Sundance 2016

[Chris Knipp]

Sundance Film Festival 2016

People are noting that Sundance doesn't have the Oscar diversity problem, and is friendly to people of color and LGBGT people. Ryan Coogler's relationship with Michael B. Jordan came out of Sundance.

This year Nate Parker’s slave rebellion drama The Birth of a Nation is generating significant buzz, while White Girl, The Land, Sleight and The Fits all feature diverse casts and stories from outside the mainstream. Spike Lee’s documentary Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall also has a premiere. Voguing documentary Kiki will put LGBTQ communities of colour at the centre of the story in an 18-month period that’s seen films such as The Normal Heart and Stonewall accused of whitewashing. There’s interest in Southside With You, a drama focusing on Barack and Michelle Obama’s now mythical first date in Chicago.

There’s also a focus on reassessing topical issues with Tim Sutton’s drama Dark Night focusing on the aftermath of the 2012 cinema shooting in Colorado, while Stephanie Soechtig’s Under the Gun looks at the firearms problem in the US and the polarized debate that surrounds it.

Although last year’s expected crossover films failed, 2015’s Sundance had a number of success stories, including the Blythe Danner vehicle I’ll See You In My Dreams, which made a healthy profit, and of course Brooklyn, the immigration drama which has three Oscar nominations, including best picture and actress (for its star Saoirse Ronan).

See chief Variety critic Justin Chang's intro piece here.

Here is the Guardian's introductory list of "key films" at Sundance this year. of course there will be others:

Certain Women
Beloved indie auteur Kelly Reichardt reunites with her Meek’s Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy muse Michelle Williams for one of the starriest films playing at this year’s festival. On top of Williams, the Montana-set drama also features Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern, for an ensemble-driven story based on short stories by Maile Meloy. A restoration of her first feature River of Grass (1994) will also be shown at the festival.

Christine
Antonio Campos was last at Sundance with his 2012 bleak thriller Simon Killer. His latest, Christine, looks to be no lighter in tone. Rebecca Hall stars as Christine Chubbuck, the troubled television news reporter who shocked the world in 1974 after committing suicide during a live television broadcast. Simon Killer got inside the mind of a deeply disturbed murderer; with Christine, Campos is sure to take a similar approach by digging deep into what made Chubbuck tick. (Campos' first film afterschool debuting Ezra Miller was reviewed on Filmleaf in the 2008 NYFF.)

Complete Unknown
Joshua Marston last won at Sundance with his 2004 drug trafficking drama Maria Full of Grace, which received an Oscar nomination for its lead actor, Catalina Sandino Moreno. Following his strong sophomore outing The Forgiveness of Blood he’s back with Complete Unknown, a high profile step up for the film-maker that sees him work with Michael Shannon and Rachel Weisz for an intriguing character study about “the perils and pleasures of self-reinvention”, according to the festival.

Dark Night
Tim Sutton’s drama tackles some of the most controversial subject matter of the festival with a look at what happened after James Holmes’ attack at a Colorado cinema that left 12 people dead. Comparisons with Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (which focused on the Columbine killers) are already being batted away with Sutton, who impressed with Memphis last year, bringing his lyrical style to the Next section.

Indignation
Oscar-nominated producer James Schamus has cultivated a remarkable career, largely thanks to his collaborative history with director Ang Lee, with whom he worked with on The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain and many others. Eyes are on him to deliver a solid outing with his directorial debut Indignation, which sees the first-time director tackle a complex story about a man who escapes the Korean war draft in 1951, only to find himself at odds with the morals of the Christian school where he ends up. Heartthrob Logan Lerman and A Dangerous Method’s Sarah Gadon star.

Kate Plays Christine
The second film to tackle the tragic life of Chubbuk takes a very different approach, by going at the story using the documentary format, with indie darling Kate Lyn Sheil (Sun Don’t Shine) playing herself as she prepares to play the late reporter on screen. Director Robert Greene explored similar terrain with Actress, his 2014 meta documentary that also blurred the lines between reality and performance. Kate Plays Christine is among the most enticing documentaries playing at Sundance, because it promises to be unlike anything else screening at the festival.

Kiki
A year after hosting a 25th anniversary screening of Paris Is Burning, the trailblazing LGBT documentary that beat Madonna to introduce voguing to the world, Sundance world premieres Kiki, a new film that also examines the birth of the dance style and its enduring power. To offer a full portrait, Swedish film-maker Sara Jordenö follows the daily lives of a group of LGBTQ youth of colour who comprise the “Kiki” scene as they prepare for and perform at at Kiki balls in New York City. If Jordenö’s film manages to capture the same lightning in a bottle that Paris Is Burning did back in 1990, we’re in for something special.

Little Men
Director Ira Sachs has had a great run of late at Sundance: two years ago, he brought his extremely moving study of old love, Love Is Strange, to Park City, shortly after winning great acclaim for his sexy gay drama, Keep the Lights On, two years prior. Little Men looks to be a shift for the film-maker as it centers on a teenager’s coming of age in Brooklyn. It’s also said to be a timely study of the dangers of gentrification.

Lo and Behold
Werner Herzog turns his attention to the internet with his latest documentary, which is an exploration of the web’s potential for good and evil. Told through archived interviews and various internet outsiders, Herzog will tackle everything from online harassment to situations that threaten the internet’s very existence.

Love & Friendship
Whit Stillman’s adaption of Jane Austen’s unpublished early novella Lady Susan sees Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny in leading roles as a plot featuring dalliances, love rivals and salacious rumours plays out. Beckinsale is in the titular role playing a predatory character who has been described as “not so much a coquette as a cougar”. Oh, and Stephen Fry is in it.

Lovesong
For Ellen director So Yong Kim’s road trip drama stars Jena Malone and Rosanna Arquette, as Kim weaves a tale of unhappy marriage, friendship, separation and a potentially explosive reunion just before a wedding. Also featuring Riley Keough, Brooklyn Decker, Amy Seimetz and Ryan Eggold, Lovesong has potential for Kim to take another leap forward as she did when she got the best out of Paul Dano in For Ellen.

Manchester By the Sea
It took six years for Kenneth Lonergan’s ecstatically received Margaret to find its way to cinemas following a raft of creative and legal issues. Hopefully that same fate won’t befall his latest family drama, which world premieres at the festival. Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams and Kyle Chandler, the new film from the You Can Count On Me film-maker follows a plumber whose family secrets begin to haunt him shortly when he returns home. [Justin Chang's review for VARIETY was enthusiastic.]

Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
Spike Lee’s documentaries often focus on times of seismic change for African Americans, whether that’s racial tensions boiling over into almost unthinkable violence (4 Little Girls) or a natural disaster showing the huge divisions in American society (When the Levees Broke). Here he picks a moment that changed pop music forever: the release of Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. All-star talking heads such as (no pun intended) David Byrne, Questlove, as well as Lee himself and the Jackson family explain why it was the album that changed Jackson’s career and created the blueprint for modern chart music.

Sophie and the Rising Sun
Julianne Nicholson was a major standout among her all-male cast in last year’s Black Mass, and she managed to hold her own opposite Meryl Streep in August: Osage Country, so we’re especially keen to finally see her lead her own vehicle in Sophie and the Rising Sun. The period drama sees her play a small-town southern spinster who irks her community after taking a liking to a new Japanese American resident.

Southside With You
Richard Tanne’s presidential date movie has had more attention than most of the Sundance offerings. The romantic dramedy retells the first date between Barack and Michelle Obama, who went to the Art Institute of Chicago, had some ice cream and saw Do the Right Thing on one evening in 1989. It looks unlikely to be hard-hitting enough to replicate the success that Precious or Fruitvale Station had at Sundance.

The Birth of a Nation
Ostensibly a biopic about Nat Turner, a preacher and slave who led the deadliest and most successful slave rebellion ever seen in the US, The Birth of a Nation is one of this year’s buzziest offerings. Directed by Beyond the Lights star Nate Parker, who has been mentored by Denzel Washington, he also stars in the film as Turner.

The Land
The title of this Nas-backed drama is a reference to Cleveland, the city in which it’s based. It’s a coming-of-age tale about a group of young men who try to make it out of the city by becoming skateboard pros but are sidetracked by their dealings with a local drug dealer. Erykah Badu stars.

Under the Gun
America’s gun violence epidemic is put under the microscope by Stephanie Soechtig, who tries to unpack the partisan, highly charged rhetoric and argument on both sides of the debate. Its producers think it can spark some positive rational conversation; realists point out those are not qualities often associated with the subject.

Weiner Dog
What would Sundance be without a new film starring Greta Gerwig? In the latest from writer/director Todd Solondz (Happiness), Gerwig is joined by a formidable ensemble that includes Julie Delpy, Kieran Culkin, Danny DeVito, Brie Larson, Ellen Burstyn, Zosia Mamet and Tracy Letts. The film is billed as a loose follow-up to Solondz’s cult teen comedy, Welcome to the Dollhouse, with several characters from that film returning.

White Girl
Directed by New York-based Elizabeth Wood, White Girl is a story set in the city which sees the titular white girl Morgan Saylor attempt to get her boyfriend out of trouble with the law. She told Variety that: “My goal isn’t to shock, it’s to be real and authentic. Which can sometimes be shocking.” So expectations are that this will indeed be shocking.

[Chris Knipp]

Sundance 2016 early days. These seemed good or interestingly bad.

GUARDIAN 2016 Sundance coverage here.


Nate Parker in Birth of a Nation

BIRTH OF A NATION (Nate Parker), the buzz-heavy Nat Turner biopic, has been bought by Fox Searchlight for $17.5 million and had an "electrifying debut" (Variety).

OTHER PEOPLE (Chris Killy) "Saturday Night Live writer Chris Kelly makes an auspicious directorial debut (and a great Sundance opener) with this profoundly touching film about a gay comic slowly coming to terms with his mother’s terminal cancer" - GUARDIAN (4 out of 5 stars).


Tyler Posey, Austin Butler of Yoga Hosers at Sundance

YOGA HOSERS (Kevin Smith) Justin Chang of VARIETY describes as "an imbecilic, strenuously wacky helping of see-what-sticks juvenilia that finds the director continuing the 'True North Trilogy' he began with 2013’s rather more endurable 'Tusk.' Crossing a high-school comedy with a small-town gremlin movie, this cobbled-together live-action cartoon supplies an endless stream of Canada jokes in service of a plot about a hostile takeover by long-dormant Manitoban Nazis who take the form of sodomy-inclined sausages." Note: In THE DISSOLVE Mike D'Angelo described 'Tusk' simply as "stupid beyond words."

Tweet:

‏@JustinCChang Jan 23
UNDER THE SHADOW: Asghar Farhadi's THE BABADOOK? Close enough. http://bit.ly/1nriaen #Sundance2016

EQUITY (Meera Menon) "EQUITY, the first female-driven Wall Street film, follows a senior investment banker who is threatened by a financial scandal and must untangle a web of corruption"--IMDb summary. Jordan Hoffman in GUARDIAN gives it 4 out of 5 stars and calls it a "juicy morality play." Guy Lodge lead paragraph for VARIETY:

If The Wolf of Wall Street took flak in some quarters for complicitly reveling in the glossy moral bankruptcy of its otherwise loaded brokers, the same accusation is unlikely to be leveled against Equity Meera Menon’s refreshingly female-skewed financial thriller proves that the women of Wall Street can be just as cold-heartedly corrupt as the boys, but most viewers won’t be remotely seduced by the pitiless pressure-cooker environment its drawn-faced characters inhabit

Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz in Little Men

LITTLE MEN (Ira Sachs) gets 5 out of 5 stars from GUARDIAN's Nigel M Smith, who called it "amazingly humane." Peter Debruge is greatly admiring of it in VARIETY. It's a "tenderly observed" study of how gentrification threatens the friendship of two young boys in Brooklyn that Debruge says will blow away in its artistry and humanity the blockbusters that will compete for it for the few available New York screens. Theo Taplitz and Michael Barbieri are impressive discoveries as the two 13-year-old boys.


Scene from Wiener-Dog

WIENER-DOG (Todd Solodnz) has been acquired by Amazon but A.A. Dowd of AV CLUB gives it only a tepid "C+" rating. Dowd says this "Dollhouse reprise feels entirely undercooked, and the project reaches a nadir with the dire penultimate story, in which Danny DeVito plays a washed-up screenwriter teaching hacky fundamentals to students who despise him." It also has Greta Gerwig briefly and Ellen Burstyn. Guy Lodge is more enthusiastic in VARIETY, calling it an "elegantly wrought oddity," the titular pooch now "an uncontested winner in the 'most lovable Todd Solondz character' sweepstakes." (As with LIFE DURING WARTIME (NYFF 2010), the dp was Ed Lachman, so I would expect the cinematography to be bright and beautiful.)


Owen Suskind in Life animated

LIFE, ANIMATED (Roger Ross Williams) is an inspiring memoir-based docu about how Pulitzer prizewinning journalist Ron Suskind and his autistic son Owen learned to communicate through Disney animated cartoons. They are interviewed in a "Democracy Now!" feature. Owen, who completely stopped speaking for years, now has gone to college and holds two jobs. It's glowing reviewed by Brian Tallerico on ebert.com.


Maya Angelou

MAYA ANGELOU AND STILL I RISE (Bob Hercules, Rita Coburn Whack) is another inspiring docu, about the life of African-American poet and public intellectual Maya Angelou, which got 5 stars out of 5 from Laure Bakare of GUARDIAN.

[Chris Knipp]

Some Sundance politics/current events (etc.) docs.


James Foley in Brian Oakes doc

JIM: THE JAMES FOLEY STORY (Brian Oakes). About the journalist beheaded by ISIS. More a moving family-approved homage than deep investigation says VARIETY's Guy Lodge of this HBO film coming up on TV. next month. HBO Broadcast on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 9:00pm.


Still from The Settlers

THE SETTLERS (Shimon Dotan. This doc by a Romanian-born Israeli director is "an intimate look at life inside the Jewish settlements in the West Bank" (IMDb) that explores pros and cons of their existence. Dotan won a 2007 Sundance Special Jury Award for his documentary Hot House showing how Israeli prisons are a breeding ground for Palestinian leaders/terrorists. Anthony Kaufman of SCREEN DAILY reviews the film. Amy Goodman on DEMOCRACY NOW interviews the filmmaker, with clips, brings out more subtleties.


Richard Linklater in the new bio doc

RICHARD LINKLATER: DREAM IS DESTINY (Louis Black and Karen Bernstein). Reviews the filmmaker's career, one central to Sundance. GUARDIAN's Laure Bakare gives it 3 our of 5 stars. Film points out Linklatrer was out of favor before Boyhood's triumph -- argues (Bakare says) A Scanner Darkly, Bernie and Me and Orson Welles are "better than they’re given credit for [being]."

Other docs in Sundance 2016.

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Zappa, Mapplethorpe, Michael Jackson (by Spike Lee), Norman Lear, Anderson Cooper & mom Gloria Vanderbelt; Werner Herzog takes on the internet

Eat That Question—Frank Zappa in His Own Words / France, Germany (Director: Thorsten Schütte) — This entertaining encounter with the premier of sonic avant-garde is acidic, fun-poking, and full of rich and rare archival footage. This documentary bashes favorite Zappa targets and dashes a few myths about the man himself.

Film Hawk / U.S.A. (Directors: JJ Garvine, Tai Parquet) — Trace Bob Hawk's early years as the young gay child of a Methodist minister to his current career as a consultant on some of the most influential independent films of our time.

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World / U.S.A. (Director: Werner Herzog) — Does the internet dream of itself? Explore the horizons of the connected world.

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures / U.S.A. (Directors: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato) — This examination of Robert Mapplethorpe's outrageous life is led by the artist himself, speaking with brutal honesty in a series of rediscovered interviews about his passions. Intimate revelations from friends, family, and lovers shed new light on this scandalous artist who ignited a culture war that still rages on.

Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall / U.S.A. (Director: Spike Lee) — Catapulted by the success of his first major solo project, Off the Wall, Michael Jackson went from child star to King of Pop. This film explores the seminal album, with rare archival footage and interviews from those who were there and those whose lives its success and legacy impacted.

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You / U.S.A. (Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady) — How did a poor Jewish kid from Connecticut bring us Archie Bunker and become one of the most successful television producers ever? Norman Lear brought provocative subjects like war, poverty, and prejudice into 120 million homes every week. He proved that social change was possible through an unlikely prism: laughter.

Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper / U.S.A. (Director: Liz Garbus) — Gloria Vanderbilt and her son Anderson Cooper each tell the story of their past and present, their loves and losses, and reveal how some family stories have the tendency to repeat themselves in the most unexpected ways.

Resilience / U.S.A. (Director: James Redford) — This film chronicles the birth of a new movement among pediatricians, therapists, educators, and communities using cutting-edge brain science to disrupt cycles of violence, addiction, and disease. These professionals help break the cycles of adversity by daring to talk about the effects of divorce, abuse, and neglect.

Under the Gun / U.S.A. (Director: Stephanie Soechtig) — The Sandy Hook massacre was considered a watershed moment in the national debate on gun control, but the body count at the hands of gun violence has only increased. Through the lens of the victims' families, as well as pro-gun advocates, we examine why our politicians have failed to act.

Unlocking the Cage / U.S.A. (Directors: Chris Hegedus, Donn Alan Pennebaker) — Follow animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. By filing the first lawsuit of its kind, Wise seeks to transform a chimpanzee from a "thing" with no rights to a "person" with basic legal protection.

[Chris Knipp]

Audrie & Daisy

AUDRIE & DAISY (Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk). "Wrenching" but "essential" says HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, Sundance doc about two young women who were sexually assaulted, then abused on social media. Both attempted suicide, and Audrie died but Daisy survived. Acquired by Netflix. Interviews on 29 Jan "Democracy Now!"


Frank and Lola

FRANK AND LOLA (Matthew M. Ross) GUARDIAN's Nigel Smith grants 4 out of 5 stars and says Michael Shannon is sexy this time as well as his usual intense and menacing in this feature "about a Los Angeles chef and his mysterious girlfriend with a sordid past."

[Chris Knipp]

Some thumbnails from VARIETY. These come rated from hot through medium down to cold. The focus is audience reaction and commercial potential.

The comments introduce a few more titles. Some we've been informed of already, such as BIRTH OF A NATION, WIENER DOG, and LITTLE MEN.

BIRTH OF A NATION
Nate Parker’s timely slavery drama earned a standing ovation at the Eccles Theater before landing a whopping $17.5 million deal with Fox Searchlight. Watch out, Oscar! (U.S. Dramatic)
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
The electric cheers at the Eccles was reminiscent of when "Boyhood" debuted here two years ago. Amazon quickly plunked down $10 million for this Kenny Lonergan drama starring Casey Affleck that’s sure to be an Oscar contender for 2017. (Premieres)
GOAT
Although this drama about a college fraternity’s hazing rituals was deemed brutal by most, the crowd in Park City was impressed by Andrew Neel’s taut directors and strong performances by Ben Schnetzer and Nick Jonas. (U.S. Dramatic)
HUNT FOR THE WINTERPEOPLE
There were steady laughs throughout Taika Waititi’s heartwarming adventure comedy, but box office prospects seem limited for the all-Kiwi production. (U.S. Dramatic)
OTHER PEOPLE
Chris Kelly’s opening night dramedy had the Eccles audience weeping and laughing. Buyers said they liked the film, though some questioned its commercial prospects. (U.S. Dramatic)
SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU
Destined to go over like a lead balloon with Trump supporters, this imagining of Barack Obama’s first date with Michelle warmed hearts of the left-leaning crowd at the Eccles. (U.S. Dramatic)
WIENER DOG
Those who took the leap with Todd Solondz’s acerbic vignettes that follow a dog through a stream of dysfunctional owners thought it was THE "Welcome to the Dollhouse" director’s best in years, while animal lovers headed for the exit.(Premieres)
MORRIS FROM AMERICA
This coming of an age story received a warm reception for newcomer Markees Christmas, but the applause at the credits for the overall film was tepid. (U.S. Dramatic)
CHRISTINE
Lots of respect and admiration for Rebecca Hall’s performance as a suicidal news reporter, but Antonio Campos’ dark drama was too bleak for many festival-goers. (U.S. Dramatic)
LITTLE MEN
Ira Sachs’ gently observed portrait of a teenage friendship and the impact of gentrification was warmly received though it may be too subtle for mainstream tastes. (Premieres)
BRAHMAN NAMAN
Comedy about a band of horny quiz circuit contestants was big on "American Pie" gross-out moments and light on belly laughs. (Premieres)
SWISS ARMY MAN
This strange tale about a lost guy (Paul Dano) who befriends a farting corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) proved to be the most divisive of the festival so far, prompting the most walk outs. (U.S. Dramatic)

Other "hot titles" in another VARIETY piec, from Brent Lang:
IMAGINATION (James Schamus) " The directorial debut of the former Focus Features chief arrives with literary pedigree (it’s based on a Philip Roth novel), a tasteful period setting, unfolding as it does in the Korean War era, and a meaty part for Lerman, an actor who always seems one role away from major stardom." (Logan Lerman indeed is a very talented actor. See him in THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, where Ezra Miller also shone.)
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP (Whit Stillman) "The foremost chronicler of WASP mores seems like the perfect fit to adapt an early novella from Jane Austen. "
CERTAIN WOMEN (Kelly Reichardt) "Maile Meloy’s stories inform this tale of the lives of a lawyer, a married couple and a ranch hand. Thanks to “Meeks Cutoff” and “Wendy and Lucy,” Reichardt and Williams have formed one of those rare director and actor duos that works as sort of an arthouse complement to the relationships Martin Scorsese enjoys with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro or David O. Russell has with Jennifer Lawrence/"
NEWTOWN (Kim A. Snyder) "This searing documentary is a searing reminder of the tragic consequences of mass killings as it interviews the families that lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. A harrowing portrait of grief and a call for action that is all too topical."

[Chris Knipp]

Sundance 2016 awards list.

The Sundance awards structure is unique and somewhat baroque. There is no shortage of awards at Sundance; so many that quite a few may get little public attention. One also notices that some of the most commercially and even critically promising films don't get mention here. Beyond the ones that could be predicted, such as Birth of a Nation, which already made back its $10 million production costs with a $17.5 million distribution sale, there were a few titles we hadn't heard much about that look intriguing. The teenage crime drama As You Are (Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, Special Jury award), sounds interesting. So is Spa Night, about a closeted teenager working at a Korean spa, or at lest Joe Seo, who get an acting prize; and maybe The Intervention, where Melanie Lynskey got a prize in this ensemble comedy about fumbled efforts to stop a marriage. Another comedy, Morris from America (Chad Hartigan), about an African American teenager adjusting to living in Germany, which won both acting and screenwriting awards, sounds as though it may be strong and original.

Foreign films haven't been much talked about, but an Israeli film about bedouin women trying to become more modern won the top World Cinema fiction prize; it's called Sand Storm (Elite Zexer). The Foreign doc winner was Sonita, about a feminist Iranian rapper. The top prize for a short film went to Thunder Road (Jim Cummings) about a policeman mourning the death of his mother. Here's the whole list below. Note the Colombian Best Foreign nominee Embrace of the Serpent won the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan prize, and the doc featured on "Democracy Now!" about the autistic son whose writer father brought him out of silence communicating with Disney animations, Life, Animated, got a directing award, but the top doc prize (a little disappointingly?) went to a film about the sexting scandal that brought down a candidate for mayor of NYC, Weiner. I think maybe more people will care about the Audience Award doc, the one (also featured on "Democracy Now!" last week by Amy Goodman) about James Foley, the journalist beheaded by Isis, which has been acquired by HBO.

Below is the whole list for the record:

Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – The Birth of a Nation by Nate Parker
Directing Award: Dramatic – Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan for Swiss Army Man
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award – Chad Hartigan for Morris From America
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award – Miles Joris-Peyrafitte for As You Are
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance – Joe Seo for Spa Night
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Individual Performance – Melanie Lynskey for The Intervention and Craig Robinson for Morris from America
Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Weiner by Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman
Directing Award: Documentary – Roger Ross Williams for Life, Animated
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing – Penny Lane and Thom Stylinski for NUTS!
Special Jury Prize for Social Impact: Documentary – Trapped by Dawn Porter
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Writing – Robert Greene for Kate Plays Christine
Special Jury Prize for Verité Filmmaking: Documentary – The Bad Kids by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Sand Storm by Elite Zexer
World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic – Felix van Groeningen for Belgica
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting – Vicky Hernandez and Manolo Cruz for Between Land and Sea
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Screenwriting – Ana Katz and Inés Bortagaray for Mi Amiga del Parque
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Unique Vision & Design – The Lure by Agnieszka Smoczyńska
World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary – Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary – Michal Marczak for All These Sleepless Nights
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Debut Feature – Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel for When Two Worlds Collide
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography – Pieter-Jan De Pue for The Land of the Enlightened
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing – Mako Kamitsuna and John Maringouin for We Are X
Audience Award: Dramatic – The Birth of a Nation by Nate Parker
Audience Award: Documentary – Jim: The James Foley Story by Brian Oakes
World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic – Between Sea and Land by Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo
World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary – Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
Best of NEXT Audience Award – First Girl I Loved by Kerem Sanga
Short Film Grand Jury Prize – Thunder Road by Jim Cummings
Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction – The Procedure by Calvin Lee Reeder
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction – Maman(s) by Maïmouna Doucouré
Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction – Bacon & God's Wrath by Sol Friedman
Short Film Jury Award: Animation – Edmond by Nina Gantz
Short Film Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance – Grace Glowicki for Her Friend Adam
Short Film Special Jury Award for Best Direction – Ondřej Hudeček for Peacock
Alfred P. Sloan Prize – Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra

[Chris Knipp]

The 21 Best Films of Sundance 2016 from VARIETY.


Michelle Williams in Kelly Reichaardt's Certain Women

Recommendations from Variety's staff.

Following Sundance 2016 online, I missed having Mike D'Angelo for the sadly defunct DISSOLVE and I think there were more different writers for AV CLUB last year. The NYTimes sent only a stringer, and GUARDIAN didn't send its top writer Peter Bradshaw as it did last year. But VARIETY sent some of its best, including Justin Chang, Peter Debruge, Geoff Berkshire, Dennis Harvey and Guy Lodge, who voted on the 21 best films of Sundance. Here are titles in some cases omitted from the maze of awards with comments individually signed by the writers. This will be the most illuminating and best written list we will get. They're alphabetical, so the numbers don't mean anything.

1. Agnus Dei. Set in a Polish convent ravaged by Russian soldiers at the end of WWII, Anne Fontaine’s finest film in years explores every aspect of an unthinkable situation with tact, intelligence and fine-grained character detail. Beautifully acted by a strong female ensemble, especially the great Agata Kulesza (Ida), the film achieves a grace that transcends even its cloistered surroundings. (Justin Chang)

2. Audrie & Daisy. Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s documentary was among the festival’s most potent social-issue indictments, delving into two recent high-profile cases underline the high risk of sexual assault among American teens, as well as the "slut-shaming”"culture that often exacerbates the trauma such crimes create. (Dennis Harvey)

3. The Birth of a Nation. If D.W. Griffith’s racist epic of the same name was indeed like "writing history with lightning," as Woodrow Wilson reportedly felt, then this century-later telling of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion is the thunderclap that was inevitably bound to follow. Though made outside the studio system, Nate Parker’s powerful tale of those who stood up to oppression packs incredible mainstream appeal, while disproving the axiom that only history’s victors get to tell their stories. (Peter Debruge)

4. Certain Women. After throwing her admirers a curveball with the cool genre stylings of Night Moves, Kelly Reichardt returns to her forte of tender, finely etched humanism with this adaptation of three short stories — each revolving around women in an emotional quandary — by Montana-based writer Maile Meloy. Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams each bring characteristic intelligence and integrity to the project, while Native American actress Lily Gladstone is a heart-rending revelation. (Guy Lodge)

5. Christine. For all those who believe there’s something broken in the way America reports the news, Antonio Campos’ unsettling period piece captures the moment when things took a turn for the worse, by focusing on the small-town Florida TV reporter (hauntingly portrayed by Rebecca Hall) who snapped under the pressure to deliver more sensational content. Campos attempts to treat what happened to Christine Chubbuck as she would have herself, focusing on the human side of her story. (P.D.)

6. Dark Night. The most oblique of the festival’s many reflections on gun violence in America, Tim Sutton’s genuinely unsettling experiment — beautifully lensed by d.p. Helene Louvart — transforms the emptiness and alienation of suburban youth culture into a sort of collective dream-space, where the mundane takes on an ever-present undercurrent of dread. (J.C.)

7. The Eyes of My Mother. Borderline Films, also the outfit behind aforementioned fest standout Christine, continues to be a source of the most unnerving, formally refined visions in American independent cinema. Exquisitely composed in stark black-and-white, Nicolas Pesce’s genuinely skin-prickling quasi-horror film reps a new perspective entirely on making a murderer — but the less you know about it going in, the better. (G.L.)

8. Gleason. Documentaries rarely get more raw and real than Clay Tweel’s chronicle of charismatic former NFL star Steve Gleason’s battle with ALS. More than a typical disease doc, the film utilizes four years of intimate footage, much of it filmed by Gleason himself, to craft a fascinating portrait of a family and a moving story of fathers and sons. (Geoff Berkshire)

9. The Intervention. Actress Clea DuVall’s debut feature as writer-director is a modest but deftly handled ensemble comedy about three couples who gather to meddle in the problems of a fourth — but find their own hidden issues exposed instead. (D.H.)

10. Kate Plays Christine. A rich companion piece to the excellent Christine, as well as his earlier documentary Actress, Robert Greene’s latest docu-fiction hybrid refracts the sad story of Christine Chubbuck — and Kate Lyn Sheil’s meticulous preparations for the role — into an elegant and endlessly fascinating hall of representational mirrors. (J.C.)

11. Little Men. The latest from Sundance veteran Ira Sachs inverts his most recent gem, “Love Is Strange,” to focus on the youngest characters rather than the oldest, and proves every bit as rich and tenderly observed. With fresh-faced newcomers Theo Taplitz and Michael Barbieri, Sachs captures the time of life when a young person’s perspective on everything — parents, friends, dreams of the future — changes. (G.B.)

12. Love & Friendship. Predictably or not, Whit Stillman and Jane Austen turn out to be a match made in costume-drama heaven in this sparkling adaptation of the great author’s Little Susan, fronted by a wickedly poised Kate Beckinsale and stolen completely by the brilliant newcomer Tom Bennett. You’ve never seen Austen played at quite this speed, or at such a consistent level of hilarity. (J.C.)

13. Lovesong. So Yong Kim’s fourth and most accessible feature is an exquisitely rough-hewn almost-romance featuring two women (beautifully played by Riley Keough and Jena Malone) who can’t quite bring themselves to articulate what’s transpiring between them. Fortunately, Kim’s filmmaking has an eloquence that renders explanations superfluous. (J.C.)

14. Manchester by the Sea. After launching his filmmaking career at Sundance with You Can Count on Me back in 2000, Kenneth Lonergan returns with another slow-blooming character study, this one a nuanced portrait of a seemingly normal guy’s personal struggle to overcome his failings as a husband and father. By withholding the tragic backstory of Casey Affleck’s character (which everyone in town already knows) until relatively late, audiences see him differently than his peers do — and therein lies the film’s quiet beauty. (P.D.)

15. Morris From America. An enthusiastically received winner of two jury prizes in Park City — one for Craig Robinson’s warm, crinkled performance as a father gradually losing his hold on his son, and one for writer-director Chad Hartigan’s wry-but-never-cute screenplay — this sweetly ambling tale of a hip-hop-loving African-American teen finding his social footing in the improbable surrounds of Heidelberg, Germany, was one of the few uncompromised charmers in the dramatic competition. (G.L.)

16. Operation Avalanche. After winning Slamdance in 2013, “The Dirties” director Matt Johnson makes the giant leap to Sundance’s misfit Next category with this wild stunt, which not only resurrects the conspiracy theory that Apollo 11 never actually landed on the moon, but also submits itself as evidence that the live-broadcast event was all a CIA-orchestrated hoax. Believe it or not, Johnson actually managed to fool NASA into playing along with this wild rewrite of space-race history. (P.D.)

17. Outlaws & Angels. Superficially similar to The Hateful Eight in being a spaghetti-Western homage that takes place largely in one interior locale, JT Moller’s debut feature nonetheless serves up its own distinctive Grand Guignol brew of frontier outlawry, sexual aberration and cold-blooded revenge. (D.H.)

18. Sing Street. John Carney (Once, Begin Again) firmly establishes himself as the master of the modern musical with his latest intimate dazzler, maybe his best yet — an ’80s throwback rooted in authentic details but dizzy with the romance of young love and soaring original songs. Breakout leads Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton charm, and Jack Reynor steals every scene as the supportive older brother everyone wants in their life. Carney knows how to send audiences out of the theater drunk in love. (G.B.)

19. Tallulah. The lives of three disparate women collide in writer-director Sian Heder’s smart, funny, piercing debut feature. A staff writer on “Orange Is the New Black,” Heder brings that series’ still-too-rare interest in women’s secret lives to a story packed with twists and turns and finely nuanced performances from Ellen Page, Allison Janney and Tammy Blanchard. (G.B.)

20. Tickled. When New Zealanders David Farrier and Dylan Reeve began investigating a U.S. underground of tickle-fetish videos, they intended do just a humorous TV puff-piece. But the bizarre, vitriolic and litigious blowback their inquiries triggered led them down a rabbit’s hole of blackmail and intimidation that turns this surprising documentary into a real-life conspiracy thriller. (D.H.)

21. Under the Shadow. A well-turned basic "boo!" scare can still be a potent thing, especially when encased in a veiled political allegory like Babak Anvari’s horror meller. Its heroine is a wife and mother in war-beset 1980s Tehran whose frustrations over escalating socio-religious conservatism begin to overlap with the terror inflicted by an apparent supernatural menace. (D.H.)

- From VARIETY.