2015 Sundance Predictions: Which Film is the Next Whiplash?

Despite the lottery-esque sounding odds, the U.S Dramatic Competition section which produces the finest American indie specimens such as Frozen River, Winter’s Bone, Blue Valentine, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station and Whiplash is fairly consistent in terms of quality. Last year’s crop of sixteen have almost all had their theatrical releases with Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter being the last one out of the gates (pegged with an early 2015 release). Last week we individually looked at our top 80 Sundance Film Fest Predictions (you’ll find 30 other titles worth considering in our intro) and below, we’ve split the list into narrative and non-fiction film items and have both identified and color-coded our picks in an AtoZ cheat sheet. You’ll find 2015’s answer to Whiplash located somewhere in the stack below. Click on the individual titles below, for the film’s profile.

6 Years / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Hannah Fidell) — The film tells the story of Mel and Dan, a young couple as they face of a series of volatile events as they near the end of college. Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Ben Rosenfield, Joshua Leonard, Jennifer Lafleur, Peter Vack, Lindsay Burdge.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

7 Chinese Brothers / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Bob Byington) — This is about a man struggling to learn how to tell the truth. Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Stephen Root, Olympia Dukakis, Tunde Adebimpe, Alex Ross Perry.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Ad Inexplorata: Toward the Unknown / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Mark Elijah Rosenberg) — Captain William D. Stanaforth is a NASA pilot alone on a one-way mission toward the unknown. Mark Strong, Sanaa Lathan, Charles Baker, Bettina Skye.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

The Adderall Diaries / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Pamela Romanosky) — Writer Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his writing. Cast: James Franco, Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Ed Harris.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Anesthesia / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Tim Blake Nelson) — This follows the disparate stories of New Yorkers whose lives come together after the violent mugging of a Columbia University philosophy professor. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Gretchen Mol, Corey Stoll, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jessica Hecht, Hannah Marks, Glenn Close, Scott Cohen, Sam Waterston.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Automatic at Sea / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Matthew Lessner) — On a whim, Eve, a young Swedish traveler, accepts an invitation from Peter to vacation on his family’s private island off the coast of New England. Cast: Livia Hiselius, David Gerson, Breeda Wool.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Ava’s Possessions / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jordan Galland) — This film follows a woman who is recovering from demonic possession, and after losing her memory, is coerced into attending a group which explores the cause of her possession. Cast: Louisa Krause, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jemima Kirke, Stella Schnabel, John Ventimiglia.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Beasts of No Nation / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Cary Fukunaga) —  This follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who, when civil war engulfs his West African country is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters. Cast: Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Opeyemi Fagbohungbe, Richard Pepple
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Bessie / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Dee Rees) — The story of legendary blues performer, Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and ’30s. Cast: Queen Latifah, Michael K. Williams, Khandi Alexander, Mike Epps, Tika Sumpter, Tory Kittles, Oliver Platt, Bryan Greenberg, Charles S. Dutton, Mo’Nique.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Big Sky / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jorge Michel Grau) —  This is about a teenage girl named Hazel who suffers a mortal fear of open spaces… Cast: Bella Thorne, Kyra Sedgwick, Frank Grillo, Aaron Tveit.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Bukowski / U.S.A. (Director: James Franco, Screenwriters: James Franco, Dave Franco) — This is the story of writer Charles Bukowski’s formative years from childhood to high school and his struggles with an abusive father, disfiguring acne, alcohol abuse, and his initial attempts at writing. Cast: Josh Peck, Shannen Doherty, Alex Kingston, Keegan Allen, Tim Blake Nelson.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Captain Fantastic / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Matt Ross) — After a decade of living off the grid in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father living with his six young kids tries to assimilate back into society. Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Missi Pyle, Steve Zahn, Kathryn Hahn, George MacKay, Erin Moriarty, Frank Langella.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Cardboard Boxer / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Knate Gwaltney) — This follows a homeless man living on Los Angeles’ Skid Row who finds himself the target of a group of rich, trouble-making teenagers who are paying the underprivileged to fight each other. Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Thomas Haden Church, Terrence Howard, Rhys Wakefield, Macy Gray.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Chevalier / Greece (Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari, Screenwriters: Tsangari, Efthimis Filippou) — This is about a group of men is returning from a winter fishing trip on a yacht. When a mechanical problem leaves them trapped on their boat, somewhere in the gulf of Saronikos, they will kill their time playing a game they devise called Chevalier. Cast: Sakis Rouvas, Vangelis Mourikis, Panos Koronis.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Children / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jaffe Zinn) — During a hazy summer filled with the smoke of distant wild fires, Abbie & Heidi take a camping trip through the rugged mountains of Southern Idaho. Cast: Samantha Jacober, Kate Lyn Sheil.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Chuck Hank and the San Diego Twins / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jonathan Keevil ) — A turf war has been raging in Oldtown for generations. On one side, The Syndicate – an evil gang of crank-head misfits, who has been set on muscling the San Diego family out of the parcel of land they own in the center of town. Tyler Dawson, Evan Glodell, David Arquette, Paz de la Huerta.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Creative Control / U.S.A. (Director: Benjamin Dickinson, Screenwriters: Dickinson, Micah Bloomberg) — This is described as a dark sci-fi comedy set in the near-future and telling the story of four Brooklynites whose tech-obsessed lifestyles get the better of them. Cast: Benjamin Dickinson, Dan Gill, Nora Zehetner, Alexia Rasmussen.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Days out of Days / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes) — This is about a once well-known actress who struggles to maintain her sanity and dignity in the obstacle course known as Hollywood. Cast: Alexia Landeau, Cheyenne Jackson, Eddie Izzard, Melanie Griffith, Bellamy Young, Vincent Kartheiser, Ione Skye, Alessandro Nivola, Brooke Smith.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Diary of a Teenage Girl / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Marielle Hellers) — Based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel of the same name, this follows a teen artist (Powley) living in San Francisco in the ’70s who attempts to navigate her way through an affair with her mother’s boyfriend. Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig, Bel Powley.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Digging For Fire / U.S.A. (Director: Joe Swanberg, Screenwriters: Swanberg, Jake Johnson) — This is a relationship dramedy about a husband and wife and their attempts to both build a family and make a long-term relationship interesting. Cast: Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sam Rockwell, Brie Larson, Anna Kendrick, Orlando Bloom, Jenny Slate, Mike Birbiglia, Chris Messina, Sam Elliott, Ron Livingston, Jane Adams, Tom Bower.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

The Driftless Area / U.S.A. (Director: Zachary Sluser, Screenwriters: Sluser, Tom Drury) — Based on the novel of the same title, this tells the story of a young man by the name of Pierre Hunter who falls in love with a mysterious woman named Stella and finds himself in a game out of cat and mouse with a somewhat idiotic but nonetheless capable and violent criminal named Shane. Cast: Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel, John Hawkes, Alia Shawkat, Aubrey Plaza, Frank Langella, Ciaran Hinds.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

The End of the Tour  / U.S.A. (Director: James Ponsoldt, Screenwriter: Donald Margulies) — This follows author David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest who committed suicide in 2008, on a book tour at the start of his fame… Cast: Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Entertainment / U.S.A. (Director: Rick Alverson, Screenwriters: Alverson, Gregg Turkington) — En route to meet his estranged daughter and attempt to revive his dwindling career, a broken, aging comedian plays a string of dead-end shows in the Mojave desert. Cast: Gregg Turkington, Michael Cera, John C. Reilly, Tye Sheridan, Tim Heidecker, Dean Stockwell.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Eugenia and John / U.S.A. (Director: Hossein Keshavarz) — Soon to graduate from Dartmouth, the idealistic John visits his girlfriend Eugenia while on interviews for jobs in New York… Cast: Wesley Tunison, Venecia Troncoso.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Five Nights in Maine / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Maris Curran) — This follows Sherwin, a man reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law, who is herself confronting guilt over her daughter’s death. Cast: Dianne Wiest, Rosie Perez, David Oyelowo, Teyonah Parris, Stephen Henderson, Hani Furstenberg.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Forsaken / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jonás Cuarón) — Set against the backdrop of the border desert, where the brutal yet beautiful landscape itself becomes a metaphor for the characters’ own inner struggles, this is described as a cat and mouse chase between a Mexican undocumented migrant worker, Moises, and an American vigilante, Sam who has taken up border patrol duties in his own racist hands. Cast: Gael García Bernal, Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Franny / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Andrew Renzi) — This is about a fun-loving, hedonistic philanthropist who works his way into the lives of a newlywed couple to recapture the life he once had. Cast: Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning, Theo James.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Free in Deed / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jake Mahaffy) — In order to tend for his own ill son, an intensely religious man who secretly returns to his hometown where, years ago, his attempted miracle became a criminal act. Cast: David Harewood, Edwina Findley.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

God Bless the Child / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda)  — Five siblings spend a summer day on their own. Only the eldest—the one girl, 13—knows their mother may never be coming back, and while looking after her brothers she lets them just be little kids, drawing them closer to herself as the day goes by.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

The Grief of Others / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Patrick Chang) — Based on the novel by Leah Hager Cohen in which a couple’s 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. Cast: Wendy Moniz, Trevor St. John, Rachel Dratch.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

The Hollars / U.S.A. (Director: John Krasinski, Screenwriter: James C. Strouse) — John Hollar is an aspiring NYC artist who takes his girlfriend back to his Middle America hometown on the eve of his mother’s brain surgery… Cast: John Krasinski, Anna Kendrick, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Richard Jenkins.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Homefront / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Fidel Ruiz-Healy & Tyler Walker) — Douglas and Caroline live in a secluded house in the country with their parents Cindy and James. Years have passed since a new World War reached American soil yet the family continues their daily routine. Cast: Gerry Eddins, Rachel Povse, David Huff, Lindsay Van deKirk, Jack Wirt.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

#Horror / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Tara Subkoff) — Inspired by actual events, a group of 12 year old girls face a night of horror when the compulsive addiction of an online social media game turns a moment of cyber bullying into a night of insanity. Cast: Taryn Manning, Natasha Lyonne, Chloë Sevigny, Balthazar Getty, Timothy Hutton.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

James White / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Josh Mond) — This is about a young New Yorker struggling to take control of his reckless, self destructive behavior in the face of momentous family challenges. Cast: Christopher Abbott, Cynthia Nixon, Ron Livingston, Scott Mescudi, David Call, Mackenzie Leigh.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Just Jim / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Craig Roberts) — A Welsh teenager will become the cool kid of the town if a deal is made with his new American neighbour. Craig Roberts, Emile Hirsch, Aneirin Hughes, Nia Roberts, Richard Harrington, Matthew Aubrey, Ryan Owen, Charlotte Randall.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

King Jack / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Felix Thompson) — When shouldered with the responsibility of watching his younger cousin for the weekend, a delinquent 15 year-old who finds himself stumbling towards maturity while struggling against the neighborhood bully. Cast: Christian Madsen, Charlie Plummer, Danny Flaherty, Cory Nichols, Erin Davie.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Len and Company / U.S.A. (Director: Tim Godsall, Screenwriters: Godsall, Katharine Knight) — Based on Carly Mensch’s play Len, Asleep In Vinyl, this centres on the unexpected journey of self-discovery by a miserable hit record producer whose self-imposed exile is shattered by his estranged son (Kilmer) and a successful client. Cast: Juno Temple, Kathryn Hahn, Rhys Ifans, Keir Gilchrist, Jack Kilmer.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Lost River / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ryan Gosling) — A single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town. Cast: Christina Hendricks, Iain De Caestecker, Matt Smith, Saoirse Ronan, Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn, Rob Zabrecky.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Manson Family Vacation / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: J. Davis) — Nick Morgan is a successful lawyer who’s devoted to his wife and young son. His adopted brother Conrad is a wayward soul who shows up in Los Angeles unannounced. Cast: Linas Phillips, Jay Duplass.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

The Master Cleanse / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Bobby Miller) — When Paul (Johnny Galecki) is left at the altar by his fiancé and loses his job, he quickly deteriorates into a depressed and meaningless existence. Cast: Johnny Galecki, Anna Friel, Kyle Gallner, Oliver Platt, Anjelica Huston.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Me Him Her  / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Max Landis) — Exploring sex, love and friendship, this is described as a “‘Reality Bites’ on acid”. The quarter-life-crisis tale set in Los Angeles features  a pair of best friends — one gay, one straight and a girl named Gabbi. Cast: Emily Meade, Dustin Milligan, Luke Bracey.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Meadowland / U.S.A. (Director: Reed Morano, Screenwriter: Chris Rossi) — This follows a couple, David and Sarah, dealing with their son’s disappearance. Cast: Olivia Wilde, Luke Wilson, John Leguizamo, Elisabeth Moss, Giovanni Ribisi, Juno Temple, Kevin Corrigan, Scott Mescudi, Ty Simpkins.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Mississippi Grind / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck) — Down on his luck and facing financial hardship, Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) teams up with younger charismatic poker player, Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), in an attempt to change his luck. The two set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what’s been lost. Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Analeigh Tipton, Sienna Miller, Alfre Woodard, Robin Weigert.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Nasty Baby / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Sebastián Silva) — Set in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, this centers around a couple, Freddy and his boyfriend Mo, who are trying to have a baby with the help of their best friend, Polly. Cast: Sebastián Silva, Tunde Adebimpe, Kristen Wiig.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

One & Two / U.S.A. (Director: Andrew Droz, Screenwriters: Droz, Neima Shahdadi) — This is set at an isolated farmhouse, this is a look at the bond between siblings in an abusive and neglectful home, who learn to teleport…. Cast: Kiernan Shipka, Timothée Chalamet, Grant Bowler, Elizabeth Reaser.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

The Overnight / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Patrick Brice)  — This is the story of a couple who are new to Los Angeles, and their son ends up having a playdate with this other couple’s son, and they spend an increasingly bizarre evening with this couple. Cast: Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, Jason Schwartzman, Judith Godreche.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Partisan / Australia (Director: Ariel Kleiman, Screenwriters: Kleiman, Sarah Cyngler) — This is about a charismatic and troubled man called Gregori, who has raised a communal family within the world of his lavish compound… Cast: Vincent Cassel.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Queen of Earth / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Alex Ross Perry) — his is a psychological thriller about two women who retreat to a beach house to get a break from the pressures of the outside world, only to realize how disconnected from each other they have become, allowing their suspicions to bleed into reality. Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Keith Poulson, Kate Lyn Sheil, Patrick Fugit, Katherine Waterston, Kentucker Audley.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

The Quitters / U.S.A. (Director: Noah Pritzker, Screenwriters: Pritzker, Ben Tarnoff) — this explores the upper class San Franciscan society and centers on Clark, a high school student, struggling to come to terms with the demands of his family, society, love. Cast: Ben Konigsberg, Kara Hayward, Saffron Burrows, Mira Sorvino, Kieran Culkin.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Results / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Andrew Bujalski) — This centers on two personal trainers and what happens when an out-of-shape and newly wealthy man enters their lives. Cast: Guy Pearce, Cobie Smulders, Kevin Corrigan, Giovanni Ribisi, Brooklyn Decker, Anthony Michael Hall, Tishuan Scott, Zoe Graham.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Shiva & Bell / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Diana Bell) — Yoga teacher May lives a peaceful, orderly life with her boyfriend Dex and they are about to fulfill their dream of opening a yoga-based health center. Cast: Jessica Biel, Zosia Mamet, Edi Gathegi.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Sleeping with Other People / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Leslye Headland) — A good-natured womanizer and a serial cheater form a platonic relationship that helps reform them in ways, while a mutual attraction sets in. Cast: Alison Brie, Jason Sudeikis, Natasha Lyonne, Adam Scott, Amanda Peet, Margarita Levieva.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Songs My Brother Taught Me / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Chloe Zhao) — This is about a seventeen-year-old Lakota boy who idly spends his days in young love with his kind and ambitious girlfriend Aurelia, his nights carousing with his loyal and wayward best friend Evan, and avoiding anything to do with his broken home life. Cast: Irene Bedard, Eleonore Hendricks, John Reddy.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Stockholm, Pennsylvania / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Nikole Beckwith) — This is about a developmentally stunted Leia, a young woman raised by a kidnapper who now struggles to acclimate to her actual parents after 20 years of separation.  Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Cynthia Nixon.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Take Me to the River / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Matt Sobel) — This is about a California teen who plans to come out at his family reunion in Nebraska. Cast: Logan Miller, Robin Weigert, Josh Hamilton, Richard Schif.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Tangerine / U.S.A. (Director: Sean Baker, Screenwriters: Baker, Chris Bergoch) — This is a rip-roaring journey through various subcultures of Tinseltown on Christmas Eve. Cast: Kiki Lee Key, Mya Taylor, James Ransone.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Ten Thousand Saints / U.S.A. (Directors and Screenwriters: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini) — Based on the novel of the same name by Eleanor Henderson, set in the 1980s, a teenager from Vermont moves to New York City to live with his father in East Village… Cast: Asa Butterfield, Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Emile Hirsch, Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

The Ticket / U.S.A. (Director: Ido Fluk, Screenwriters: Fluk, Sharon Mashishi) — This follows a blind man who regains his sight — only to be blinded emotionally by his obsession with the superficial. Cast: Dan Stevens, Malin Akerman, Kerry Bishé, Oliver Platt.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Unexpected / U.S.A. (Director: Kris Swanberg, Screenwriters: Swanberg, Megan Mercier) — This tells the story of a 39-year-old inner-city high school science teacher who bonds with one of her more promising students when both find themselves dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Cast: Cobie Smulders, Anders Holm, Elizabeth McGovern.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Untitled Noah Baumbach Public School Project / U.S.A. (Director: Noah Baumbach, Screenwriters: Baumbach, Greta Gerwig) — Called a mix between “The Great Gatsby” and “Something Wild”, this is about a Barnard undergraduate who aspires to be just like someone else. Cast: Lola Kirke, Greta Gerwig.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

When I Live My Life Over Again / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Robert Edwards) — The New York-based drama sees Walken play Lombard, dubbed “The King of Romance,” as he plans his big comeback, with Heard as his daughter Jude. Christopher Walken, Amber Heard, Kelli Garner, Hamish Linklater, Ann Magnuson, Oliver Platt.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

While We’re Young / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Noah Baumbach) — Uptight New York documentary filmmaker Josh Srebnick (Ben Stiller) has hit a creative dry patch while working on his cerebral new film until him and his wife (Naomi Watts) are approached by a couple of spontaneous young artists (Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried) who help to restore Josh’s long-lost youth. Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Grodin.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

The Witch / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Robert Eggers) — 1630s. Sam, a newborn baby, has disappeared without a trace. William’s eldest daughter, Thomasin, 14, has become idle and temperamental. Caleb, 12, often wantonly glances at Thomasin and believes he hears the voice of God.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

You Can’t Win / U.S.A. (Director: Robinson Devor, Screenwriters: Devor, Pitt, Barry Gifford and Charles Mudede) — this is an adaptation of adventurer Jack Black’s 1926 autobiographical novel of the same name which tells of his experiences in the hobo underworld, freight-hopping around the still Wild West of the United States and Canada while he explores the topics of crime, addiction, criminal justice and human folly from various viewpoints. Cast: Michael Pitt, Jeremy Allen White, Charles Baker, Julia Garner, Will Patton, Hannah Marks, Louisa Krause
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Z for Zachariah / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Craig Zobel) — Based on the novel by Robert C. O’Brien and written by Pall Grimson and Nissar Modi, this focuses on a young, small-town girl named Ann Burden who survives a nuclear war in a small American town. Cast: Margot Robbie, Chris Pine, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Non-Fiction

3½ / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) — Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving November 2012, four boys in a red SUV pull into a gas station after spending time at the mall buying sneakers and talking to girls…
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Containment / U.S.A. (Directors: Rob Moss, Peter Galison) — This is about the scientific, moral, and philosophical problems that surround the disposition of nuclear waste…
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies / U.S.A. (Director: Yael Melamede) — From ticket-fixing in our police departments to test-score scandals in our schools, from our elected leaders’ extra-marital affairs to financial schemes undermining our economy, dishonesty seems to be a ubiquitous part of the news…
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Down by Law / United Kingdom (Director: George Amponsah) — This follows several years in the lives of two of the closest friends of Mark Duggan, the man whose death at the hands of armed police sparked the UK riots of 2011…
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Pow Wow / U.S.A. (Director: Robinson Devor) — This uses modern day desert characters to echo and illuminate an infamous 1908 desert manhunt for Willie Boy, a native American youth who outran a mounted posse on foot across 500 miles of desert…
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Racing Extinction / U.S.A. (Director: Louie Psyhoyos) — Scientists predict we may lose half the species on the planet by the end of the century. They believe we have entered the sixth major extinction event in Earth’s history…
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Street Fighting Man / U.S.A. (Director: Andrew James) — In a new America where the promise of education, safety and shelter are in jeopardy, three Detroit men fight to build something lasting for themselves and future generations.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Strong Island / U.S.A. (Director: Yance Ford) — Tracing the impacts of the 1992 shooting death of William Ford, Jr., an unarmed African American, and the devastation of the Ford family when his killer goes unpunished.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

(T)error / U.S.A. (Directors: Lyric R. Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe) — This captures the dramatic aftermath that occurs when the target of the investigation realizes that he is being set up by an FBI informant.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Uncertain / U.S.A. (Directors: Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands) — On the shores of a dying lake, neighbors in the once outlaw town of Uncertain, Texas, are haunted by their pasts and battling demons for a future more certain—a tender, humorous southern gothic tale.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

Unlocking the Cage / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Directors: Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker) — Follows attorney Steve Wise’s fight to give animals personhood rights and break down the legal wall separating them from humans.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Untitled Bill Cosby Documentary / U.S.A. (Director: Jamey Phillips) — This ventures back to Bill Cosby’s years in the civil rights movement, footage that connects Cosby’s more recent activism with his childhood and early work.
Sundance Prediction: Long Shot

Untitled Campus Assault Documentary / U.S.A. (Directors: Kirby Dick, ) — Undergraduate assault survivors fight to pursue education and justice in this groundbreaking project that exposes the epidemic of rape on U.S. campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and families.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Untitled Malala Yousafzai Project / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Davis Guggenheim) — This is a look at the events leading up to the Taliban’s attack on the young Pakistani school girl, Malala Yousafzai, for speaking out on girls’ education and the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations.
Sundance Prediction: Sure Shot

Western / U.S.A. (Directors: Bill Ross, Turner Ross) — Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico are border towns and the vision of the modern frontier. Cowboys and lawmen share the country while international business and multicultural bonds flourish.
Sundance Prediction: Good Bet

[Note: These are predictions. Only the Sundance programmers know who the invited folks are. I’m not one of them. The profiles include the synopsis, and listed producers and sales agents. Some of this info might be incorrect or simply not available. If an error is made, let me know.

Film festival rejection. It happens. This is not indicative of your talent or the quality of your film. Ask Jeff Nichols (circa Shotgun Stories) and countless others. Sundance programmers are taste-makers, just like the folks at Rotterdam, SXSW, Karlovy Vary and Locarno.

A word to producers. If you have a little time on yours hands. Prepare a set of stills for the press to use in their coverage of your film. Good luck to all.]