Festival Predictions

2024 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Geremy Jasper’s O’Dessa

Published on November 16, 2023

Sold for a whopping 10 million to Fox Searchlight at Sundance back in ’17, Patti Cake$ became a major calling card for Geremy Jasper — and that forward momentum brought it to the Cannes Film Festival’s closing the Director’s Fortnight section that same year. Jasper doesn’t only write screenplays but lyrics too – and this will be the case once again with O’Dessa (and with co-writer Jason Binnick) – his sophomore project which would have gone into production this past May. Searchlight re-teamed with the filmmaker and there is probably no rush to premiere the film at Sundance but it’s a definite possibility with a line-up of Regina Hall, Sadie Sink, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Murray Bartlett. Production took place in Croatia.

Gist: Set in a post-apocalyptic future, O’Dessa follows Sink’s same-name farm girl on an epic quest to recover a cherished family heirloom. Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love (Harrison) – but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test.

Production Co./Producers: Noah Stahl, RT Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira, Department of Motion Pictures’ Michael Gottwald.

Prediction: Premieres section.

U.S. Distributor/: Searchlight.

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).