2024 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: RaMell Ross’ The Nickel Boys

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Definitely the type of film that could end up jockeying for a position at a fall film festival later in the year instead, RaMell Ross who made the miracle (and critically darling of a docu) in the Sundance preemed Hale County This Morning, This Evening moved toward fiction with an adaption of the Colson Whitehead novel The Nickel Boys – a Pulitzer Prize winner. With some major studio weight supporting the project and an indie veteran producer (Joslyn Barnes is also the co-writer) backing the piece and stain in 60s Americana. Starring Aunjanue Ellis, Ethan Herisse, Fred Hechinger, Hamish Linklater and Brandon Wilson, the Cinematography on this project happens to be Jomo Fray – he lensed All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. Production took place late last year in Louisiana and New Orleans.

Gist: Based on the historic reform school in 1960s Florida called the Dozier School for Boys, which was notorious for abusive treatment of students. It explores the story of Elwood Curtis, a young African-American boy who is sent to the Nickel Academy, a fictional version of the Dozier School, after he is falsely accused of a crime. While there, he meets a boy named Turner, and the two form a close friendship as they try to survive the horrors of the school and its corrupt administrators.

Production Co./Producers: Louverture Films’ Joslyn Barnes, Plan B Entertainment’s Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner.

Prediction: Premieres.

U.S. Distributor: Amazon Studios / MGM

2023 American Film Festival Wroclaw

Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society) and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).

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