Starting this Thursday and for ten days, Hollywood moves to the snowy slopes of Utah.
For the first time since the advent of the pandemic, the Sundance festival, where the best of independent cinema and its new talents are unveiled, will take place in its usual scale and splendor, without reduction of sail.
Co-founded by actor Robert Redford, this event is held until January 29 in a ski resort over 2000 meters above sea level.
It is an essential launching pad for many low-budget films in search of a distributor.
After several online and hybrid editions, Sundance is the latest major film festival to return to a classic format.
It remains to be seen whether the auctions of the studios will be up to it.
The giants Netflix and Warner Bros impose a cure of austerity and economy, after having spent in an unlimited way to inflate their offer of streaming.
About 110 films share the bill this year.
Their creators are
"very excited"
to finally be able to meet in person, according to the festival's programming director, Kim Yutani.
“At the end of the day, that moment when the work meets the audience is something that we all really cherish
,” she explains.
“
The filmmaker's apprehension before the screening, the fact of being in front of this audience, of experiencing the reaction and the questions and answers (...), nothing can replace that.
»
Featured Documentary
Documentaries are traditionally the cornerstone of the festival.
One of the most anticipated this year is
Deep Rising
.
Narrated by Hawaiian actor and Aquaman
star
Jason Momoa,
the investigation unpacks the disturbing race to mine the seabed in search of rare metals useful for 'Green Revolution' batteries. ".
Another American star,
Dakota Johnson
, lends her voice to the script for
The Disappearance of Shere Hite
.
The documentary traces the forgotten story of the author of the Hite Report, a pioneering study on female sexuality, which sold millions of copies, but which sparked a violent misogynistic reaction.
Judy Blume Forever
tells how this American author introduced a generation of young girls to puberty and sex, but was attacked by conservative activists.
As in Cannes, the war in Ukraine is central.
Iron Butterflies
examines the crash of flight MH17, shot down in 2014 by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, and links the lack of consequences for those responsible to the current war.
The conflict is the subject of
20 Days in Mariupol
.
Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Adèle Exarchopoulos on the screens
Iran is also at the heart of concerns.
Joonam
follows three generations of women from the Iranian family of director Sierra Urich.
The fiction feature films
The Persian Version
and
Shayda,
produced by Cate Blanchett with
Zar Amir Ebrahimi
prize for interpretation at Cannes, also explore the stories of women in Iran and its diaspora, at a time when the country is shaken by important events.
Sundance will also be the rendezvous of the stars, delighted to put on sweaters and boots rather than evening dresses and stiletto heels and to swap the red carpets for the runways.
This Thursday, Game of Thrones
star
Emilia Clarke
and actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor
will present at opening night
The Pod Generation
, a social satire set in the near future, where a company has invented a detachable womb, allowing couples to share their pregnancy.
Revealed by the American remake of the Aries Family, CODA
star
Emilia Jones
returns to defend
Cat Person.
Adapted from a famous
New Yorker
short story , the drama chronicles a date between a young student and an older man that results in an affair and explores the gray areas of consent.
With
Fairyland
, inspired by a bestseller, the Briton goes back in time to the era when HIV ravaged San Francisco.
CODA had become the first Sundance-winning film to receive the Best Picture Oscar.
It was after its preview at Sundance that Apple TV+ acquired the family comedy at a gold price.
In
Eileen
, Anne Hathaway plays an attractive employee forming an ominous friendship with a lonely colleague (Thomasin McKenzie).
All under the tutelage of William Oldroyd, author of the noticed
Lady Macbeth
which propelled Florence Pugh into the limelight.
You Hurt My Feelings
reunites
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
(
Veep)
and director Nicole Holofcener.
The duo chronicles the disenchantment of a writer who learns that her therapist husband does not read her.
This brutal confession goes against an unwaveringly supportive spouse.
A Marvel superhero on the slopes
Future Marvel star
Jonathan Majors,
who portrays the terrible Kang in
Ant Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
, will star in
Magazine Dreams
, a portrait of a bodybuilder who pushes his body to its limits.
French people will also be present at Sundance.
In particular
Adele Exarchopoulos
.
The revelation of
La vie d'Adèle
gives the reply to the British Ben Whishaw and the German Franz Rogowski who camp a gay couple in search of extramarital adventures in
Passages
by Ira Sachs.
One finds a lover, the other a mistress.
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