Sundance 2019: the nine best moments of Awkwafina to Shia LaBeouf

Just after Thanksgiving, as the rewards season gains momentum and the top 10 lists begin to appear everywhere, Sundance's schedule arrives to provide a glimpse of what awaits us next year. The 2019 program is one of the most ambitious to date: the list of 112 films recently announced by 152 countries includes a range of promising new works, most of which have been considered in Sundance's IndieWire Wish List. Although the program contains many familiar names, this year's Sundance is already very different from previous editions, largely because fewer headlines have emerged as obvious sources of hype. Instead, there is cohesion in a program that brims with new, potentially compelling work that reflects a new global sensibility.

This is the testimony of the new director of programming, Kim Yutani, a Sundance veteran who replaced Trevor Groth, a long-time programmer, earlier this year. While Groth excelled in attracting some of the festival's most important events over the years, Yutani relied on his experience in niche festivals like Outfest to look for opportunities to give him a consistent vision.

While festival programmers are often forced to invent discussion topics to explain their disparate programming decisions, Sundance 2019 actually contains several unifying ingredients. Yutani used her experience as a short film programmer to follow many talented filmmakers ready to make a big impact with their feature films this year, from Pippa Bianco (with the troubling teen thriller "Share") to Lulu Wang ("The Farewell "). "A lot of my relationships with short filmmakers have been instrumental in this breakthrough," Yutani said.

"Kim has proven that he understands how to take a refined approach to festival conservation, as opposed to film after film, which plays for the public," said festival director John Cooper, who oversees the final selection. . Yutani has added a few new members to the programming team, which has achieved gender parity this year, and described her 2019 festival programming experience as the result of many experiences that she has accumulated over the years and focused on different parts of the festival, including LGBT and short films. movies. This allowed him to consider the situation as a whole. "It's an adjustment to enter this role but also exciting," she said. "It's the moment when everything is set up."

Here is an overview of the most important takeaways from the range published to date, with some contributions from Yutani and Cooper.

The Intensive Global Cinema

Sundance has been trying for several years to develop the reputation of its global film competitions, despite its close badociation with the American independent film. The commercial agents are wary of the international titles presented at the festival, unlike the more international festivals like Berlin and Cannes, but the current world film competition is the most promising since the launch of the festival by international sections more than ten years ago. "We had each and every one of the films we wanted," said Yutani, who drew on her experience to travel to the international co-production markets in order to shoot outstanding international films, many of which also appear in the section. first. "We are very committed to representing the world we live in, not just the American way," Cooper said. "To have bigger conversations about it, you have to have international cinema."

Joanna Hogg

Nils Jorgensen / REX / Shutterstock

Outstanding foreign titles at Sundance this year include the feature film "Monos" by director Alejandro Landes, which describes a takeover of a hostage-taking, which includes a score by composer Jackie Micah. Levi. From Brazil, Gabriel Mascaro – whose Expressionist rodeo drama "Neon Bull" was a celebration two years ago – returns with "Divine Love", which explores a religious woman who helps couples avoid divorce while fighting against her own wedding. Then there's British director Joanna Hogg ("Exhibition"), who has long been known in her home country for her groundbreaking work on death, but has yet to explode in North America. This could change with "The Souvenir," the first of a two-part feature film project starring Tilda Swinton and her daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, in an intense drama about a film student who has a relationship with an enigmatic man. "I think Sundance is a great place for it to be exposed to a wider audience," Yutani said.

However, Yutani was even more inclined to choose "We Are Little Zombies," which she had watched during a trip to Tokyo earlier this year. The story of siblings who deal with the unexpected death of their parents by forming a rock band, the film is inspired by the short film by screenwriter-director Makoto Nagahisa, "And we put the goldfish in the "Pool," which won the 2017 Sundance Jury Grand Prix. After seeing the new film, "we just felt that it was impossible not to show this movie," Yutani said. She and Cooper were equally enthusiastic about the British "The Last Tree" selection, which revolves around a British teenage girl of Nigerian descent, forced to cope with a sudden change in lifestyle in London. "I thought it would be some type of movie before the first third, then it went again and then again," Cooper said. "There are movies that I dread to watch and then I adore when they totally engage me and turn me around."

Underrepresented stories occupy a central place

Sundance is a paradise for African-American filmmakers long before industry diversification demands reach their height. All from Ryan Coogler to Lee Daniels, launch award-winning titles in Park City. The current range is very promising in this regard. Cooper and Yutani said the first-ever film for 2019 was Julius Onah's feature film "Luce", covering very different topics from his latest film, "The Cloverfield Paradox," which had been screened on Netflix earlier. this year. Onah's promising new book features Naomi Watts and Tim Roth in the couple adopting an Eritrean teenage son whose future is compromised by the appearance of new information about his past. "It's exploring that gray zone of what people choose to believe," Yutani said. "We were so intrigued by this."

Joining Onah in the American competition, "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" suggests a spiritual sequel to Barry Jenkins's "Medicine for Melancholy", with another story from the Bay Area of ​​an African-American man wrestling with the gentrified landscape of the city. Produced by "Moonlight" Plan B and A24 supporters, screenwriter-director Joe Talbot's debut should be a major event for the festival. "It's exciting to shoot in this movie," Cooper said. "It's really the American dream."

Awkwafina controls the projector

Programmers have not skimped on American-Asian stories. One of the most intriguing is "The Farewell," the first film of US-Chinese director Lulu Wang, which stars "Crazy Rich Asians" and the thief of "Ocean & # 39; s 8" scenes, Awkwafina, as a woman returning to her native China. to visit his sick grandmother. The charismatic rapper is ripe for a complex vehicle that benefits from its presence on the screen and everything indicates that this production gives him to think that she found it. "It's such a personal story, based on the director's own family, and you can feel it in the texture of the film," Yutani said. (Awkwafina is also part of the cast of the NEXT "Paradise Hills" playlist.)

Actress Awkwafina attends the world premiere of "Ocean's 8" at Alice Tully Hall, New York

Evan Agostini / Invision / AP / REX / Shutterstock

Another important entry on the American-Asian experience, "Mrs. Purple", finds director Justin Chon who goes on to compete after his beloved "Gook" was discovered in the NEXT section two years ago The story revolves around a karaoke hostess in Los Angeles's Koreatown, who faces a variety of family-related issues: "I've never seen such a movie, and Justin is just the person who could have said so, "said Yutani," There is a real authenticity in many of the films we have chosen this year. "

Women dominate the competition

For the first time in its history, the Sundance American Dramatic Contest is dominated by women, with 53% of entries. "We have not followed that as intensely as in the world we live in now," Cooper said of previous editions. "We always program with parity and representation in mind. I think the truth is that it was a pretty organic way to get together here. We chose the ones that were moving, interesting and difficult for the contest. Nevertheless, "when you adjust the program, you really look at these numbers." Promising entries from this year's directors include Pippa Bianco's "Farewell," "Share," and "To The Stars," a Martha Stephens-era piece in Oklahoma, including the film "Land Ho!" Was a NEXT breakthrough. But participation in a women-led competition will receive a lot of attention from the start.

Shia becomes personal

… and his name is "Honey Boy". Director Alma Har & # 39; el has sparked enthusiasm on the festival circuit for years, with groundbreaking poetic documentaries such as "Bombay Beach," but she's moving to narrative mode with another intriguing riff on life: Shia LaBeouf's personal story about the quarrel and reconciliation that he experienced with his father, the actor playing his father and Lucas Hedges playing LaBeouf at different times in the film.

Shia Labeouf

Shutterstock

If it sounds like a meta-gimmick, wait: "This is a very raw movie," said Cooper. "It's a truth that most people do not know how to do when they tell their own story. It's very brave. I have a lot of respect for the Shiites who made this film. Yutani added that Har'el, which debuted at Sundance, has been a priority for the festival for years. "His vision is so complementary to Shia's story and the work that he expresses here," she said. "It was one of those films that we unanimously liked."

Documentaries capture the moment

Sundance remains a launching pad for some of the biggest nonfiction achievements of the year (the summer groups "RBG" and "Wont's You Be My Neighbor?"), Both launched at Park City. This year's offers are a particularly timely group. Buzzy Titles Among these include Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's "American Factory," which revolves around the efforts of a Chinese billionaire to employ factory workers from around the world. Ohio in a former General Motors factory, and seems ready to shed new light on the struggles of blue-collar workers. "Mike Wallace Is Here" continues to fight the "false information" dilemma. He promises to use the story of the famous broadcaster to put honest reporting into the context it deserves – while "Jawline" will show how much the media landscape has changed. Liza Mandelup's documentary focuses on 16-year-old Austyn Tester, who broadcasts virtually every moment of life in rural Tennessee to an active fan base while dreaming of ways to escape her surroundings. ings.

Of course, no documentary will get more attention before Sundance 2019 than "Untouchable". Ursula Macfarlane's look at the ascent and fall of Harvey Weinstein, a Sundance regular. As Weinstein's lawsuits continue to unfold, this portrait will help provide additional context for his crimes and fuel debate about his actual impact on the independent film at the very festival where his career took root.

An "Alien" at midnight

However, the "fun" factor of this year's fictional proposals lies outside the documentary sections of the festival. "MEMORY – The Origins of Alien" finds director Alexandre O. Phillipe returning to the midnight section, where "78/52" – his amusing dissection of the "Psycho" shower sequence – has begun. His new film is a similar dive into a cinematic phenomenon: the origins of Ridley Scott's "Alien", the complex mythological roots of the story, as well as its long-term impact. "You just had to play at midnight," Cooper said. "He has all these fun clips of horror movies and people are talking about gore."

NEXT ELEMENTS As usual

The NEXT section of Sundance has been its most exciting program in recent years. It has generated future successes ranging from "A single girl at home" at night to "Searching". NEXT is essentially an offbeat or innovative storytelling platform that might not be quite the universal crowdpleaser that the competition demands, but could find its basis as a discovery. This year's programming includes some familiar names, but only for people who really follow American cinema. "Paradise Hills", Alice Waddington's first film about a woman who reveals the dark secret of the big family with which she is forced to live, was written by Nacho Vigalondo, the cult director of "Timecrimes" and "Colossal". Then Daniel Scheinert, one of the half of the duo of directors behind the Sundance hit "Swiss Army Man" returns to the festival with "The Death of Dick Long," another unusual story about a dead man, this time in the small town of Alabama, and two men trying to cover it.

But Sundance programmers are particularly keen to make sure people see "Give Me Liberty," the first film by author-director Kiril Mikhanovsky. The film revolves around a riot fueled by the race in Milwaukee, where a medical transport driver is trying to help an elderly Russian family attend a funeral and badist a young black woman with ALS. "This is the one that should be the escape of the section," Cooper said. "This is one of those movies that is a pleasure to watch our programming season. It's such an authentic film and we do not know what will happen from one scene to another. We wanted to position it properly so we did not lose ourselves. "

Movies will sell and buyers will be hungry

Despite all the changes this year, Sundance is still an important market, and buyers are present in the hope of finding a good reason to open their portfolios. Whether the Heavyhitters like Netflix or Amazon who decide to spend big clothes or shops like A24 and Neon that strengthen their slate, they will have many options. Cooper pointed out that "Blinded By the Light," the latest director of "Bend It Like Beckham," Gurinder Chadha, had real potential in the premieres, typically commercial section. The 1987 film deals with the cultural impact of Bruce Springsteen's music on a teenager riddled with anxiety. "It's going to be a real success," he said.

"Velvet Buzzsaw"

He was also eager to see the reaction to "Velvet Buzzsaw," the latest of the director of "Nightcrawler," Dan Gilroy, who stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo in a satire of LA's art world. "He just spoke in a crazy way," he said. "It's hard to make a mockery of the art world, because it's such a travesty of itself, but these actors make it a child's play, and that's all." Is a horror film and more. "

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