After previously announcing their Midnight, Competition, and “Next” films, the Sundance Institute announced their Premieres, Spotlight, Kids, and Special Events slates, completing the line-up for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
True to tradition, the movies announced in the Premieres category are the marquee titles, new works from big-name filmmakers and actors. The dramatic half includes new films from Kelly Reichardt, Taika Waititi, Kenneth Lonergan, John Carney, Ira Sachs, Asif Kapadia, and Joshua Marston, plus films from actor-turned-directors John Krasinski and Diego Luna and producer-turned-director James Schamus.
Also of note: Weiner-Dog, Todd Solondz’s new pseudo-sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse, and Love & Friendship, a Jane Austen adaptation from director Whit Stillman that will reunite him with his Last Days of Disco stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny.
Other familiar faces among the Premieres include Greta Gerwig, Anna Kendrick, Paul Rudd, Kristen Stewart, Selena Gomez, Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, Judy Delpy, Viggo Mortensen, Maya Rudolph, Michael Shannon, Rachel Weisz, Richard Jenkins, Kathryn Hahn, Mandy Patinkin, Kathy Bates, Zosia Mamet, Margo Martindale, Danny Glover, and Greg Kinnear.
Documentary Premieres of note include portraits of Frank Zappa, Maya Angelou, Norman Lear, Richard Linklater, Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper, indie film guru Bob Hawk, and Robert Mapplethorpe (we heard about that one a few days ago). Also included: the latest from doc legends Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker, Spike Lee’s new film about Michael Jackson’s transition into a solo artist (a prequel of sorts to his wonderful Bad 25), and the new Werner Herzog film LO AND BEHOLD, Reveries of the Connected World, whose festival logline may well be Peak Herzog: “Does the internet dream of itself? Explore the horizons of the connected world.” (Try and read that without hearing his accent, I dare you.)
The Spotlight section is customarily comprised of films that have played, and played well, at other festivals; this year’s selection includes Green Room, The Lobster, Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan, Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead, and Apichatpong Weerasethakull’s Cemetary of Splendor.
And as several film festivals have expanded to include television programming, Sundance’s Special Events will premiere episodes of, among others, the forthcoming series 11.23.63, The Girlfriend Epxerience, The New Yorker Presents, and W. Kamou Bell’s United Shades of America, along with the entirety of ESPN’s first 30 for 30 mini-series, O.J.: Made in America.
Check out the full listing at the Sundance site.