By Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --Hollywood is bundling up and descending on Park City, Utah to kick off the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Thursday.
Although the first films of the two-week long festival won't premiere until Thursday evening, the ski town is already bustling with activity as brands and sponsors rush to finish plastering Main Street with logos and installations before the thousands of film fans and filmmakers touch down. But although the temptations in town are many — from flashy virtual reality set-ups and performances from the likes of Arcade Fire, to cozy lounges and filmmaker panels — the films themselves remain the main event for Sundance attendees. The opening night selections are long sold out.
The festival officially starts Thursday evening with the premieres of "After The Wedding," an adaptation of Susanne Bier's Oscar-nominated Danish film starring Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore, and "The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley," Alex Gibney's documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
"I hope (audiences) get a deep dive into the psychology of fraud and the psychology of capitalism," Gibney said. "That's what's really interesting to me about this, that journey of why we believe certain stories and why certain storytellers are effective."
Also debuting Thursday night are "Native Son," a contemporary reimaging of the Richard Wright novel, "Memory: The Origins of Alien," about the Ridley Scott film, and "Apollo 11," which has never-before-seen or heard footage from the mission. Opening night films have tended to run the gamut from excellent ("Whiplash") to forgettable ("The Bronze").
The Robert Redford-founded film festival is host this year to 117 feature films, 105 world premieres and even some retrospectives, including a 20th anniversary screening of "The Blair Witch Project."
Recent hits that debuted at Sundance include "The Big Sick," ''Get Out," ''Eighth Grade," ''Sorry to Bother You," ''RBG" and "Won't You Be My Neighbor?." Even with competition from Netflix and Hulu there are still some indies that break out. But lately some of the pricier acquisition deals have not panned out, like last year's "Assassination Nation," which was purchased for $10 million and went on to gross only $2.5 million at the box office.
This year programmers have promised a return to the discovery aspect that Sundance made its name with. With a new director of programming in place in Kim Yutani, the festival also has a diverse lineup of filmmakers behind the camera too: 39 percent of the projects were directed by women and 35 percent by people of color.
"What attracted me to Sundance in the first place was my love of independent film and the types of stories that they've showed over the years: Stories about outsiders, people on the margins, things that exist outside of the mainstream," Yutani said. "Part of (my goal) is keeping up that legacy and making sure our program is as diverse as possible."
The festival runs through Feb. 3.
Changes Afoot For Cannes Lions 2025, Including Increasing Festival Access For Underserved Communities
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is putting plans in motion for its 72nd edition, set to take place from June 16-20, 2025 in Cannes, France. The Festival has announced that it will double funding to provide โฌ2m (some $2,150,000) worth of complimentary passes to underrepresented talent and underserved communities through its Equity, Representation and Accessibility (ERA) Pass, returning for a second year.
Frank Starling, chief DEI officer, Lions, said the increased investment was โcrucial to continue to drive progress for both Cannes Lions and the industry.โ Starling added, โThe ERA pass plays an important role in fostering a global representation of talent within the creative communications industry at Cannes Lions, and to date our funded opportunities have reached creatives in 46 countries globally. With the Festival being the destination for everyone in the business of creativity, we recognize the importance of creating equitable access to it, and this is why weโre prioritizing increased representation from the Global South to support a greater range of voices and perspectives from the region at the Festival.โ Applications for the ERA pass are open now and close on December 5, 2025. More details can be found here.
With submissions into the Cannes Lions Awards opening on January 16, 2025, innovations to the Awards have also been announced today. Glass: The Lion for Change celebrates 10 years since its introduction. The Glass Lion was launched to champion work that used creativity to drive a shift towards more positive, progressive and gender-aware communication, and Marian Brannelly, global... Read More