Festival Predictions

2024 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Caitlin Cronenberg’s Humane

Published on November 12, 2023

We thought there might be a chance of Humane slipping into the 2023 film fest schedule, but Caitlin Cronenberg did move into production only in October of last year on her feature debut – so one full year of post (with possible sci-fi elements) work makes sense for a January drop and perhaps Park City is fertile Cronenberg ground as her brother Brandon has preemed here with his last two features Possessor in 2020 and Infinity Pool in 2023. Featuring Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Peter Gallagher, Sebastian Chacon, Alanna Bale and Sirena Gulamgaus, production took place in Hamilton. Crimes of the Future‘s Doug Koch is the cinematographer here.

Gist: Humane takes place over a single day months after a global environmental collapse has forced world leaders to take extreme measures to reduce the earth’s population. In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman invites his four grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.

Production Co./Producers: Victory Man Productions’ Michael Sparaga.

Prediction: Midnight.

Sales: XYZ Films

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).