8 Breakout Sundance Films You Need to See

They’ve got a vision. This year’s Sundance film festival brought directors new and established to the mountain to showcase and celebrate their films. 2020 saw 15,100 submissions and only 244 accepted projects. The accepted slate spanned across 44 countries, 47 first time feature filmmakers. And the lot are diverse: 44 percent of projects by female filmmakers, 37 percent by filmmakers of color and 19 percent by LGBTQ+ filmmakers. Here are eight (of many) directors to breakout through the Utah cold and shine bright during the festival.

Radha Blank: 40-Year-Old Version

Radha is the second Black woman ever — after Ava DuVernay for Middle of Nowhere in 2012 — to win the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Directing Award. And for good reason — a film that’s equally heartfelt as it is hilarious, Radha’s vision is clear. A self-proclaimed “Sundance baby,” Radha’s pen and eye have been sharpened by the Sundance labs she’s been apart of and the TV shows (Empire, She’s Gotta Have It) she’s written for. But to take a loosely inspired personal story of following your dreams even when you get older and blow it out into a black-and-white, NY hip-hop centric adventure? That’s something only Radha could do.

Edson Oda: Nine Days

In Edson’s Nine Days, the meaning of life is explored in a provocatively where non-living people have to apply for the job of being born. “All the other characters, they just want you to be alive," Edson tells Teen Vogue about the pretext of the film. “They want you to reach that goal.” A celebrated commercials director and 2017 Sundance Screenwriters Lab Fellow, Edson’s feature film was developed through the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Labs. The stunning film stars Winston Duke (Black Panther), Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, and Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange).

Maïmouna Doucouré: Cuties

Maïmouna is not a novice to the festival circuit; she won the Short Cuts awards at TIFF 2015 and the Short Film Jury Prize for International Fiction at Sundance 2016 for Maman(s). She’s returned with her new film, already picked up by Netflix, named Cuties. A coming-of-age film about girls in the internet age, Maïmouna rackets up the discomfort and voyeurism to get her point across. It’s jarring but effective. Effective enough to secure the win for the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award.

Channing Godfrey Peoples: Miss Juneteenth

Set in Forth Worth, TX, Channing’s Miss Juneteeth is a heartwarming story about a woman named Turquoise whose dreams of success are deferred — yet she pushes her daughter to compete for the title of Miss Juneteeth as she did as a teenager. Starring Nicole Beharie (42), Kendrick Sampson (Insecure), and newcomer Alexis Chikaeze the film highlights the Black Texan community in a deliberately radiant light, giving voice to a pageant embedded in tradition and pride. “Phonetically we were playing with this whole idea of Juneteenth and Texas slaves finding out they were free two years after everybody else,” Channing tells Teen Vogue. “So we were constantly playing with this theme, like what happens when good things come too late for Turquoise?”

Janicza Bravo: ZOLA

A Sundance alum (2013’s Gregory Go Boom, 2017’s Lemon) and a TV director for shows such as Atlanta, Janicza knows how to set the stage for a wild event. So when the opportunity to get the rights to Zola’s story came — based off the viral Twitter thread about a Hooters’ waitress who travels to Florida to strip — she put her hat in the ring. Finding the right pacing between comedy and drama, Janicza cranks up the tension all the way to 11 for this wild weekend.

Lee Isaac Chung: Minari

In 2007, Lee made multiple festival rounds with Munyurangabo, a film about friendship in the midst of the Rwandan genocide. He’s been busy since then, directing, writing, and producing multiple films. For Minari, Lee is digging deep into his own Korean upbringing to put forth a tender story of a family in search of the American dream. Minari has won both the U.S. Grand Jury Dramatic Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at this year’s festival. Immigrants get the job done.

Garrett Bradley: Time

Garrett has been in tune with prison reform stories; her short Alone also centered incarceration won the 2017 Short Form Nonfiction Jury Award at Sundance. After returning to Sundance last year with her doc short America, she’s back in the mountains with Time. A grand love story weaved with the history of the prison-industrial complex, Time is visceral. And people have taken notice; it won this year’s U.S. Documentary Directing Award.

Max Barbakow: Palm Springs

Andy Samberg leads this hilarious film about two people who find love in the desert — with a time-loop twist. The irony of spending eternity as a wedding guest doesn’t escape the audience as Andy, Cristin Milioti (How I Met Your Mother), J.K. Simmons, and Camila Mendes all play their parts in the insanity. As Max’s first feature film, Palm Springs was impressively picked up by Neon and Hulu for a whopping $17.5 million.

-Additional reporting by Danielle Kwateng-Clark

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue