Festival Predictions

2022 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Jim Archer’s Brian & Charles

Published on November 25, 2021

After back to back short film projects in about a half a dozen years, Jim Archer hit creative pay dirt with the 2017 short of the same name (selected for SXSW 2018) was expanded into his directorial debut. Brian & Charles was due to shoot in March of 2020 but got delayed until late that year. In Christopher Guest-like template, written by and starring David Earl and Chris Hayward, the film’s themes might ring more true than when it was initially conceived.

Gist: After a particularly harsh winter Brian (David Earl) goes into a deep depression; completely isolated and with no one to talk to, Brian does what any sane person would do when faced with such a melancholic situation. He builds a robot.

Production Co./Producers: Mr Box’s Rupert Majendie.

Prediction: WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Bankside Films (domestic, 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).