Festival Predictions

2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Mike Ott/Nathan Silver’s Actor Martinez

Published on November 23, 2015

As was the case for Joe Swanberg, it’s not unheard of that trailblazing names synonymous with micro American indie film fail to crack the Sundance line-up. Despite the accolades and their idiosyncratic style guides, Mike Ott and Nathan Silver are a pair of names that have yet to set foot in snowy Park City, and with this, perhaps the idiom of two filmmaking heads are better than one is applicable. Both have been prolific in their own right, collectively outputting nine feature films in less than a decade, and with production for their Denver shot Actor Martinez ending somewhere this past July and a rough cut being selected for the American Film Festival in Poland’s US in Progress, things are looking good for an early 2016 bid. Starring indie actress girl crush Lindsay Burdge (in 2015 we caught her in The Midnight Swim, 6 Years and Lace Crater), we’re curious as to the results of this set of mountain city prospectors.

Gist: What we know is this was shot in Denver.

Production Co./Producers: Patrick Hackett, Heika Burnison (Lake Los Angeles), Britta Erickson (Convention/Rolling Papers), Katie Shapiro (Rolling Papers)

Prediction: The NEXT Section would be the natural dwelling spot for this, but if it doesn’t drop there look for a Europe premiere at Berlin to Locarno.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). TBD (international)

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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).