Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #29. Florian Zeller’s The Son

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Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #29. Florian Zeller’s The Son

Published on January 13, 2022

The Son

Human Swiss army knife novelist, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter and director hit pay dirt with his directorial debut The Father (review). Among the top new voices in 2020 film calendar year, Florian Zeller‘s sophomore project The Son was quickly mounted with a fresh trio of actors in Vanessa Kirby, Laura Dern, Hugh Jackman plus good luck charm Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins. Filming took place in August of last year with filming taking place in London, NYC, and France. Zeller reteams with Ben Smithard and from the looks of it – work with a lot more locations this time out. Zeller is producing with Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Joanna Laurie and Christophe Spadone.

Gist: Adapted by Zeller and Christopher Hampton, this focuses on Peter (Jackman) as his busy life with new partner Emma (Kirby) and their baby is thrown into disarray when his ex-wife Kate (Dern) turns up with their teenage son, Nicholas. The young man is is troubled, distant and angry, playing truant from school for months. Peter strives to be a better father, searching to help his son with those intimate and instinctive moments of family happiness. But the weight of Nicholas’ condition sets the family on a dangerous course.

Release Date/Prediction: Sony Pictures Classics haven’t dated the project but we’re predicting that this will be a Telluride, Venice, TIFF and BFI London quadruple selection.

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).