Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated American Indie Films of 2018: #60. Eva Vives’ All About Nina

Published on January 16, 2018

All About Nina

A directorial debut we’ve been keeping tabs on since it participated in the 2016 Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters and Directors Labs, before All About Nina, Eva Vives first major contribution to the film canon was on Peter Sollett’s Raising Victor Vargas. Production began this past summer in NYC, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Common in the mix.

Written Vives, this follows Nina Geld (Winstead), a bracingly funny and blisteringly provocative stand-up comedian whose career is taking off, but whose personal life is a near-complete disaster. To escape a difficult ex and to prepare for a prospectively life-changing audition, Nina flees to Los Angeles where she meets Rafe (Common), who challenges almost every preconception she has — including those around her own deeply troubled past. Beau Bridges, Kate Del Castillo, Chace Crawford, Clea DuVall, Jay Mohr, Melonie Diaz, Camryn Manheim, Mindy Sterling, Angelique Cabral are also onboard.

Release Date/Prediction: With this not shoring up at Sundance, it would be a sweet deal for it to land in Cannes where her debut short Five Feet High and Rising (2000) won.

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).