From Jan. 21-31, the next crop of up-and-coming filmmakers and actors—along with 50,000-plus attendees—will invade the mountains of Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. Founded by Robert Redford, it is the premier showcase for independent cinema in the world, with luminaries like the Coen brothers, David O. Russell, Darren Aronofsky, Quentin Tarantino, and more showcasing their debut films there. Last year, the critically acclaimed films Dope, The Wolfpack, The End of the Tour, James White, Going Clear, Tangerine, and Brooklyn all premiered at Sundance, and the ’16 edition boasts 120 feature films from 37 countries, culled from 4,081 submissions. Here are the can’t-miss movies—and a few TV shows—of Sundance 2016.
Photo Illustration by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast
In the wake of the mass-shooting in San Bernardino and President Obama’s subsequent executive action, gun control is one of the biggest hot-button issues in the country. Sundance will be tackling the national scourge of gun violence with a pair of documentaries on the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting—Newtown and Under the Gun—that left 20 young children and six adult staffers dead. On the narrative side, filmmaker Tim Sutton’s feature Dark Night unfolds over the course of a summer day before a shooting at a movie theater, and was inspired by the 2012 shooting in Aurora, Colorado. It’s already garnering comparisons to Gus Van Sant’s Palme d’Or-winning Elephant.
Sundance Film Festival
Executive-produced by J.J. Abrams and Stephen King—and based on King’s best-selling novel of the same name—this new Hulu original series stars James Franco as a high school English teacher who goes back in time to 1960s America to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Along the way, he explores the mystery surrounding alleged gunman Lee Harvey Oswald, and also falls for a fetching librarian, played by Sarah Gadon.
Sundance Film Festival
Marking the feature directorial debut of Richard Tanne, this romantic comedy follows a young associate by the name of Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) who, in 1989 Chicago, tries to win the heart of a young lawyer, Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter). Tanne’s film depicts the pair’s first date to the Art Institute of Chicago and a showing of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.
Sundance Film Festival
From the engrossing road movie Old Joy to the eco-thriller Night Moves, Kelly Reichardt has established herself as one of America’s finest indie filmmakers, and her latest film pairs her with three of the best actresses around: Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, and Laura Dern, who play three women whose paths cross in small-town America, leading to fascinating revelations.
Sundance Film Festival
Already acquired by Amazon Studios prior to its Sundance debut, filmmaker Joshua Marston’s (Maria Full of Grace) latest is a noirish drama about a married man (Michael Shannon) who comes across what he’s convinced is a mysterious old flame (Rachel Weisz) at a dinner party, though she doesn’t seem to remember him. He follows her, and the two embark on an all-night odyssey that may change their lives forever.
Sundance Film Festival
Acquired by Sundance Selects prior to its festival premiere, this documentary by filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg has already made waves in the press. It follows New York Congressman Anthony Weiner as he runs for mayor—until a photo-sexting scandal made “Carlos Danger” a nationwide laughingstock. Thanks to Kriegman’s post as Weiner’s former chief of staff, the doc provides inside access to the embattled Weiner and his wife, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, as they weather the shitstorm.
Sundance Film Festival
People were curious what Chelsea Handler would do next following the unexpected end of her E! talk series Chelsea Lately, and her first big project is this four-part documentary series (ahead of her planned talk show) for Netflix that sees the acerbic comedienne traveling the world to investigate four big social issues: race, marriage, drugs, and the tech industry. Controversy will, presumably, ensue. The docuseries is premiering at Sundance ahead of its Jan. 23 debut on the streaming service.
Netflix
This passion project from writer-director-star Nate Parker (Red Tails, Pride) sees him portray Nat Turner, the African-American slave who famously led a slave rebellion in Virginia on Aug. 21, 1831, that left 60 slaveowners (and many more slaves) dead. It’s named after the infamous 1915 silent film of the same name, and also stars Aja Naomi King, Gabrielle Union, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, and Armie Hammer as slaveowner Samuel Turner.
I am still annoyed that my favorite performance of 2015, Paul Dano’s brilliant turn as Beach Boys’ frontman Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, was passed over for an Academy Award nomination. Here, in this surreal drama by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the talented actor plays a man in the wilderness who stumbles upon a dead body (Daniel Radcliffe). With the corpse’s help, the two try to make their way back home. The film also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Sundance Film Festival
New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi, whose hilarious vampire send-up What We Do in the Shadows was met with critical raves at Sundance a few years back, returns with this comedy that centers on Ricky, a hip-hop obsessed city kid who starts a new life in the New Zealand countryside along with his new foster family. But when tragic circumstances force little Ricky, his dog Tupac, and his surrogate father Uncle Hec (Sam Neill) to go on the run from the law, they must choose whether to give in to the outside forces or survive together.
Sundance Film Festival
Acquired by Neflix prior to its Sundance debut, this comedy-drama marks the feature directorial debut of Sian Heder, a writer for the hit series Orange Is the New Black. When an irresponsible Beverly Hills mother (Allison Janney) hires a young babysitter (Ellen Page) for her toddler, the young woman takes it upon herself to kidnap the baby and raise it on her own, thinking she can provide the love it needs. The film also stars Uzo Aduba and Zachary Quinto.
Sundance Film Festival
One of the most fascinating-sounding films of this year’s Sundance is this, the latest feature from actor-director Matt Johnson. Distributed by Lionsgate, it centers on four undercover CIA agents who are sent to NASA to pose as a documentary film crew, and the agents discover a vast conspiracy with far-reaching consequences.
Sundance Film Festival
Any film by writer-director John Carney, who helmed the beautiful love story Once and the underrated love letter to New York City Begin Again, is well worth your time. His latest is this British-American musical about a young Irish boy who forms a band to impress a girl he’s crushing on. The movie, which will be distributed in the U.S. by the Weinstein Company later this year, features a soundtrack by Bono and cuts from celebrated ’80s acts like The Cure, The Clash, The Jam, and Duran Duran.
Sundance Film Festival
The latest from acclaimed indie filmmaker Ira Sachs, whose Forty Shades of Blue won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 fest and beautiful flick Love Is Strange was one of the most talked-about films of the ’14 edition, is this poignant look at gentrification in Brooklyn through the eyes of a shy middle schooler whose budding friendship is threatened when his father (Greg Kinnear) gets into a rent dispute with the friend’s mother (Paulina Garcia).
Sundance Film Festival
Twenty years ago, Todd Solondz established himself as one of the most unique voices in cinema with his debut feature Welcome to the Dollhouse, which took home the Grand Jury Prize. Now he’s back with this sequel of sorts that sees Dawn Weiner (played by Greta Gerwig) and an eccentric cast of characters have their lives changed by an adorable dachshund. Joining Gerwig are Kieran Culkin, Ellen Burstyn, Danny DeVito, Julie Delpy, and Zosia Mamet.
Sundance Film Festival
The latest documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog tackles not only the current state of the Internet, exploring the good (interconnectedness) and the bad (online harassment, Internet addiction), but the “profound and intangible questions regarding the Internet’s future.” With Herzog—and his unmistakable voice—as our guide, it should be quite the journey.
Sundance Film Festival
Premiering on Showtime in early February, this documentary from revered filmmaker Spike Lee is a companion piece of sorts to his previous Michael Jackson doc Bad25. Here, through a mix of archival footage, interviews with friends and family, and more, Lee traces MJ’s path from Motown to linking up with Quincy Jones and becoming the King of Pop.
Sundance Film Festival
Directed by Thai surrealist master Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose 2010 film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives took home the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes, this enigmatic drama concerns an epidemic of sleeping sickness that’s plaguing the people of Thailand, with those stricken failing to separate illusion from reality. The epidemic and the spirits that arise from it serve as a stark metaphor for the country’s history of internal strife.
Sundance Film Festival
