Predictions 2010 Sundance Film Festival: Granik, Mahoney, Casey Phoenix

I think there are only three film festivals on the circuit where filmmakers and producers are really conscious on how a production start date my ultimately affect their film festival status. There are the heavyweights of Cannes and Venice, and then there is Sundance. For the better part of the last 15 years, we are talking about the Reservoir Dogs era, the festival has jumped started thousands of careers and perhaps the best sign of adulation, or that Redford did something right is the creation of competing festivals such as SXSW and Tribeca. Here are five more prediction picks, you can find the complete list of predictions by clicking here.

Two Gates of Sleep – Alistair Banks Griffin’s feature debut sees Brady Corbet (Funny Games U.S.) in the lead of Jack, who when his mother (Karen Young) turns up dead at the edge of a field near his rural home, sets out with his brother on an arduous journey to fulfill her last wish. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 60% Chance. If accepted, this would be in the dramatic comp. (IMDB Link)

Untitled Jeffrey Blitz Documentary – Jeffrey Blitz who preemed his last film at the festival, has been working on this project for a while now. We can expect a Spellbound type set-up. This focuses on characters who are “heavily invested, emotionally and financially, in the lottery,” examining how it has or hasn’t changed winners’ lives. It also tells the story of obsessive players who haven’t won. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 10% Chance. It all depends on if the film is completed or not. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)

Untitled Joaquin Phoenix Documentary – Not sure where the sight gag, experimental, mockumentary would fit in the scheduling, but if this says anything poignant about taking acting into public domain or society’s fixation on celeb, then this rare specimen might be worth checking out. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 40% Chance. Could be the biggest buzz title of the fest and perhaps Park City’s Main Street will be victim to an actual rap show. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)

Winter’s Bone – Debra Granik’s Down to the Bone was a big winner at the festival in 2004 – so I’d expect her to return with her latest project. Based on Daniel Woodrell’s novel which is set in the poverty-stricken hills of the Ozarks and see Rees Dolly, 17, (Jennifer Lawrence) struggles daily to care for her two brothers and an ill mother. When she learns that her absent father (John Hawkes), a meth addict, has put up the family home as bond, she embarks on a dangerous search to find him and bring him home for an upcoming court date. Lawrence is a real talent and along with Zoe Kravitz could be the “it” girl of the festival. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 90% Chance. Makes no Bones about it, this should be a title that will interest buyers. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)

Yelling to the Sky – Featuring a cast of the new batch of Sundance kids Zoe Kravitz, Gabourey Sidibe (Precious!), Shareeka Epps and EJ Bonilla, Victoria Mahoney’s feature film debut sees Sweetness O’Hara (Kravitz), who spends the better part of being seventeen navigating an identity between the known: a violent life of crime, and the unknown: a life of purpose and meaning. The project received tons of Sundance Lab support dating back to 2006. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 95% Chance. Should be a sought after, must-see title in the dramatic comp section. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link/Official Website)