Tag: sundance

  • The Sundance Film Festival is back and online once more

    By Associated Press

    UNITED STATES: The lights may be dim at the Eccles Theater and Park City’s Main Street will have fewer cinephiles packing the snowy sidewalks when the Sundance Film Festival begins its 44th edition Thursday night. But if 2021 proved anything, it’s that the world’s premier independent film festival is more than its ski town locale.

    This year Sundance is back online and armed with nine days of high profile documentaries about everyone from Kanye West and Princess Diana to Lucille Ball and Bill Cosby, buzzy first films from knowns and unknowns, virtual gatherings, and filmmaker Q&As.

    The festival had planned to return to the mountains this year, but two weeks before thousands were set to gather in Park City, Utah, organizers decided to pivot instead of canceling or postponing, as many have done amid the omicron surge.

    The experience of 2021 taught the programmers that not only could they run a successful festival online, but that films could still break through even when filmmakers, audiences, buyers, sellers, and press weren’t all in the same physical place.

    Several films that premiered last year are in the awards conversation (from “ Summer of Soul ” to “ Passing ”). The festival also boasted a record acquisition too (Apple TV+ paid $25 million for the heartwarming “ CODA ”). The price was at least partially fueled by streamers needing fresh entertainment — a demand that has only intensified during the pandemic.

    And this year the festival’s programming is as robust as ever, with dozens of conversation-starting films.

    Opening night selections Thursday include “ Emergency,” a darkly comedic look at issues like race and assault, as well as Eva Longoria’s documentary “ La Guerra Civil,” about Oscar De La Hoya and Julio César Chávez’s 1996 fight and the questions of identity it raised for many Mexican Americans.

    “That fight really divided the Mexican community in the United States,” Longoria said. “It divided households.”

    For some, it’s a chance to get a buzz before release. The Kanye West docuseries “ jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy ” is debuting at the festival before Part 1 hits Netflix on Feb. 16 (with the other two parts coming over the next two weeks).

    ALSO READ: Sundance Film Festival 2022: Lena Dunham, Jesse Eisenberg films fills lineup

    The festival will also host the premiere of W. Kamau Bell’s “ We Need to Talk About Cosby,” which will be on Showtime later, and the first part of “ Phoenix Rising,” about Evan Rachel Wood’s journey to naming her alleged abuser, Marilyn Manson, before its HBO launch.

    Some have already made a splash at other festivals, like Audrey Diwan’s “ Happening,” a French drama about a college student seeking an abortion in the 1960s which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

    But most others are looking for a spotlight and distribution. Sundance has always prided itself on being a discovery festival and has helped jumpstart many filmmaking careers, from Steven Sodebergh’s to Ryan Coogler’s.

    “ 892,” from first-time filmmaker Abi Damaris Corbin is based on a story of a former Marine who holds up a bank. It is one of the higher-profile acquisition titles with John Boyega in the lead, with support from the late Michael K. Williams. Boyega said he was in tears reading the script. “I just thought this story needs to be told,” Boyega said.

    In another hot title, “ Watcher, ” Maika Monroe plays an American who has just relocated to Romania and begins to suspect she’s being stalked. Director Chloe Okuno’s atmospheric thriller captures a familiar experience for women and counts films like “Lost in Translation” and “Perfect Blue” as stylistic influences.

    “Sundance for a lot of independent filmmakers is the dream,” Okuno said. “It’s what you’re working towards.”

    Others have eagerly awaited follow-ups, like Lena Dunham’s “ Sharp Stick ” about a 20-something (Kristine Froseth) living in Los Angeles and Cooper Raiff’s “ Cha Cha Real Smooth, ” in which he stars opposite Dakota Johnson.

    There are many debuts from known names too, like Tig Notaro who alongside spouse Stephanie Allynne directs “ AM I OK? ” about two best friends played by Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno.

    Ramin Bahrani has the documentary “ 2nd Chance,” a lively and incisive look at the man who invented the modern bulletproof vest. And “Carol” screenwriter Phillys Nagy directs Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver in “ Call Jane,” one of two films at the festival about the Jane Collective, an underground group in Chicago that carried out abortions in the early 1970s.

    As always, pressing social issues are explored in myriad ways and can pop up in genre fares, like Krystin Ver Linden’s “ Alice,” starring Keke Palmer as an enslaved woman who discovers it’s actually 1973, and more straightforward documentaries, like Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s “ Aftershock,” a moving look at the maternal health crisis and its disproportionate impact on Black women.

    Some deals are already underway: Searchlight Pictures acquired “ Fresh, ” a dating thriller starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, to stream on Hulu starting March 4.

    Still, it’s a bittersweet moment for many, especially filmmakers early in their careers who looked forward to the energy of an in-person gathering.

    “I think I was numb to it at first. Over the last few days, I started to feel it a little bit more,” Okuno said. “Obviously, it’s very disappointing for any filmmaker. At the same time, I completely understand.”

    One film, “Final Cut,” from “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius, even pulled out of the festival when it switched to the online format.

    But Jackson learned last year that the festival can be just as rewarding online. “There’s nothing virtual about the feelings of the filmmakers, the excitement of the audience, and the impact of the work,” Jackson said.

    Though many individual films are already sold out, there are also still many options available to film fans and Sundance-curious audiences for whom Park City was never an option. Jackson recommends the Explorer Pass, which she describes as a microcosm of the festival.

    “Festivals allow us to elevate voices and perspectives that may not be what the marketplace is looking for, but certainly once the work is seen, then the marketplace expands to accommodate them, and that’s what we’ve seen throughout history,” Jackson said.

    “Being there first and helping to support these voices and these perspectives and people speaking truth to power, that’s what a ticket does: It’s an investment in this incredible freedom of creative expression.”

  • Sundance Film Festival 2022: Lena Dunham, Jesse Eisenberg films fills lineup

    By Online Desk

    UTAH: The Sundance Film Festival returns to in-person premieres this January at Park City, Utah. Agents, studio executives and movie lovers will resume their annual pilgrimage to the venue after a year of virtual experience as the previous edition was held virtually.

    Culling from 3,762 feature submissions, the Sundance programmers chose a diverse slate of 82 titles — including 39 by first-time feature directors — in a variety of genres that explore myriad themes, like tackling grief and battling the status quo.

    “We’ve been through a lot these past two years and I think that has had a huge influence on what artists are concentrating on,” Sundance’s director of programming, Kim Yutani, said. “Some of that is fighting the system, really calling into question institutions, corporations. We saw a lot of films that are looking at the fight for democracy.”

    Examples include Rory Kennedy’s documentary “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,” “The Exiles,” a nonfiction film centering on three dissidents after the Tiananmen Square massacre; and two films that examine the Jane Collective – the documentary “The Janes,” directed by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes and the other, “Call Jane,” is a fictional feature from Phyllis Nagy.

    “It’s kind of the hallmark of independent work, isn’t it? Resistance to the status quo,” said the festival director, Tabitha Jackson. “This year, it’s reflecting on the fact that we are in this age of reckoning, this age of accountability.”

    Of the submissions to Sundance this year, only 28 percent were from women. Yet among all the features selected, 52 percent were directed by women. When asked whether the programmers decided to boost women auteurs over men, they steered around the question, saying they are always looking to promote female filmmakers. Jackson added: “The slightly depressing fact is that the figure of 28 percent submissions from women has remained pretty static across the years. It is a figure that we would wish to see higher because of what it indicates about the state of the industry. It’s surprising that so few are submitting.”

    The majority of the films at the festival, which runs Jan. 20-30, will arrive without distribution, a fact that Jackson calls “kind of cool.” But they’re also debuting at a time when the theatrical distribution is still depressed amid consumers’ fears about returning to the movies. 

    Films premiered at the Sundance are endured as some of the year’s best making a run for awards: Abi Damaris Corbin’s directorial debut, 892, Cha Cha Real Smooth directed by Cooper Raiff, Am I OK? directed by Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne, Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, a mockumentary helmed by Adamma Ebo, Oliver Hermanus’s Living,  Sharp Stick directed by Lena Dunham, When You Finish Saving the World directed by Jesse Eisenberg, Aftershock directed by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee.

    Sundance is moving forward with in-person screenings, but the emergence of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID could complicate those plans. The Berlin Film Festival, for instance, has reportedly explored the possibility of delaying its February event as Europe deals with a surge in cases. Even before Omicron, Sundance had put certain safety measures in place. It requires attendees to show proof of vaccination and will mandate masks at screenings, for instance. The festival will also offer to test and require proof of negative tests for people attending some events.

    “The festival is designed to be flexible and accommodate the vagaries of our current public health situation,” says Jackson. “The science isn’t in yet, so it’s going to be a couple of weeks before we understand the prevalence of Omicron and the seriousness of it. This is a daily conversation. We know we have the capability of putting on a great festival, whatever happens. It’s just about responding sensibly to the facts on the ground.”