Predictions 2010 Sundance Film Festival: Ruffalo, Tadjedin, Husson

We are capping off the Sundance predictions today. Here are another five predictions for the upcoming 2010 edition.

Stranger Things – Filmmakers (Eleanor Burke/Ron Eyal) were part of Filmmaker Magazine’s Top 25 New Faces list this year and they took part in the IFP Independent Film Week, making this an attractive, indie project thats fits well with the Sundance model. Filmed across the pond, this tells the story sees Oona is a young woman faced with the dreadful task of clearing out her dead mother’s home. Returning to the countryside property, Oona discovers a vagrant, Mani, has broken into the house. Their surprising friendship surmounts the disparities between them and offers unexpected hope and strength. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 20% Chance. Could be this year’s Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck combo? (IMDB Link/Official Website)

Sympathy for Delicious – It would be nice to see Mark Ruffalo showcase his directorial debut in a festival that literally first “unearthed” him back in circa You Can Count on Me. Coincidently, that film starred Laura Linney who happens just to be in this film as well. Written by Chris Thornton, this sees “Delicious” Dean O’Dwyer, a paralyzed DJ struggling to survive in his wheelchair on the streets of L.A. He turns to faith-healing and mysteriously acquires the ability to cure the sick — although not himself. Ruffalo plays a Jesuit priest who tries to help him come to terms with the limits of his gift, and Bloom a rock singer in a band that exploits the suddenly famous healer. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 50% Chance. The fest which contains a strong musical element might be the best venue after SXSW, but it is the best place to get a sale and find an audience for sympathetic dramas. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)

Tell Me (aka Last Night) – Massy Tadjedin’s directorial debut has a good chance at finding a spot at the festival this year, the screenwriter has participated in the labs for future writers, and The Jacket (which she penned) was shown at the festival in 2005. Like in The Jacket, this features Keira Knightley as one half of a married couple, (with Sam Worthington) separated for a night when the husband takes a business trip with a colleague he desires (Eva Mendes). While he’s away, his wife encounters her past love (Guillaume Canet). Sundance Prediction Forecast: 60% Chance. With a pegged March release from Miramax, this makes logistical sense to play at the fest beforehand. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)

Tiny Dancer – Paying the bills with music video work, filmmaker Eva Husson has been working on her feature debut for a while now…but as they say, good things do happen sometimes to those who wait, or those stuck in post-production. A former AFI student, she choose the backdrop of Spanish Harlem, where a talented high-school girl struggles to find the right balance between her overpowering family, her discovery of love, and her passion for contemporary dance… only to find out that there’s no balance, there are just choices. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 70% Chance. Husson brought the project to the Sundance lab back in 2005. (IMDB Link)

To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America – Part of the 2009 batch of Documentary Edit and Story Lab Fellows, docu-filmmaker Gayle Ferraro follows Muhammad Yunus, known for developing the concept of microcredit, reached seven and a half million povertystricken
families in Bangladesh with his Grameen Bank. This film profiles the Nobel Prize winner’s newest location in
Queens, New York, and 500 women borrowers. Sundance Prediction Forecast: 40% Chance. Doc films that change lives, are the type of docu films that the fest not only supports, but like to insert in their programming. Here is a list of other docs that might be ready and were supported by the same lab. (IMDB Link)