Next month, the American Film Festival in Wroclaw will hold its 13th edition and an integral part of the fest is the annual U.S. in Progress. The programmers have selected a total of eight projects for the co-production forum. As we already know, some of these completed films will move onto the likes of Sundance, SXSW et al. Especially encouraging, this year they curated from a record number of submissions. Lucy Kerr‘s feature debut The Christmas Card (featuring Deragh Campbell) is among the lucky eight projects selected. It was also among the dozen projects selected for the FIDLab showcase this summer. Veteran indie producer Liz Cardenas comes back to lab with the debut feature (Kids Go Free to Fun Fun Time) by Ben Hicks. We also find the filmmaking tandem of Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund of Now, Forager fame (Gotham Awards nom for Breakthrough Director) arrive with their third feature, CrookedFinger. Here are the selected projects:
CrookedFinger directed by Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund, produced by Julia Halperin and Todd Remis Falling Stars directed and produced by Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki Kids Go Free to Fun Fun Time directed by Ben Hicks, produced by Liz Cardenas LaRoy directed by Shane Atkinson, produced by Sebastien Aubert, Jeremie Guiraud and Caddy Vanasirikul Mountains directed by Monica Sorelle, produced by Robert Colom Playland directed by Georden West, produced by Russell Sheaffer, Danielle Cooper, Hannah McSwiggen Summer Solstice directed by Noah Schamus, produced by Jess Zeidman, Jesse Miller, Arno Mokros, Noah Schamus The Christmas Card directed by Lucy Kerr, produced by Fred Winkle, Megan Pickrell
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).
