Festival Predictions

2021 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Carson Mell’s Some Of Our Stallions

Published on November 23, 2020

Carson Mell was a legit Sundance discovery and perhaps we can call him an actual triple threat as he premiered his first three shorts in three consecutive editions – an impressive and rare feat that we believe only Robert Machoian might have recently accomplished. After 2007’s Bobby Bird: The Devil in Denim, 2008’s Chonto and 2009’s Field Notes from Dimension X: Oasis, Mell’s directorial debut Another Evil landed at SXSW while The Long Dumb Road, a project he co-wrote with Hannah Fidell was a Sundance entry in 2018. If selected for Sundance, his second feature film titled Some of Our Stallions would be among the most prepped in post production items as filming took place way back in February of 2019 in Vancouver. This indie dramedy features Olivia Taylor Dudley and Al Di with nutty-flavored Mell as a supporting player and the presence of stalwarts such as filmmaker and actor David Zellner, Tim Heidecker, and Mike Judge.

Gist: This center on two best friends struggling with mental illness while searching for the love of their lives.

Production Co./Producers: Underlying Tension’s Al Di.

Prediction: U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. UTA Independent Film Group.

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).