2022 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

A surprise world premiere selection at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival, we originally predicted that Dean Fleischer-Camp‘s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On was headed to Sundance….and it might still be. Recently picked up by the A24 folks, this could be part of the Spotlight section (last year, the online version of the festival had reduced the number to only two films). The stop-motion animated film will likely have a lengthy film fest run in 2022 before some theatrical drop.

Gist: The film centers on Marcel, an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. But when a documentary filmmaker discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family.

Production Co./Producers: Dean Fleischer-Camp, Andrew Goldman, Elisabeth Holm, Caroline Kaplan, Terry Leonard, Jenny Slate, Paul Mezey.

Prediction: SPOTLIGHT.

U.S. Distributor: A24.