Next month’s Sundance film festival will feature premieres of new movies starring Kristen Stewart, Saoirse Ronan, and Steven Yeun. The festival is celebrating its 40th year.
The Utah festival’s roster includes a variety of movie and TV debuts that showcase the “liveliness of independent storytelling,” with nearly half being helmed by first-time directors.
Stewart, who attended the festival in 2016 for Certain Women and in 2018 for Lizzie, will be back with a new film called Love Lies Bleeding. This romantic thriller, set in the 80s, is directed by Saint Maud’s Rose Glass. The Oscar-nominated actor will portray a gym manager who becomes enamored with a bodybuilder, played by Katy O’Brian from The Mandolorian. The story takes a dark turn as their love leads to violence.
The performer will also have a role alongside Steven Yeun in the movie Love Me, which depicts the unique love story between a satellite and a buoy who connect online after the end of humanity. “It’s difficult to describe,” Stewart stated to Entertainment Weekly when the film was first revealed in 2021. “I hope I do it justice because the script is truly groundbreaking.”
The film will be part of the main dramatic competition alongside the Searchlight-backed drama Suncoast starring Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson, Exhibiting Forgiveness starring André Holland as a painter reconciling with his addict father and Between the Temples, an “anxious comedy” led by Jason Schwartzman and the Triangle of Sadness star Dolly de Leon. The Filipino actor will also be at the festival in Ghostlight, a riff on Romeo and Juliet from Saint Frances writer Kelly O’Sullivan.
Ronan, who has been nominated for an Oscar four times, will be making a comeback to Sundance. She had previously brought the romantic drama Brooklyn to Park City in 2015. This time, she stars in The Outrun, a film based on Amy Liptrot’s memoir. Ronan’s character goes back to her hometown in the Orkney Islands to face her difficult history. According to Will Self of The Guardian, Liptrot’s story of overcoming challenges and healing is both courageous and exposed.
Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor is back as a director with the true story-inspired film, Rob Peace. The story follows a young man from Newark who achieves success by attending Yale, but upon his return to his hometown, things take a tragic turn. The cast includes Jay Will, Camilla Cabello, and Mary J Blige. Ejiofor’s previous directing credit was the 2019 movie The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
Soderbergh is set to debut his latest film, Presence, at the festival. The thriller, featuring Lucy Liu and Julia Fox, follows a haunted house plot. While specific information is currently undisclosed, the script is written by David Koepp, who previously worked with Soderbergh on the pandemic-themed movie Kimi.
The annual event, which has previously debuted scary movies like Saw, Hereditary, and Get Out, will also feature several new releases in the horror genre this year. One of these is I Saw the TV Glow, produced by Emma Stone and directed by Jane Schoenbrun of We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. The story centers on a group of teenagers whose perception of reality begins to falter when their beloved TV show gets cancelled. The film stars Justice Smith, who will also be present at the festival in the satire The American Society of Magical Negroes. This film follows a covert organization of Black individuals who devote themselves to aiding white people.
Some other new releases to look out for are A Different Man, a suspenseful film featuring Sebastian Stan as a character with neurofibromatosis who becomes fixated on the actor portraying him in a play about his own life; Freaky Tales, an anthology set in the 1980s directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, starring Pedro Pascal and Normani; My Old Ass, a comedy produced by Margot Robbie and starring Aubrey Plaza; and Winner, a second fictional movie about Reality Winner featuring Emilia Jones from the film Coda.
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At the festival, there will be a variety of documentaries shown, such as Girls State, a continuation of the award-winning 2020 film Boys State from Sundance, Power directed by Yance Ford which explores American policing, and Will and Harper, which documents Will Ferrell’s journey with his close friend who is transitioning to a trans woman. Other documentaries will spotlight individuals like Frida Kahlo, Christopher Reeve, the band Devo from the new wave era, and the Amazon Labor Union (ALU).
Robert Redford, the founder and president of the Sundance Institute, stated that since its inception in 1985, the Sundance film festival has strived to create a platform for daring artists to come together, celebrate, and connect with audiences by presenting their independent visions. Redford emphasized that the festival remains dedicated to this purpose even now. While it has undergone changes over the years, its tradition of showcasing daring and thought-provoking works that spark important discussions will continue with the 2024 program.
Out of the 82 films that have been announced, 46% were helmed by female directors and 45% were helmed by directors of color.
The festival for the upcoming year will occur between January 18th and January 28th.
Source: theguardian.com
