In Focus: 2020 Sundance Film Festival
Since 1978, filmmakers and industry insiders have made the slopes of Utah home for a week of film screenings and revelry. The Sundance Film Festival offers the first looks at many of the independent films that will shape the future awards season and allow certain filmmakers to transition from unknowns to sought after auteurs.
In recent years, films like Garden State, The Blair Witch Project, (500) Days of Summer, and Napoleon Dynamite began their surprising box office runs with screenings at the fest. And, directors like Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and Paul Thomas Anderson earned their big breaks while showcasing their early works.
This year, the fest runs from January 23 to February 2 and welcomes back many filmmakers who’ve been absent on the scene for a bit, including Miranda July and Benh Zeitlin. Among the 118 feature-length films announced today as part of the festival’s 2020 lineup are 44 by first-time feature filmmakers. 46% of the films are directed by women. 38% are directed by people of color. 12% are directed by members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Here’s a look at the films premiering in Park City that have already piqued interests:
Aggie (USA) - Director and screenwriter: Catherine Gund; Producers: Catherine Gund, Tanya Selvaratnam
An exploration of the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund who sold Roy Lichtenstein’s painting “Masterpiece” in 2017 for $165 million to start the Art for Justice Fund to end mass incarceration.
Cast: Agnes Gund, Darren Walker, Ava DuVernay, Thelma Golden, John Waters, Glenn Ligon
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (USA) - Directors: Bill Ross, Turner Ross'; Producers: Michael Gottwald, Chere Theriot
In the shadows of the bright lights of Las Vegas, it’s last call for a beloved dive bar known as the Roaring 20s. A document of real people, in an unreal situation, facing an uncertain future: America at the end of 2016.
Boys State (USA) - Directors: Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine; Producers: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss
In an unusual experiment, a thousand 17-year-old boys from Texas join together to build a representative government from the ground up.
Charm City Kings (USA) - Director: Angel Manuel Soto; Screenwriters: Sherman Payne, Chris Boyd, Kirk Sullivan, Barry Jenkins; Producers: Caleeb Pinkett, Clarence Hammond, Marc Bienstock
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his win, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
Cast: Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Meek Mill, Will Catlett, Teyonah Parris, Donielle Tremaine Hansley, Kezli Curtis,
Dick Johnson Is Dead (USA) - Director: Kirsten Johnson; Screenwriters: Nels Bangerter, Kirsten Johnson; Producers: Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness
With this inventive portrait, a cameraperson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Dinner in America (USA) - Director and screenwriter: Adam Rehmeier; Producers: Ben Stiller, Nicholas Weinstock, David Hunter, Ross Putnam, John Covert, Sam Slater
An on-the-lam punk rocker and a young woman obsessed with his band go on an unexpected and epic journey together through the decaying suburbs of the American Midwest.
Cast: Kyle Gallner, Emily Skeggs, Pat Healy, Griffin Gluck, Lea Thompson, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen (USA) - Director: Sam Feder; Producers: Amy Scholder, Sam Feder
An investigation of how Hollywood’s fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.
Cast: Laverne Cox, Mj Rodriguez, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Chaz Bono, Jamie Clayton
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (Ukraine, Lithuania) - Director: Iryna Tsilyk; Producers: Anna Kapustina, Giedre Zickyte
To cope with the daily trauma of living in a war zone, Anna and her children make a film together about their life among surreal surroundings.
Ema (Chile) - Director: Pablo Larrain; Screenwriters: Guillermo Calderon, Alejandro Moreno; Producer: Juan de Dios Larrain
After a shocking incident upends her family life and marriage to a tempestuous choreographer, Ema, a reggaeton dancer, sets out on an odyssey of personal liberation in this incendiary story of art, desire, and the modern family.
Cast: Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Santiago Cabrera
The Glorias (USA) - Director: Julie Taymor; Screenwriters: Julie Taymor, Sarah Ruhl; Producers: Alex Saks, Lynn Hendee
An equal right crusader, journalist and activist: Gloria Steinem embodies these and more. From her role in the revolutionary women’s rights movement to her travels throughout the US and around the world, Steinem has made an everlasting mark on modern history. A nontraditional chronicle of a trailblazing life.
Cast: Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Bette Midler, Janelle Monae, Timothy Hutton, Lorraine Toussaint
High Tide (Argentina) - Director and screenwriter: Veronica Chen; Producers: Esteban Mentasti, Hori Mentasti
Laura is spending a few days at her beach house to supervise the construction of a barbecue shed. One afternoon, she seduces the chief builder, who never returns. Over the following days, the builders continually invade her home - until Laura grows ferocious.
Cast: Gloria Carra, Jorge Sesan, Cristian Salguero, Mariana Chaud, Camila Fabbri, Hector Bordoni
Horse Girl (USA) - Director: Jeff Baena; Screenwriters: Jeff Baena, Alison Brie; Producers: Alana Carithers, Jeff Baena, Alison Brie
A socially awkward woman with a fondness for arts and crafts, horses, and supernatural crime shows finds her increasingly lucid dreams trickling into her waking life.
Cast: Alison Brie, Debby Ryan, John Reynolds, Molly Shannon, John Ortiz, Jay Duplass
I Carry You With Me (USA, Mexico) - Director: Heidi Ewing; Screenwriters: Heidi Ewing, Alan PAge Arriaga; Producers: Mynette Louie, Heidi Ewing
An epic love story spanning decades is sparked by a chance encounter between two men in provincial Mexico. Based on a true story, ambition and societal pressure propel an aspiring chef to leave his soulmate and make the treacherous journey to New York, where life will never be the same.
Cast: Armando Espitia, Christian Vazquez, Michelle Rodriguez, Angeles Cruz, Arcelia Ramirez, Michelle Gonzalez
Kajillionaire (USA) - Director and screenwriter: Miranda July; Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner
Low-stakes grifters, Old Dolio and her parents invite a chipper young woman into their insular clan, only to have their entire world turned upside down.
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger
La Leyenda Negra (USA) - Director and screenwriter: Patricia Vidal Delgado; Producers: Alicia Herder, Marcel Perez
In Compton, a soon-to-be undocumented teenager fights for her right to stay in America while risking her family, her friendships, and her first love.
Cast: Monica Betancourt, Kailei Lopez, Irlanda Moreno, Justin Avila, Sammy Flores, Juan Reynoso
Minari (USA) - Director and screenwriter: Lee Isaac Chung; Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh
David, a 7-year-old Korean-American boy, gets his life turned upside down when his father decides to move their family to rural Arkansas and start a farm in the mid-1980s, in this charming and unexpected take on the American Dream.
Cast: Steven Yeun, Han Yeri, Youn Yuh Jung, Will Patton, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho
Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind (USA) - Director: Laurent Bouzereau; Producers: Natasha Gregson Wagner, Manoah Bowman, Laurent Bouzereau
Exploring actor Natalie Wood’s life and career through the unique perspective of her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and others who knew her best. An examination of her personal and professional triumphs and challenges, which have often ben overshadowed by her tragic death at age 43.
Nine Days (USA) - Director and screenwriter: Edson Oda; Producers: Jason Michael Berman, Mette Marie Kongsved, Matthew Lindner, Laura Tunstall, Datari Turner
In a house distant from the reality we know, a reclusive man interviews prospective candidates - personifications of human souls - for the privilege that he once had: the be born.
Cast: Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl
The Nowhere Inn (USA) - Director: Bill Benz; Screenwriters: Carrie Brownstein, Annie Clark; Producers: Jeff Steiger, Lana Kim, Annie Clark, Carrie Brownstein
When St. Vincent sets out to make a documentary about her music, the goal is to both reveal and revel in the unadorned truth behind her on-stage persona. But when she hires a close friend to direct, notions of reality, identity, and authenticity grow increasingly distorted and bizarre.
Cast: Annie Clark, Carrie Brownstein
Possessor (Canada, United Kingdom) - Director and screenwriter: Brandon Cronenberg; Producers: Niv Fichman, Andrew Starke, Kevin Krikst, Fraser Ash
Vos is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company. When something goes wrong on a routine job, she finds herself trapped inside a man whose identity threatens to obliterate her own.
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Rebuilding Paradise (USA) - Director: Ron Howard; Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Xan Parker, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes
On November 8, 2018, a spark flew in the Sierra Nevada foothills, igniting the most destructive wildfire in California history and decimating the town of Paradise. Unfolding during the year after the fire, this is the story of the Paradise community as they begin to rebuild their lives.
Shirley (USA) - Director: Josephine Decker; Screenwriter: Sarah Gubbins; Producers: Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Sue Naegle, Sarah Gibbons, Jeffrey Soros, Simon Horsman
A young couple moves in with the famed author, Shirley Jackson, and her Bennington College professor husband, Stanley Hyman, in the hope of starting a new life but instead find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Shirley’s next novel.
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, Logan Lerman
Spaceship Earth (USA) - Director: Matt Wolf; Producers: Stacey Reiss, Matt Wolf
In 1991 a group of countercultural visionaries built an enormous replica of earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. When eight “biospherians” lived sealed inside, they face ecological calamities and cult accusations. Their epic adventure is a cautionary tale but also a testament to the power of small groups reimagining the world.
Summertime (USA) - Director: Carlos Lopez Estrada; Screenwriters: Dave Harris, 19 Get Lit Poets; Producers: Kimberly Stuckwisch, Jeffrey Soros, Alisa Tager, Simon Horsman, Diane Luby Lane
In the heat of the summer, the lives of 25 strangers collide. A love letter to Los Angeles written and performed by a collective of young spoken word poets.
Cast: 19 Get Lit Poets
Taylor Swift: Miss Americana (USA) - Director: Lana Wilson; Producers: Morgan Neville, Caitlin Rogers, Christine O’Malley
A raw and emotionally revealing look at one of the most iconic artists of our time during a transformational period in her life as she learns to embrace her role not only as a songwriter and performer, but as a woman harnessing the full power of her voice.
Cast: Taylor Swift
Uncle Frank (USA) - Director and screenwriter: Alan Ball; Producers: Alan Ball, Peter Macdissi, Michael Costigan, Jay Van Hoy, Bill Block, Stephanie Meurer
In 1973, when 18-year-old Beth and her uncle Frank take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch’s funeral, they’re unexpectedly joined by Frank’s lover Walid. A story about family, forgiveness, and our inherent power to choose who we want to be.
Cast: Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi, Steve Zahn, Judy Greer, Margo Martindale
Us Kids (USA) - Director: Kim A. Snyder; Producers: Kim A. Snyder, Maria Cuomo Cole, Lori Cheatle
Determined to turn unfathomable tragedy into action, the teenage survivors of Parkland,Florida catalyze a powerful, unprecedented youth movement that spreads with lightning speed across the country, as a generation of mobilized youth take back democracy in this powerful coming-of-age story.
Wendy (USA) - Director: Benh Zeitlin; Screenwriters: Benh Zeitlin, Eliza Zeitlin; Producers: Dan Janvey, Josh Penn, Paul Mezey, Becky Glupczynski
Lost on a mysterious island where aging and time have come unglued, Wendy must fight to save her family, her freedom, and the joyous spirit of youth from the deadly peril of growing up. The classic story of Peter Pan is wildly reimagined in this ragtag epic.
Cast: Devin France, Yashua Mack, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, Ahmad Cage, Krzysztof Meyn
Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness (Iran, France, Germany, Switzerland) - Director and screenwriter: Massoud Bakhshi; Producers: Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin
Maryam accidentally killed her husband Nasser and is sentenced to death. The only person who can save her is Mona, Nasser’s daughter. All Mona has to do is appear on a TV show and forgive Maryam. But forgiveness proves difficult when they are forced to relive the past.
Cast: Sadaf Asgari, Behnaz Jafari, Babak Karimi, Fereshteh Sadr Orafaee, Forough Ghajebeglou, Fereshteh Hosseini
Zola (USA) - Director: Janicza Bravo; Screenwriters: Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O. Harris; Producers: Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Vince Jolivette, Elizabeth Haggard, Dave Franco, Gia Walsh
2015: @zolarmoon tweets “wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch there fell out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” Two girls bond over their “hoeism” and become fast friends. What’s supposed to be a trip from Detroit to Florida turns into a weekend from hell.
Cast: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, Colman Domingo
For a complete look at the entire 2020 Sundance Film Festival schedule, click here.
