Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #95. The 20th Century – Matthew Rankin

Published on January 3, 2019

The 20th Century

With over a decade worth of short films to his name, Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin heads into feature territory with his debut The 20th Century. Produced by Gabrielle Tougas-Fréchette and Ménaïc Raoul (All You Can Eat Buddha), the project stars Dan Beirne, Mikhail Ahooja, Sarianne Cormier, Catherine St-Laurent (Stéphane Lafleur’s Tu Dors Nicole) and Brent Skagford and lensed by Vincent Biron (Bestaire, 2012). Three short films of Rankin’s were selected at Sundance (Negativipeg, Tabula Rasa, and Mynarski Death Plummet) but his last project The Tesla World Light preemed on the Croisette in 2017

Gist: Toronto, 1899. Aspiring politician Mackenzie King hesitates in love between a heroic soldier he believes himself destined to marry and a psoriasis-addled spinster and learns that with unrequited love, it’s never over until you’ve completely humiliated yourself.

Release Date/Prediction: Rankin has been in post-production for the better part of 2018. We expect to see his debut premiere at Critics’ Week at Cannes, or wait it out for Locarno.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.