Festival Predictions

2022 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men

Published on November 22, 2021

A two decade filmography that includes five features films, a steady supply of short films and emphasis on docu items, it’s Mark Jenkin‘s last feature Bait that firmly planted the filmmaker on the collective consciousness as the award-winning micro indie film shored up at the Berlinale, New Directors/New Films and and that the New Horizons Film Fest where we called the project “a refreshing spin…that doesn’t seem to settle for easy resolutions, making the political undertones of the film more nuanced.” Once again using the backdrop of Cornwall in the U.K., filming on Enys Men started and thrived during the pandemic pre-summer. Set in 1970s, the horror film will have a backdrop that contributes immensely to mood setting and Jenkin used a visual template that matches the technology of films that were actually made during that era. Actress Mary Woodvine – a supporting player on Bait, appears to be the lead here supported by Ed Rowe, Flo Crowe, and her dad John Woodvine. Look for this to ride the auteur and genre film fest wave in 2022.

Gist: This focuses on the issues surrounding the gentrification of a small Cornish fishing village.

Production Co./Producers: BOSENA’s Denzil Monk.

Prediction: MIDNIGHT.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available.

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).