The Sundance Film Festival is back! After three years of virtual programming, Hollywood descends upon Park City, Utah once again. The picture-perfect snowcapped mountains stand ready to welcome cinephiles, casual fans, and industry professionals.
Over the next 10 days, more than 130 features, short films, conversations and other film-centric events will take place in northern Utah. While the main events happen in Park City, the Sundance Resort is also a favorite venue for certain institute and lab graduates and supporters. In recent years, Salt Lake City, just a short drive down the mountain from Park City, has expanded its venues and made way for the biggest fest yet.
There will be some big, anticipated premieres. Amazon, Focus Features, and other distributors have already started snatching up buzzy titles. Many of these will make their way to theaters later in the year. Netflix and A24 are certainly on the lookout for something noteworthy too. Sundance is the first stop for many independent films and over the next two weeks, there will be a lot of news about big deals and surprise acquisitions.
A lot of beloved — and notorious — films made their first stops at Sundance. Some of the biggest success stories include Napoleon Dynamite, In the Bedroom, The Blair Witch Project, and Get Out. And even if not as commercially successful, a great number of Sundance movies went on to Oscar glory. Films like Moonstruck, Cinema Paradiso, Boys Don’t Cry, and An Inconvenient Truth also got their starts in the Utah mountains.
There are a number of notable films getting ready to debut this week. Nicole Holofcener introduces her drama, You Hurt My Feelings, which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzes. Actress-turned-director Alice Englert brings her Jennifer Connelly-starring film, Bad Behavior, to the festival. Daisy Ridley stars in Sometimes I Think About Dying, a film which has already landed on many lists of Most Anticipated Films of 2023.
There will also be many documentaries. From Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields to Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, celebrity docs are all over the schedule.
With so many anticipated films to see, the truly exciting part about any festival — but Sundance in particular — are the discoveries. Walking into a theater and watching something no one else is talking about. This will be my fifth trip to the fest as a film critic and every year I find something new and exciting. Some film that isn’t on anyone’s radar. I can’t wait to see what film that will be this year.
Please follow along with all of our Sundance coverage. There will be reviews, a bit of news, and maybe even a few interviews.
