2011 Sundance Predictions: Vera Farmiga’s Higher Ground

#16. Higher Ground – Vera Farmiga

Last year, Sundance welcomed Mark Ruffalo and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debuts for a world premiere launch (Sympathy for Delicious and Jack Goes Boating respectively), seems fitting they’ll do the same for an actress whose career got a major jump start at the fest with her brilliant perf in Down to the Bone. Shot this summer, it would be a “miracle” if Vera Farmiga’s debut, an adaption of Carolyn Briggs’ memoir This Dark World is somehow completed: juggling two new babies one called Higher Ground, the other one in a literal sense of the word.

Scripted by Briggs and Tim Metcalfe, featuring Farmiga, Donna Murphy, John Hawkes, Dagmara Dominczyk and Joshua Leonard, and lensed by Debra Granik’s DP Michael McDonough, this follows outsider Corinne Walkers’ (Farmiga) journey from childhood to motherhood. Growing up, Corinne faces many challenges. A traumatic loss is the catalyst for the disintegration of her parents’ troubled marriage. She always finds herself overlooked by peers and family in favor of her younger, wild-child sister Wendy. And as she is preparing to enter the world fresh out of high school, she is shocked to find herself pregnant with her rock star boyfriend’s baby… If ready we can expect this to land a spot in either the Premieres or U.S. Dramatic Competition categories. 

* Producers: Claude Dal Farra, Renn Hawkey, Carly Hugo, Matthew Parker, Jon Rubinstein
(IONCINEMA.com Preview Page // IMDB Link)