Festival Predictions

2014 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Jon Stewart’s Rosewater

Published on November 20, 2013

He took a noticeable leave of absence from the Daily Show back in July to shoot a project close to his heart. With an A-team comprised of Shohreh Aghdashloo, Gael García Bernal and the presence of DS gagster Jason Jones, Jon Stewart shot his directorial debut in Jordan side by side with cinematographer Bobby Bukowski (Rampart). If ready on time, it certainly feels like a perfect match between the anti-Argo, Iranian political drama and the politicized festival.

Gist: Written by Jon Stewart, Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy, and based on the Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity, And Survival, this is about a journalist is detained in Iran for more than 100 days and brutally interrogated in prison.

Production Co./Producers: Oddlot’s Gigi Pritzker, Scott Rudin and Stewart. Exec Producing: Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush and Chris McShane.

Prediction: Buyer interest through the roof for what should be a Premieres category showing.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available – Sierra / Affinity

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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).