides that --- nada. Look for When the World's on Fire to be a strong contender for the New Frontier sidebar.

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.

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.

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.

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.