2018 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Peter Brunner’s To the Night

For his fifth feature and English language debut, Austrian helmer Peter Brunner moves into gritty, street-fashioned shoot in NYC. Working with a pair of Safdie Bros.’ figures in the under-appreciated Caleb Landry Jones and Eleonore Hendricks, To the Night is rounded out by Jana McKinnon and Christos Haas (both appear in the filmmaker’s last two films in 2013’s Mein blindes Herz and 2015’s Those Who Fall Have Wings) and sees Brunner team with Sidney Hall cinematographer Daniel Katz.

Gist: Norman, the sole survivor of a tragic fire accident when he was just a child, has been struggling with a lingering feeling of guilt all his life. Together with his girlfriend Penelope and his baby son, Norman tries to forge a new life. Norman’s memory is reignited one night and he sets off on an unparalleled quest, following a trail of flames whose powers shall now heal him.

Production Co./Producers: Oliver Neumann, Sabine Moser, Loveless‘ Carly Hugo and Matthew Parker (Five Nights in Maine), Klara von Veegh.

Prediction: World Cinema Dramatic Competition with interest coming from Euro fests such as Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary and Locarno.

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