The Sundance Film Festival kicks off this Thursday under the shadow of recent wildfires that devastated Los Angeles. Olivia Colman and John Lithgow will open the event, which showcases 88 indie films, celebrating resilience and creativity amid adversity. Sundance remains a premier platform for innovative storytelling and global cinematic voices.
The US film industry's first major gathering since wildfires devastated Los Angeles begins Thursday at Sundance, where Olivia Colman and John Lithgow will kick off the indie movie festival under somber circumstances.
Hollywood's annual pilgrimage to the Rocky Mountains to debut the coming year's top indie films takes place two weeks after blazes killed more than two dozen people and brought the US entertainment capital to a halt.
Festival chiefs spoke extensively with filmmakers "who lost homes or were displaced" by the fires before deciding to move forward, said Sundance director Eugene Hernandez.
Organizers heard "harrowing stories of people running out of their homes, evacuating... with their hard drives under their arms" to ensure their films survived, he told AFP.
Among those affected were the filmmakers behind Didn't Die, an indie zombie movie about survivors podcasting to an ever-dwindling human population, partly shot in the now-destroyed Altadena homes of the director and producers.
"The parallels are intense," director Meera Menon told Deadline. "The main characters are fleeing catastrophe after catastrophe... and we were fleeing our home," she said.
Also among the 88 features being screened in Utah's Park City is Rebuilding, starring Josh O'Connor as a rancher who loses everything in a wildfire.
"It takes on an added poignance," said Hernandez. "It's an incredible film, and one that we felt was important to show, based on that spirit of resilience," added Sundance programming director Kim Yutani.
Big Names and Highlights
The big opening night film this year is Jimpa, in which Olivia Colman plays a mother taking her non-binary teen to visit their gay grandfather — played by Lithgow in various states of undress.
Among other festival highlights, Jennifer Lopez brings her first film to Sundance with the glitzy musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. Directed by Dreamgirls filmmaker Bill Condon, the movie is based on the Broadway adaptation of Argentine author Manuel Puig's famous novel.
Lopez stars as a silver-screen diva whose life and roles are analyzed by two mismatched prisoners forging an unlikely bond in their grim cell.
Benedict Cumberbatch takes the lead in another literary adaptation, The Thing With Feathers, based on Max Porter's experimental and poetic novel about a grieving husband and his two young sons.
Other notable projects include If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, a mystery featuring rapper A$AP Rocky and late-night host Conan O'Brien, and Opus, a thriller starring The Bear's Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich about a young writer investigating the disappearance of a legendary pop star.
Music and Politics
Sundance's documentary section, which has launched several recent Oscar winners, will focus on political themes this year.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to attend for the behind-the-scenes documentary Prime Minister.
Coexistence, My Ass! follows peace activist-turned-comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi as she builds a one-woman show. Director Cherien Dabis will premiere All That's Left of You on Saturday evening at Sundance's largest venue.
The Sundance Film Festival runs from Thursday through February 2.
With AFP
Comments