Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated American Indie Films of 2018: #92. Jeremiah Zagar’s We the Animals

Published on January 14, 2018

We the Animals

Cutting his teeth in the docu and short form, Jeremiah Zagar (Emmy-nominated for 2014’s Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart) shot We the Animals in summer of 2016 and benefitted from a slew of support in Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Creative Producing Labs, Sundance Directing & Screenwriting Labs, post-prod coin (SFFS) and support from Cinereach, this is a true first foray into fiction filmmaking.

With a screenplay by Dan Kitrosser and Zagar based on the celebrated Justin Torres novel, this is about three boys tear through their rural New York hometown, in the midst of their young parents’ volatile love that makes and unmakes the family many times over. While Manny and Joel grow into versions of their loving and unpredictable father (Raúl Castillo), Ma (Sheila Vand) seeks to keep her youngest, Jonah, in the cocoon of home. Featuring the dp work of Zak Mulligan (who made a remarkable entry at Sundance with 2010’s Obselidia) we’re hoping for a little hope mixed up with a little bruising a la David Gordon Green’s George Washington.

Release Date/Prediction: A major indication that we might have a gem on our hands, We the Animals was lassoed for the NEXT section at Sundance.

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).