When Sundance kicks off in a bit beneath two months, it’ll face a singular problem. Unspooling for the final time in its longtime house of Park Metropolis, Utah, the competition should someway pay tribute to the legacy and historical past of an occasion that has develop into very tied to the bundled-up, snow-capped romanticism of that particular place.
On the similar time, there must be an air of pleasure and expectation about shifting on to the competition’s new house in Boulder, Colo., starting with the 2027 version.
“We will maintain each of these issues in our hearts on the similar time,” says John Nein, senior programmer and director of strategic initiatives, in a video interview this week from Los Angeles, with a heat smile.
On Wednesday, Sundance launched its upcoming lineup of 90 function movies and 7 episodic tasks, no less than a handful of which is able to probably emerge as pacesetters for the remainder of the yr.
Among the many most high-profile titles on this yr’s forthcoming program are writer-director Cathy Yan’s art-world satire “The Gallerist,” starring Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega; David Wain’s comedy “Gail Daughtry and the Movie star Intercourse Go,” starring Zoey Deutch and Jon Hamm; and the world premiere of “The Second,” starring Charli XCX in a fictional story as a pop star.
Olivia Wilde directs “The Invite,” starring alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton as neighbors at a cocktail party gone incorrect. Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe co-star in Padraic McKinley’s “The Weight,” a survival drama set in Nineteen Thirties Oregon.
And amongst a strong-sounding number of documentaries might be quite a few portraits on notable figures, together with musician Courtney Love (“Antiheroine”), Brittney Griner, the feminine basketball star who was jailed in Russia (“The Brittney Griner Story”), tennis champion Billie Jean King (“Give Me the Ball”) and Nelson Mandela (“Troublemaker”).
Brittney Griner seems within the documentary “The Brittney Griner Story.”
(Sundance Institute)
Creating a way of continuity with Sundance’s previous, this system consists of new tasks from quite a few directorial alumni, corresponding to Gregg Araki’s provocative “I Need Your Intercourse,” starring Wilde and Cooper Hoffman; Alex Gibney’s documentary “Knife: The Tried Homicide of Salman Rushdie,” primarily based on the writer’s memoir; and Nicole Holofcener’s pilot for the brand new present “Nervous.”
Nein, talking alongside competition director Eugene Hernandez and director of programming Kim Yutani, says competition alumni are reaching out unsolicited in search of methods to take part — or just attend, desirous to be in Park Metropolis one last time.
“And that’s the vitality and vitality of our group,” Nein says. “It’s one that’s keen and enthusiastic for Sundance Movie Competition to proceed and to proceed to serve artists. And we’re listening to that additionally by way of the keenness for Boulder.
“To me, they form of play hand in hand,” he provides. “The method that we have now to honoring our historical past is similar method that we’re bringing to persevering with that historical past, and ensuring that these artists proceed to have alternatives to thrive.”
Including to the emotion swirling across the upcoming version of Sundance is the September dying of Robert Redford, founding father of the Sundance Institute and longtime figurehead for the competition. Tributes to Redford’s legacy at Sundance had been already within the works as a part of the acknowledgment of the competition’s relationship to Utah and Park Metropolis.
Robert Redford in 1969’s “Downhill Racer,” directed by Michael Ritchie.
(Sundance Institute / Paramount Photos)
Among the many deliberate occasions might be a screening of Michael Ritchie’s 1969 movie “Downhill Racer,” which starred Redford as a strong-willed snowboarding champion, a movie he usually referenced concerning his personal relationship to creative independence.
Placing collectively this yr’s competition would already be a frightening job, other than the pressures of claiming goodbye to Park Metropolis and Redford each, in addition to the latest dying of Sundance communications chief Tammie Rosen.
For Yutani, yearly brings its personal difficulties, remembering all too effectively the pivots made in the course of the pandemic, when the in-person occasions of 2021 and 2022 had been canceled.
“The final 5 years have been quite a bit for us to deal with,” says Yutani. “I feel that what I’ve tried to do on this yr is simply actually keep within the second: Have a look at what’s coming at us from these filmmakers who’ve such robust visions and are simply doing issues in artistic and modern methods. And simply to be open to what we’re seeing and never get too slowed down in what’s in our previous or apprehensive an excessive amount of in regards to the future.”
As Hernandez factors out, yearly brings a brand new crop of filmmakers who’re experiencing the competition for the very first time, so they don’t are available in with the bags of expectations.
“As a lot as we will discuss in regards to the legacy and historical past and the previous timers, which I feel will add an unbelievable facet to the competition this yr, we’re making a competition that can also be targeted on the celebration of latest voices,” says Hernandez. “For thus many individuals, it will likely be model new, it doesn’t matter what.”
Son Sukku, left, and Moon Choi in Stephanie Ahn’s film “Bedford Park.”
(Sundance Institute / Jeong Park)
This system this yr doesn’t draw back from grappling with the difficulties of the world outdoors the competition. A number of titles in U.S. Dramatic Competitors — in some ways the signature part of the competition, comprising home discoveries — make a number of references to tales concerning worldwide and immigrant tales, at a time when these matters really feel significantly entrance of thoughts, culturally and politically.
Yutani factors to Stephanie Ahn’s “Bedford Park,” a few Korean American lady grappling along with her abusive previous, and Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei’s “The Buddy’s Home Is Right here,” about two girls navigating the underground artwork scene in Tehran, as exemplars of the sorts of tales that had been catching the eye of the programming staff.
“There’s a lot that we see that resonates with us,” says Yutani. “And I feel that these explicit movies are ones that actually simply stood out to us and are available from such robust viewpoints. We haven’t essentially seen them informed in fairly this fashion.”
Different notable titles in U.S. Dramatic Competitors embody NB Mager’s “Run Amok,” about an inflammatory highschool musical; Giselle Bonilla’s “The Musical,” a few romantic rivalry between a instructor and a principal, that includes Rob Lowe; and Josef Kubota Wladyka’s “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” a few Japanese ballroom-dancing scene.
The Midnight and Subsequent sections will function many potential breakout titles as effectively, together with Tamra Davis’ ’90s music documentary “The Greatest Summer time,” that includes members of the Beastie Boys, the Amps and Sonic Youth; Ian Tuason’s podcast horror movie “undertone”; “Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant,” from the New Zealand directing staff often known as THUNDERLIPS and Kogonada’s “zi,” with Haley Lu Richardson of “White Lotus” and “Columbus.”
In the meantime, over within the extra star-heavy Premieres part might be “Chasing Summer time,” written by and starring comic Iliza Shlesinger; Jay Duplass’ “See You After I See You,” starring Cooper Raiff and David Duchovny; and Macon Blair’s “The S—heads,” starring Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr.
Bassists Kim Gordon, left, and Kim Deal within the documentary “The Greatest Summer time.”
(Tamra Davis / Sundance Institute)
On the Academy Awards earlier this yr, Kieran Culkin gained a supporting actor Oscar for his position in “A Actual Ache,” which premiered greater than 13 months earlier at Sundance in 2024. Celebrated filmmakers on this yr’s awards race — together with “Sinners” director Ryan Coogler and “Hamnet” filmmaker Chloé Zhao — first broke out with early works on the competition. And several other of final yr’s Sundance standouts, corresponding to “Practice Goals,” “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, “Sorry, Child” and “The Good Neighbor,” stay within the awards dialog.
“I want to say it’s not significant, but it surely actually is,” Yutani says with amusing. “Every year we see all these movies that we’ve programmed into the competition and so they all succeed on their very own phrases in several methods. As soon as we launch this program, it’s now not ours. And the way the general public or the business reacts to them is all the time fascinating to us.”
Yutani recollects introducing the world premiere of “Sorry, Child” (whose writer-director-star Eva Victor was simply nominated for a Golden Globe on Monday) and staying to observe the movie play to an viewers for the primary time.
“It was an unbelievable screening,” recollects Yutani. “You recognize when a filmmaker’s life goes to alter and I feel that there’s one thing simply so particular about that, one thing so gratifying to us because the individuals who first acknowledge a movie.”
And that appears to be what these behind Sundance most need to uphold and carry ahead: a dedication to offering a highlight for brand spanking new voices.
“It’s at the start actually daring, distinctive views and storytelling that these artists are bringing to us,” says Hernandez.
At a time when the type of inclusivity that’s on the core of Sundance’s mission is beneath ongoing assault, one may learn this yr’s program as a rebuke.
Hernandez recollects his response to first seeing “Bedford Park” whereas into account for this yr’s program, being moved and shaken and realizing there’s something very particular all of them can do as programmers.
“As Mr. Redford stated in 2017, administrations will come and go and Sundance will all the time stay targeted on unbiased artists and storytelling,” says Hernandez. “And that’s one thing that we have now the privilege of having the ability to proceed to do and to maintain.
“And we’ll take that with us to Boulder in 2027 and past,” says Hernandez.
