Yesterday, the Sundance Film Festival announced 91 of their projects to be featured in the 40th edition of the festival next month. We’re so excited to kick off our coverage next month. In the meantime, we wanted to share eleven films and one episodic work that caught our eye. All summaries are pulled from the Sundance 40 program. The festival takes place January 18th through the 28th both in-person and online.
Ghostlight – directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson
When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.
Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan’s moving, gently comic collaboration is about the power of live theater to make sense of our offstage dramas and personal narratives. Ghostlight centers on Dan (Keith Kupferer), a melancholic middle-aged construction worker grieving the tragic death of his teenage son. Cut off from his devoted wife Sharon (Tara Mallen) and talented but troubled daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), Dan finds comfort and community in a misfit company of amateur actors. While moonlighting in a low-rent production of Shakespeare’s most protean tragedy, Dan is forced to confront his buried emotions. Real-life family Mallen, Kupferer, and Mallen Kupferer bring tenderness and authenticity to this poignant portrait, while Dolly de Leon — last seen stealing the scene in Triangle of Sadness — is hilarious as Dan’s irascible, improbable co-star.—MC
Power – directed by Yance Ford
Driven to maintain social order, policing in the United States has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now, American policing embodies one word: power.
A cogent essay film inviting conscious engagement and reflection on a system of control that has gone largely unquestioned, Power is a sweeping chronicle of the history and evolution of policing in the U.S. With assured precision and deep insight, filmmaker Yance Ford (Strong Island, U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling, 2017 Sundance Film Festival) compellingly argues that the perceived danger of race to the status quo is central to the origins of policing and to its unchecked expansion. Asking pointed, uncomfortable questions about privilege and class; about who belongs to the social order and who is excluded; and about our collective responsibility in actively or tacitly permitting those in power to escape accountability, Power confronts us with the prescient words of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”—BT
Available in person. Also available online for credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).
Girls State – directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss
Teenage girls from wildly different backgrounds across Missouri navigate a week-long immersive experiment in American democracy, build a government from the ground up, and reimagine what it means to govern.
Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ anticipated return to the captivating world of teenage-led politics follows ambitions unfolding as hundreds of teenage girls gather to build a representative government in Missouri during a session of Girls State co-hosted alongside Boys State. As the girls run for office, including governor and supreme court seats, they also methodically preside over a reproductive rights case while the real-life overturning of Roe v. Wade hangs in the balance. McBaine and Moss stay embedded in Girls State, following several charismatic candidates, but these aspiring change-makers keenly take note of the Boys State program, and the differences between the programs, sparking outcry and awakening.
Girls State deftly reflects urgent issues around gender equality and our political landscape through the energetic and tenacious lens of youth. The candidates’ resilience and adaptability shine through, revealing that no closed doors are stopping these girls.—SO
Penelope (episodic) – directed by Mel Eslyn
Feeling out of place in modern society, a 16-year-old is drawn into the unknown wilderness, where she begins forming a new life for herself.
Available in person. Also available online for credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).
Winner – directed by Susanna Fogel
Reality Winner is a brilliant young misfit from a Texas border town who finds her morals challenged while serving as an NSA contractor. A sarcastic, gun-lovin, vegan, yogi, and CrossFit fanatic, Reality is an unconventional whistleblower who ends up being prosecuted for exposing Russia’s hacking of the 2016 election.
At once heartwarming and hard-hitting, Winner captures a depth of character, nuance of ideology, and historical detail that brings Reality Winner’s story to the screen with vibrancy and emotional thrust. Rarely can a true story be adapted so cinematically and with such fidelity to its subject matter. Weaving together the story of one unique family and a political landscape that has abandoned truth, Winner is a refreshing ode to people who have conviction and are willing to sacrifice to prove it.
Writer-director Susanna Fogel returns to the Premieres section with this tender political drama after bringing Cat Person to the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Sundance regular Emilia Jones (star of CODA, Fairyland, and Cat Person) once again leads up Fogel’s terrific cast including Connie Britton, Zach Galifianakis, Kathryn Newton, and Danny Ramirez.—AH
Black Box Diaries – directed by Shiori Ito
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
Black Box Diaries was born out of Ito’s need to document her investigation — a response to the authorities’ refusal to pursue her case in a meaningful manner. More importantly, it was a way to journal her fears and thoughts as she anticipated the backlash that followed.
As the film’s director, Ito accomplishes something remarkable. On one hand, Black Box Diaries has a raw and honest quality to it — it’s a personal journey from the perspective of a victim piecing together the crime she experienced, while pushing herself to the extreme. At the same time, it is an impressively crafted, concise piece of filmmaking — guided by a strong sense of purpose and broken up by occasional moments of joy. Shiori Ito came forward to challenge her high-profile abuser despite knowing the risks. Her bravery meant hope for others and the prospect of real change to a broken system.—AT
Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 25–28) and credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).
FRIDA – directed by Carla Gutiérrez
An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.
Carla Gutiérrez, renowned for her masterful editing of films including Sundance Film Festival projects RBG (2018), When Two Worlds Collide (2016), and Cesar’s Last Fast (2014), brings artistry and a deep understanding of her subject to an astonishing directorial debut. Through a cacophony of rich archival sights, music, and journal entries joyfully brought to life, we become immersed in Frida’s interior world, fears, arduous relationships, and events that drove her indelible artistic creations. Gutierrez vibrantly guides us through Frida’s complex relationship to her own work, navigating the tension between art as commerce and painting for pleasure and self-knowledge. With reverence, thoughtfulness, and the color of pure emotion, Frida invites us to get to know one of the greatest artists of the 20th century in a completely new way.—AS
Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 25–28) and credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).
Love Lies Bleeding – directed by Rose Glass
Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
Following her critically acclaimed first feature Saint Maud, Rose Glass makes her Sundance Film Festival debut with a bombastic, larger-than-life sophomore effort. An off-the-wall, rambunctious lesbian love story crashes into a family drama of the darkest ilk in this muscular thriller. As a small-town gym and a ravine just outside city limits become the playground for all flavors of mischief and mayhem, a heightened Americana sensibility and Glass’ deliciously distinctive, bold style create a world that is at once familiar and entirely fresh. Helmed by Sundance regular Kristen Stewart (Speak, Adventureland, Certain Women) and Katy M. O’Brian, Love Lies Bleeding is somehow as sweetly romantic about loyalty as it is doggedly hedonistic. With a vaulting imagination and its roots in deeply human places, this film packs a gut punch unlike any other.—AH
Exhibiting Forgiveness – directed by Titus Kaphar
Utilizing his paintings to find freedom from his past, a Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a recovering addict desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.
This soulful, sophisticated, and beautifully crafted debut feature blossoms a hard to tell story about destructive parenting, the seasons of angst weathered by an abused child becoming a successful human being, and the deep meaning and salve of creative practice.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker and celebrated painter, Titus Kaphar, turns his attention again to cinema to innovate a fresh cinematic language that incorporates the language of paint and canvas to tells the story of Tarrell (André Holland), an art star reckoning with his own traumatic childhood by creating powerful and transcendent paintings.
At the radiant heart of Exhibiting Forgiveness is Tarell’s artistic process which illuminates how a creative practice can redeem illnesses of the soul, forge pathways toward regaining power over one’s own destiny, and forgive and transform despite the spiritual damage. —SF
Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 25–28) and credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).
My Old Ass – directed by Megan Park
The summer before college, bright-yet-irreverent Elliott comes face-to-face with her older self during a mushroom trip. The encounter spurs a funny and heartfelt journey of self-discovery and first love as Elliott prepares to leave her childhood home.
Writer-director Megan Park’s tender, surprising sophomore feature cleverly uses its high-concept premise of a visit from one’s future self to launch a refreshing, nuanced exploration of the uncertainties of young romance and coming of age. My Old Ass is a sweet teenage love story, a lively contemporary comedy, and a quirky riff on time-travel films all in one.
Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza have a terrific unlikely chemistry, as the sass and self-assuredness of the young Elliott, as played by Stella, blends and overlaps with Plaza’s sardonic humor as a more mature Elliott. The care and affection shown in the film’s depiction of Elliott’s rural hometown in her last days before taking off for adulthood visually highlights her emotional journey, evoking a nostalgia for days that haven’t even ended yet.—HZ
Every Little Thing – directed by Sally Aitken
Amid the glamour of Hollywood, Los Angeles, a woman finds herself on a transformative journey as she nurtures wounded hummingbirds, unraveling a visually captivating and magical tale of love, fragility, healing, and the delicate beauty in tiny acts of greatness.
A film of joy and wonder, EVERY LITTLE THING offers profound truths in a deceptively simple story. What does it mean to care for another, and what impact does this act have on us? In tending to these fragile yet resilient hummingbirds, Terry Masear finds a sense of healing from her own past. Her diminutive patients — brought into sharp focus through breathtaking, beautifully detailed photography — become memorable protagonists in their own right. The viewer becomes emotionally invested in Cactus, Jimmy, Wasabi, Alexa, and Mikhail, celebrating their small victories and lamenting their tiny tragedies. The compassion and empathy that Masear shows her Lilliputian charges serves as a lesson to us all — a reminder that in the smallest of acts, and in the tiniest of creatures, we might find grace.—BT
Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 25–28) and credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).
Daughters – directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae
Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.
A moving lesson in empathy and forgiveness, Daughters is a result of an eight-year documentary journey that filmmaker Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, an activist advocating for “at-promise” girls, embarked upon. As Aubrey, Santana, Raziah, and Ja’Ana get ready for the special event, they speak candidly about their hopes, dreams, and disappointments. There is an innate wisdom and honesty to what they share about their dads’ inconsistent presence; an awareness far beyond their years. Daughters meaningfully challenges many stereotypes around incarceration and serves as a poignant reminder that maintaining family bonds can be both healing and empowering. We get to witness a lot of joy, but in keeping with the film’s vérité style, Rae and Patton don’t shy away from more challenging moments, including heartbreak, skepticism, reluctance to engage, and anger. But then comes a classic dad joke, and the mood shifts again.—AT
Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 25–28) and credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).
Cinema Femme Sundance 40 coverage coming soon, sponsored by the Gene Siskel Film Center.
