Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #90. Untitled Lulu Wang Comedy

Published on November 23, 2018

Her debut film in 2014’s Posthumous (Jack Huston and Brit Marling) went mostly unseen, but something tells me this currently untitled American-Asian family comedy with travels from New York to China and has current it girl Awkwafina alongside Tzi Ma, and Diana Lin will be a big deal as a sophomore project. Production took place during the summer.

Gist: Written by Lulu Wang and based on an an episode of “This American Life,” true story that she also wrote, this follows a Chinese family who, when they discover their beloved grandmother has only a short while left to live, decide to keep her in the dark and schedule an impromptu wedding to gather before she dies. One of the granddaughters, feeling like a fish out of water in her home country, struggles with the family’s decision to hide the truth from her grandmother.

Production Co./Producers: Big Beach’s Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf, and Daniele Tate Melia (Puzzle), Depth of Field’s Chris Weitz and Andrew Miano (Columbus), Kindred Spirit’s Anita Gou (Honey Boy).

Prediction: Premieres category.

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

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).