Hollywood A-listers Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde and Russell Crowe will rub shoulders with a few of cinema’s greatest and brightest new expertise on the Sundance movie pageant subsequent month, organizers stated Wednesday.
The first version of the pageant because the loss of life in September of founder Robert Redford will see a firmament of stars descend on Park City, Utah for probably the most vital gatherings within the world film calendar.
“I think that this is going to be such a celebratory year and a very special one,” Sundance director of programming Kim Yutani informed AFP.
“Any time you can bring together such an eclectic group of artists and storytellers… I think about Charli XCX and Billie Jean King, Salman Rushdie, Rinko Kikuchi together… it’s such a special (group) of people that we can have on the mountain.”
A wealthy vein of comedy runs via this 12 months’s program, stated Yutani.
“There are films that are looking at things in a kind of more quirky and unique way, like ‘The History of Concrete’ by John Wilson, which is going to have its own enthusiastic audience,” she stated.
The documentary traces Wilson’s efforts to promote a movie about constructing supplies after attending a workshop on learn how to write and promote a Hallmark film.
The laughs proceed with Seth Rogen and Edward Norton in “The Invite,” reverse Olivia Wilde, who additionally directs.
The script, co-written by Rashida James (“Parks and Recreation”), offers with a pair whose mysterious neighbors come over for dinner.
Meanwhile, “Mad Men” stars Hamm and John Slattery reunite in “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” the place a Midwestern bride-to-be rampages via Hollywood in an effort to even the rating after her fiance makes use of the couple’s “free celebrity pass” on his well-known crush.
In “The Gallerist” — starring Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, together with Jenna Ortega and Sterling Ok. Brown — a determined curator tries to promote a lifeless physique at Art Basel Miami.
With the film business nonetheless struggling to search out its ft after successive blows from the streaming revolution, the COVID pandemic and Hollywood strikes that crippled Tinseltown in 2023, the involvement of such well-known faces is a vote of confidence in unbiased filmmaking, stated pageant programmer John Nein.
“When you see Chris Pine and Jenny Slate in ‘Carousel,’ or when you see Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan in ‘Josephine’… that’s one of the signs of optimism at a time when we are looking at some real challenges in the sector, that notable actors continue to want to be involved in these projects,” he informed AFP.
Sundance acquired greater than 16,000 submissions, whittling them right down to 90 feature-length movies, with 40 % of them from first-time characteristic administrators.
All however a handful of the titles that shall be screened within the pageant’s snow-capped Rocky Mountain base shall be world premieres, chosen from 164 nations and territories across the globe.
The robust worldwide line-up consists of movies from conventional cinematic powerhouses like Britain, within the type of the debut characteristic “Extra Geography” from director Molly Manners, and queer style movie “Leviticus” from Australia.
But it additionally consists of choices from locations the viewers is perhaps much less aware of, like “Hanging by a Wire,” a nail-biting race to save lots of schoolboys dangling from a stranded cable automotive within the Himalayan foothills.
“Hold On to Me” from Cyprus tells the story of an 11-year-old monitoring down her estranged father, whereas documentary “Kikuyu Land” from Kenya examines how highly effective exterior forces use native corruption to dispossess a individuals.
Sundance, which runs from January 22 to February 1, is being held in Utah for the ultimate time earlier than a transfer to Boulder, Colorado in 2027.
Festival and public programming director Eugene Hernandez stated the ultimate Park City version, together with Redford’s loss of life, makes this a big 12 months.
“We reach this pinnacle of our experience in Utah this year,” he stated. “It’s going to be a special edition.”
© 2025 AFP