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After making historical past in 2022 with “CODA,” its first world premiere to win Best Picture, the Sundance Film Festival had a barely disappointing Oscar tally for 2023. The pageant didn’t make the Best Picture minimize, however “Living” landed an Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor (Bill Nighy) nomination. And, as soon as once more, Sundance dominated the documentary class with 4 nominees: “All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “A House Made of Splinters” and “Navalny.” It additionally landed documentary brief and animated brief nominations with “The Martha Mitchell Effect” and “The Flying Sailor,” respectively. But now that the 2023 version of the pageant has come to an finish, will Sundance make an award season comeback in 2024? Maybe.
READ MORE: “A Thousand and One” and “The Persian Version” high 2023 Sundance Film Festival Awards
From a story perspective, the movie on the high of the checklist, and arguably the primary Best Picture nominee contender of 2023, is Celine Song’s “Past Lives.” The A24 launch, additionally in competitors on the Berlin Film Festival this month, earned huge important acclaim and was one of many greatest tearjerkers of the fest. Song ought to be within the combine for an Original Screenplay nomination and A24 will little question marketing campaign the entire movie’s spectacular performances from Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro for performing nominations. And A24 additionally is aware of how one can play the lengthy recreation, having labored magic for one more Sundance premiere, “Minari” simply three years in the past. That movie earned six main Oscar nominations together with Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor whereas Youn Yuh-jung made historical past together with her Best Supporting Actress win.
Beyond “Past Lives” issues get a bit dicey. The premiere of Chloe Domont’s “Fair Play” led to a fierce acquisition struggle with Netflix popping out on high after paying a reported $20 million for the dramatic thriller. The movie has spectacular performances from Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich however, baring a weak Best Actress or Best Actor subject, the pair appear extra like Gotham Award and Spirit Award contenders at this level. Films lsuch as Laurel Parmet’s “The Starling Girl,” Vuk Lungulov-Klotz‘s “Mutt,” Erica Tremblay’s “Fancy Dance” additionally seem like films that may ultimately get rewarded by the Gothams and Film Independent in some method.
More puzzling is A.V. Rockwell’s “A Thousand and One” which, in a slight shock, took the U.S. Dramatic Competition jury prize and Focus Features has scheduled for launch on March 31. An spectacular directorial debut for Rockwell, we’re reminded of Nikyatu Jusu’s “The Nanny” which took the highest prize at Sundance a yr in the past, had a dedicated awards marketing campaign from distributor Amazon Studios, however barely made a peep on the indie awards circuit. Can “A Thousand and One” make sufficient of an artwork home splash in March to be remembered subsequent fall? We’ll see.
Perhaps essentially the most quizzical of contenders is “Magazine Dreams.” Jonathan Majors offers some of the dedicated and searing performances of any actor this decade, however the drama nonetheless hasn’t been acquired and, to many distributors, could have restricted business prospects. Elijah Bynum has crafted an amazing instance of of movie artwork for his directorial debut, however one that’s actually not a simple watch for a lot of.
Other movies to regulate embrace Raine Allen-Miller’s “Rye Lane” (screams a number of BAFTA Award nominations), William Oldroyd’s “Eileen” (pending a distributor, options an completely improbable Anne Hathaway efficiency), John Carney’s “Flora and Son” (Apple ought to have it within the Original Song combine, at worst), Roger Ross Williams’ improbable “Cassandro” (a Spirit Award play for Gael Garcia Bernal, at a minimal) and we anticipate Sony Pictures Classics to seek out some love someplace for Angus MacLachlan’s “A Little Prayer.”
The documentary prospects are a lot clearer. Lisa Cortés’ “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” David Guggenheim’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” Madeleine Gavin’s “Beyond Utopia,” Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” Maite Alberdi’s “The Eternal Memory,” Nicole Newham’s “The Disappearance of Shere Hite,” Doug Liman’s “Justice” and Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol” are just some of the movies that ought to hold Sundance’s repute as the best documentary pageant on this planet intact. That’s when it comes to premieres, not less than.
Will Sundance discover extra Oscar gold in 2024 with contenders from Cannes, Venice, Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF debuting within the months forward? We’ve received just a bit underneath a yr to seek out out.
Catch up on each movie overview from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
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