Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #48. Casey Affleck – Light of My Life

Published on November 21, 2018

Post Manchester by the Sea, in February of 2017, Casey Affleck began filming Light of My Life in British Columbia’s Okanagan valley. Significantly slowing down on the acting front (his reserved for contributions to David Lowery’s cinema) if Affleck’s sophomore film didn’t show on the 2018 fest circuit it might be due to misconduct on the set of I’m Still Here or having a film like Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace (also a tale featuring a father and daughter taking refuge in the woods) take up space on the fest circuit. We recently learned that Elisabeth Moss was included in the cast – which sees Casey Affleck team with newbie Anna Pniowsky. Affleck worked with cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (The Light Between Oceans).

Gist: This centers on a father (Affleck) and his young daughter Rag (Anna Pniowsky), who are trapped in the woods after a deadly pandemic radically alters the world. As the father struggles to protect his daughter’s innocence, shielding her from the newfound dangers of man, their bond is tested.

Production Co./Producers: Black Bear Pictures’ Teddy Schwarzman (Ben Is Back)

Prediction: Premieres section.

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

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).