Itโs a winter ritual at the Sundance Film Festival: As organizers present this yearโs crop of independent films, theyโll get to see how last yearโs fared at the coinciding Academy Awards nominations.
At least four dramas that premiered at Sundance a year ago โ including โWinterโs Bone,โ โBlue Valentineโ and โThe Kids Are All Rightโ โ have strong prospects at Tuesdayโs Oscar nominations, which come right in the middle of the 11-day festival. And seven of the 15 films on the short-list for the documentary Oscar nominations also debuted at Sundance in 2010.
Robert Redfordโs festival was started to give young filmmakers a showcase and help them connect with distributors to land their films in the real world. As the festival has grown, so has the quality and caliber of talent, and almost every year now, a few films emerge from Sundance to compete with the best of what the studios have to offer at the Oscars.
The urban drama โPreciousโ won the top Sundance prize in 2009 and earned six Oscar nominations last year, including best picture. It won the supporting-actress Academy Award for MoโNique.
The Ozark crime tale โWinterโs Boneโ earned Sundanceโs top honor a year ago and now is in the running for a best-picture Oscar nomination, along with a best-actress slot for Jennifer Lawrence.
โAs you start to go down lists of films that came out in the last year, you look for that kind of raw creativity,โ said festival director John Cooper. โThatโs why something like a โWinterโs Boneโ rises up and surpasses other less interesting Hollywood movies that came out.โ
The lesbian-family tale โThe Kids Are All Rightโ also is a strong contender for a best-picture Oscar nomination. Annette Bening won a Golden Globe for the film and is a potential best-actress front-runner on Oscar night.
The marital drama โBlue Valentineโ has lead-acting prospects at the Oscars for Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. Another 2010 Sundance premiere, the Australian crime thriller โAnimal Kingdom,โ could earn co-star Jacki Weaver a supporting-actress nomination.
Other past Oscar contenders that came out of Sundance include โLittle Miss Sunshine,โ โIn the Bedroom,โ โYou Can Count on Me,โ โHustle & Flowโ and โJunebug.โ
Among last yearโs Sundance documentaries with Oscar prospects is the public school study โWaiting for โSuperman'โ from director Davis Guggenheim. His 2006 global-warming chronicle โAn Inconvenient Truthโ won the documentary and best-song Oscar a year after it premiered at Sundance.
Others in the awards picture after playing Sundance last year include the war-on-terror documentaries โRestrepoโ and โThe Tillman Story,โ the graffiti-artist chronicle โExit Through the Gift Shopโ and the environmental study โGasland.โ
With the festivalโs strong commitment to documentaries, Sundance almost always serves as an incubator for films that will be on the awards map down the road.
โI think it is the beginning of a filmโs life in North America. At the beginning of the year, you often get a glimpse of some of the main contenders next year,โ said James Marsh, whose portrait of a World Trade Center daredevil, โMan on Wire,โ won the 2008 documentary Oscar a year after premiering at Sundance. โI think you will see some great documentary films this time, and Iโm sure some of them will be very, very present in the next awards season.โ
Marsh returns to Sundance this time with โProject Nim,โ chronicling the life of a chimpanzee that was taught sign language and raised like a human child.
Also back at Sundance is Morgan Spurlock, who came to the festival in 2004 with โSuper Size Me,โ his fast-food expose in which he ate nothing but McDonaldโs meals for a month. A year later, โSuper Size Meโ had an Oscar nomination for best documentary.
Spurlockโs Sundance premiere this time is โThe Greatest Movie Ever Sold,โ a documentary about product placement in films. After the yearlong buildup to awards season that began at Sundance for โSuper Size Me,โ Spurlock admitted heโs given some thought to next yearโs Oscars for his new film.
โI donโt stand in the shower and hold up shampoo bottles giving Oscar speeches just for fun,โ Spurlock said. โOnce you go, you think, God, I hope I get to go again sometime.โ
Luis Giraldo, Felipe Antonioli Return To DAVID As Creative Directors
Luis Giraldo and Felipe Antonioli have joined global agency DAVID as creative directors in its Miami office. After nearly three years at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, Giraldo and Antonioli are returning to DAVID where they were previously part of the creative team at DAVID Madrid (2019โโ22). Giraldo and Antonioli, who have been working together for seven years, will be creating for such DAVID clients as Google and Mondelez.
Giraldo and Antonioli will both report to Edgard Gianesi, DAVID Miamiโs chief creative officer. โWelcoming Luis and Felipe to the DAVID Miami team signals a bold step forward for the agency,โ said Gianesi. โTheir exceptional creative vision and ability to craft culturally resonant, award-winning work align perfectly with our mission of pushing the boundaries of whatโs possible in creative.โ
Throughout his career, Giraldo has worked on iconic campaigns for brands like Burger King, Pondโs Men, Corona, and Doritos. Recognized as the #1 copywriter in the world by the Cannes Lions Global Creativity Report (2021), Giraldo is the creator of one of the most awarded campaigns in Spanish advertising history--Burger King Stevenage Challenge--with accolades including a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, The One Show, and LIA, among others.
Antonioli returns as a highly acclaimed art director with over 13 years of experience across the U.S., European, and Brazilian advertising markets. He has developed innovative campaigns for global brands such as Doritos, Burger King, Corona, Dove, Magnum, and Havaianas. Antonioli has earned over 200 international awards, including the first-ever Titanium Lion for Spain, three Cannes Lions Grand Prix, and three Yellow Pencils at D&AD. He is also the... Read More