Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #70. Gideon Raff – The Red Sea Diving Resort

Published on November 22, 2018

Perhaps in the same programming methodology as when Sundance included Brad Anderson’s Beirut in their 2018 line-up, STX will get to launch Gideon Raff‘s third feature film in The Red Sea Diving Resort – a based on a true story pitch that he originally sold to Fox Searchlight back in 2015, and began filming this fascinating rescue narrative in May of 2017 and saw STX land the rights not that much time after. This stars Chris Evans, Haley Bennett, Michael K. William, Michiel Huisman, Alessandro Nivola, Greg Kinnear and Ben Kingsley.

Gist: With the help of Ari Kidron, a hothead agent, the Mossad ventured on a dangerous journey through the desert of Sudan to rescue Ethiopian Jews from Sudan in 1978. In order to not arouse suspicion, Ari and his team operated under the guise of a European vacation company, the Mossad leased a resort on the shores of the Red Sea. The Mossad’s Red Sea Diving Resort operated for 5 years. Over the course of that time they saved tens of thousands of refugees and brought them to Israel.

Production Co./Producers: Bron Studios’ Aaron L Gilbert (Needle in a Timestack), EMJAG Productions’ Alexandra Milchan (Righteous Kill), Raff.

Prediction: Premieres section.

U.S. Distributor: STX 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).