Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #196. John Carney’s Flora and Son

Published on January 5, 2023

Flora and Son

Known for his Sundance breakout music drama Once, Irish filmmaker John Carney has been chugging away at the music-based cinema in some shape or form and returns to the genre with his ninth feature film. Produced by Anthony Bregman, Peter Cron, Rebecca O’Flanagan, Robert Walpole and Carney, Flora and Son sort of flew under the radar this past summer. Set in North Dublin, production took place in and around July to September-ish with starring Eve Hewson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jack Reynor (who was in Carney’s Sing Street) and Orén Kinlan.

Gist: Set in Ireland, this follows Flora, a single mom who is at war with her son, Max. Trying to find a hobby for Max, she rescues a guitar from a dumpster and finds that one person’s trash can be a family’s salvation.

Release Date/Prediction: This was actually just announced as a late addition for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival selection – a Premieres section 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).