Festival Predictions

2024 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Meryam Joobeur’s Motherhood

Published on November 15, 2023

After thinking Motherhood might drop at a major film festival in 2023, we are now inclined to think that Meryam Joobeur might actually go back to the Sundance family who helped back the project. The Tunisian-American filmmaker’s breakout short Brotherhood premiered at the fest, and Motherhood received support via the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab (2021) — it also landed the Sundance Institute/NHK Award. Production took place in Tunisia in 2022. It is now heading to the Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Ateliers for films in production (or post).

Gist: Salha, a mother gifted with prophetic dreams and visions, lives in an isolated village in Tunisia. When her eldest son’s sudden return from Syria coincides with a series of strange disappearances in their community, Salha’s maternal love is tested and the family faces how guilt can haunt the human spirit.

Production Co./Producers: Sarra Ben Hassen, Annick Blanc, Nadim Cheikhrouha, Maria Gracia Turgeon.

Prediction: World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Sales: Luxbox.

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).