The Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City after a two-year virtual hiatus and that means the in-person awards ceremony returned as well. Well, sorta.
21.01.2023 - 04:57 / deadline.com
Emilia Jones earned a lot of attention as the star of 2021’s big Sundance winner and eventual Best Picture Oscar winner CODA, and the praise should be continuing this year as she not only stars in Cat People, but also Fairyland, which had its world premiere in Park City today.
Sofia Coppola serves as lead producer for this American Zoetrope production of Andrew Durham’s feature film writing and directing debut, and it is a memorable one that is unlikely to leave a dry eye in the house. It had me in quiet tears by the end of this film adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s moving 2013 memoir of growing up in San Francisco with her widowed father just as gay pride was taking hold and the AIDs epidemic was on the horizon. This is a not a sweeping panorama of what happened there in the 1970s and ’80s, but rather a personal coming-of-age story of the unconventional relationship between a gay single father and the daughter he must bring up alone after the tragic death of his wife.
Although this is set at that time and in those circumstances, it is at its very big heart a universal story of family, love, staying true to who you are, and being there for each other when it counts the most.
The book and film are the account of Alysia whose mother was killed in a car accident in the early ’70s and then moved with her father Steve (Scoot McNairy) to San Francisco circa 1974, where he could pursue his dreams of writing poetry and live out of the closet as a gay man. Of course some, including Alysia’s grandmother (Geena Davis), did not think this was naturally the best way to bring up a young child (played by Nessa Dougherty as the younger Alysia), and at times neither did Alysia, now without a mom, and whose new blended family consisted of
The Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City after a two-year virtual hiatus and that means the in-person awards ceremony returned as well. Well, sorta.
The Sundance Film Festival has begun unveiling its Jury and Audience Award winners for 2023.
Three. Frustrating. Years. That’s how much time has passed since the Sundance Film Festival last held an in-person edition in Park City, Utah. (Put it this way: The opening night selection was the Taylor Swift documentary, Miss Americana, which chronicled the making of her 2018 album of Reputation. So, like, ancient history.) Blame the pandemic, of course. Because of safety fears, attendees couldn’t be in the room for the premiere of the eventual Oscar Best Picture winner, Coda, or cheer along for Questlove and the first screening of his own future Oscar pic, Summer of Soul. No sightings of a random Real Housewives star on the bustling Main Street. No napping during 8:30 AM screenings. No huffing and puffing walking in the snow in the frigid weather at high altitudes. No nothing.
Winter runway! Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and more stars took over Sundance Film Festival 2023 — and made the event all about their stylish ensembles.
There is so much to appreciate about A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One. The film chronicles the lives of native New Yorkers from 1994-2005, which was a period of transition in NYC. The atmosphere began to change, as stop and frisk was over-utilized, gentrification was displacing the people of Harlem at rapid speed, and the culture of the city gave way to sterilization. Now there are even fewer resources available, the wage gap is beyond repair and it’s unaffordable. Rockwell drew inspiration from this and created a coming-of-age story about finding an identity and chosen family.
Theater Camp is a hilarious film by first time directors Molly Gordon (Booksmart), and Nick Lieberman. This was a collaborative effort between friends as it’s written by Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Nick Lieberman, and Noah Galvin. You can tell this is a labor of love because while it’s kooky, it’s full of vulnerability and earnestness.
The Persian Version, directed and written by Maryam Keshvarz stars Layla Mohammadi, and Niousha Noor as a mother and daughter at odds with one another.
EXCLUSIVE: Nielsen, the audience measurement, data and analytics organization unveiled today the findings of their case studies on Native content at a panel discussion in the Indigenous House at Sundance Film Festival, presented by , the Native woman-led social justice organization dedicated to building visibility and representation for Native peoples.
Written and directed by Nida Manzoor, Polite Society stars Priya Kansara (Bridgerton), Ritu Arya (Umbrella Academy) and Nimra Bucha (Disney+ Ms. Marvel). The Focus Features movie had its world premiere Friday in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival.
Magazine Dreams is a drama and second feature directed by Elijah Bynum, which stars Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett, Taylor Paige, and Harrison Page
So far nearly all the films I have been seeing for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival are based on true stories, from a teacher in Radical to a gay single father in San Francisco circa 70’s and 80’s to Michael J. Fox as himself, and now yet another iconic character gets his story told on the big screen. World Premiering at Sundance tonight is Cassandro, a wild story of the first openly gay wrestler in the ultra macho sport of Mexico’s Lucha Libre.