Sundance Film Festival's 2023 lineup has heart, horror, and high-school mariachi
Clockwise, from L-R: The Longest Goodbye; The Starling Girl; The Pod Generation; L’Immensita
The list of films to be highlighted at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival has finally arrived, and the first in-person festival since 2019 already shows promise. The 99 films that will feature at this year’s Salt Lake City/Park City hybrid event span personal narratives, forward-thinking fiction features and documentaries, many of which will see world premieres at the festival. Here’s what to keep an eye out for on the line-up come January 19, organized by competition category:
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Comprised of twelve original films, this year’s American dramatic lineup features some big swings, including All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt, Raven Jackson’s sweeping character study of a Mississipi woman played by Charleen McClure. Randall Park’s directorial debut Shortcomings, the Jonathan Majors-led Magazine Dreams from Elijah Bynum, and Laurel Akira Parmet’s The Starling Girl also stand out on the lineup. The latter stars Little Women’s Eliza Scanlen as a teen girl grappling with her place in a Christian fundamentalist community as a charismatic young pastor returns to town. Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying, which stars Daisy Ridley as a woman obsessed with her own mortality (and also features Hacks MVP Meg Stalter) will have a Day One premiere.
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U.S. Documentary Competition
From the South Texas high-school mariachi team profiled in Going Varsity in Mariachi to the trans Meatpacking District sex workers whose advocacy is chronicled in The Stroll, this year’s American documentary competition promises a diverse slate of stories. Asian artist Nam June Paik, Little Richard, poet Nikki Giovanni, and feminist sexuality pioneer Shere Hite will also see documentaries on their lives and legacies premiere in this category.
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Another extensive and strong category, international dramas we’ll see highlighted this year include the Jennifer Connelly-led Bad Behaviour, Patricia Ortega’s MAMACRUZ, Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, and Sofia Alaoui’s Animalia. Australian director Noora Niasari’s Shayda is this category’s Day One premiere. The film follows an Iranian mother whose independent life in an Australian shelter is thrown into jeopardy when her ex-husband reappears in her and her daughter’s lives.
World Cinema Documentary Competition
Two entries from Ukraine feature in this year’s documentary competition: 20 Days in Mariupol, which follows Ukrainian journalists trapped during Russian invasion, and Iron Butterflies, documenting a 2014 war crimes investigation regarding the death of a pilot. Denmark, Germany, and Canada also each have two entries apiece. Israeli-Canadian director Ido Mizrahy’s The Longest Goodbye, which follows a NASA psychologist who helps astronauts fight social isolation, is the only film in this category with a Day One premiere. All the films in this category will have their world premiere at Sundance.
Next
Highlighting emerging filmmakers, this year’s Next lineup includes Day One premiere Kim’s Video, a documentary that follows a filmmaker seeking a lost collection of 55,000 films in Sicily. Babak Jalali’s Fremont (which features The Bear breakout Jeremy Allen White), Walé Oyéjidé Bravo, Burkina!, and Qasim Basir’s To Live And Die And Live continue to round out a nine-film lineup. Maya Rudolph-produced documentary The Tuba Thieves also features here.
Midnight
Reserved for films that “will keep you wide awake, even at the most arduous hour,” the Midnight category of competition will be home to multiple premieres this year, including Day One world premieres of Laura Moss’s zombie psychodrama birth/rebirth and the Sarah Snook-led Run Rabbit Run.
Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool marks one of the most anticipated films in this set. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, and Cleopatra Coleman, the film follows a couple whose beach vacation goes bad, then worse, after an accident. Sundance will also screen Infinity Pool’s world premiere.
World Premieres
The largest category at Sundance, this year’s world premieres slate deals heavily in variety. Leading the pack as the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize winner is Sophie Barthes’ The Pod Generation. The Nicholas Braun-led drama Cat Person has also been stirring buzz ahead of the festival. Director Sebastian Silva makes his return this season with The Rotting Pool, which he also stars in alongside Jordan Firstman. Comedy You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, brings some lightness to the lineup. Documentaries on Brooke Shields and Judy Blume, Michael J. Fox, the Indigo Girls, and pioneering fashion maven Bethann Hardison will all also premiere this year.
New Frontier Films
Highlighting experimental films that significantly push format boundaries, the New Frontier category has three films this year, two of which are documentaries. Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser’s documentary A Common Sequence explores the interconnections of labor practices, while Deborah Stratman’s Last Things looks at evolution and extinction from the time-wisened perspective of rocks. Finally, Fox Maxy’s fictional work Gush places ruminations on male and female power against an apocalyptic, transformative backdrop.
Spotlight
Five films from the past year will receive the Sundance spotlight in 2023: Saim Sadiq’s Joyland; Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains; Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children; and Anton Corbijn’s music documentary Squaring The Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis). Emanuele Crialese’s L’Immensità, which stars Penélope Cruz as a woman adjusting to a new life in Rome, is this section’s Day One premiere.
Kids
For the little ones, Sundance has three films this year, including the one that’s been chosen as the Salt Lake City Opening Night Gala Film: Robert Connolly’s Blueback. Featuring Mia Wasikowska and Eric Bana, the film follows a mother-daughter duo who bond over a shared passion for protecting the ocean’s inhabitants. Rounding out the lineup: Aliens Abducted My Parents And Now I Feel Kinda Left Out, and The Amazing Maurice, an animated caper with the voice talents of Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, Himesh Patel and more.
Sundance will return to an in-person format this year for the first time since 2019. The festival kicks off January 19 and concludes on the 29th.
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