2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Sian Heder’s Tallulah

They say write…what you know, and perhaps in this case, writing what is unknown. It’s the sort of the artistic philosophy that filmmaker Sian Heder might have applied in developing a project that landed at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival (walked away with the 3rd Prize Cinéfondation Ex-aequo prize) with the first iteration of the eventual feature being a short film called Mother. Fast forward almost a decade later and production was lined up this June with Ellen Page and Allison Janney toplining a true exploration of what it might mean to be a mother figure. Coming off the heals of her writing and producer gig with television’s “Orange Is the New Black”, Tallulah has got a strong producer Sundance alumni team supporting the Heder’s directorial debut. With such a long gestation period, we’re thinking that this might illicit a strong emotional response from future auds.

Gist: This is about a free spirit whom everybody thinks has kidnapped a baby after she rescues the child from her reckless mother. The woman pretends the baby is hers with the mother of her ex-boyfriend. When the baby is returned to her rightful mother the three women forge an unbreakable bond.

Production Co./Producers: Heather Rae (I Believe in Unicorns), Route One’s Russell Levine (Secret in Their Eyes), Maiden Voyage’s Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus (Mediterranea), Todd Traina (What Maisie Knew).

Prediction: U.S. Dramatic Competition.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. ICM Partners (domestic). Good Universe (international)

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