2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #79. David Wnendt – The Sunlit Night

David Wnendt broke out big (so did his star Carla Juri) with his four feature film 2013’s Wetlands (read review). With a US and Norwegian backdrop and players Jenny Slate, Alex Sharp, Zach Galifianakis, Gillian Anderson and Jessica Hecht, The Sunlit Night sounds like on paper like a solid Park City offering. Filming began way back in April in NYC, with the production moving to Norway for a summer into early fall shoot.

Gist: An adaptation of Rebecca Dinerstein’s novel, this follows an American painter Frances and émigré Yasha — an unlikely pair who find each other in the Arctic circle. Frances has arrived to jumpstart her career while Yasha has come to bury his father in the land of the Vikings. Together under a sun that never quite sets, they let go of the past and discover the future, and family, they didn’t know they had.

Production Co./Producers: Jenny Slate, Fabian Gasmia (Personal Shopper), Ruben Thorkildsen (Rafiki), Big Beach’s Michael B. Clark, Alex Turtletaub (Maine).

Prediction: Premieres section with a showing at Berlin.

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