Annual Top Films Lists

Top 50 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #40. Rania Attieh/Daniel Garcia’s Initials S.G.

Published on January 24, 2019

Initials S.G.

Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia sanguinely moved into production in January of 2018 with their fourth feature film, Initials S.G. A wink to Serge Gainsbourg, the enigmatic personality of the character embodied by Argentinian actor Diego Peretti is at the core of what is a widely unpredictable storyline. Selected for the US in Progress in Wrocław, this is produced by the filmmakers alongside Iván Eibuszyc, Shruti Ganguly and Georges Schoucair. The project received some support via the 2018 Music and Sound Design Lab and became film fest darlings with their third feature in 2014’s H. (read review) which was showcased at fest heavyweights Venice, Sundance and Berlin.

Gist: An aging, Argentine, Serge Gainsbourg wannabe (Peretti) struggles to deal with a career he can’t seem to get on track, an affair he doesn’t want, and a crime he didn’t mean to commit.

Release Date/Prediction: We see this as an European premiere — possibly a Directors’ Fortnight selection in Cannes or Locarno competition showing.

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).