The 9 Best Short Films Playing This Year’s Sundance Film Festival ... and the 2021 program’s films come from 27 different countries, Plante also urges more international filmmakers to … Date TBD. Sundance 2021: The best films from this year’s festival, The Sundance Film Festival is usually a mountaintop feast of indie cinema upon which critics and film studios descend – or rather, ascend – with keyboards and chequebooks out and a hope of discovering the next. Restraint is the word that best articulates Rebecca Hall’s elegant Passing, the actor’s moving, assured directorial debut shot in luminous black and white. Posted by Carrie Jarosinski Posted on Feb - 8 - 2021 0 Comments. From buzzy horrors to difficult dramas, this year’s low-key, mostly virtual festival offers a restricted yet intriguing selection A fly-on-the-wall account of their everyday realities coddled by warm temperatures, Cusp holds up a candid mirror to the grim shades of a slice of Americana with beguiling earnestness. #theLIST: The Must-See Movies At Sundance 2014, Sundance Standouts: The Best Looks at the Film Festival, Park Pretty: Lessons from Sundance Street Style, Park City Stars: The Best Looks from Sundance. The stand-up comedian’s high-wired, jauntily paced bromance (starring Carmichael himself and the always great Christopher Abbott) bursts with heart and humor, as well as an undercurrent of gloom trailing its central down-on-their-luck duo on an accelerated life journey of unexpected twists and turns. Wright powers through a pop survival story that has you wanting to punch the air. Courtesy Sundance Institute. One of the most awe-inspiring films at Sundance this year was Dash Shaw’s animated odyssey Cryptozoo. No Sundance, not even a virtual one, is complete without a good old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. Here are the 12 best movies we saw at this year’s Sundance. Captains of Zaatari. “Flee”. A project of deep personal meaning for Hall, who comes from a mixed-raced background and presents as white, this complex account of American racism is seen through the eyes of two white-passing Black women in 1920s Harlem (Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga in mesmerizingly fine-tuned performances), with one of them choosing to disguise her Blackness from her white husband and the society. “Faya Dayi”. On the programme are some notable debuts, like Questlove’s concert doc Summer of Soul and Welsh filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond’s VHS horror homage Censor, as well as some more familiar Sundance faces like Shaka King, who debuts his awards-tipped Black Panther thriller Judas and the Black Messiah. Well, Sundance is over and we’re all breathing a collective sigh of exhausted relief. Jockey. The hits (and misses) of this year’s virtual indie-palooza. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 15, 2020. Sundance 2021: The 15 Best Movies of This Year’s Festival. The 2021 festival was like no other, but the films nonetheless delivered. It’s a towering performance: all coiled power, oratorical savvy and meticulously-researched authenticity.’, Director: Sam HobkinsonThe bizarre true-life story of Misha Defonseca, a Belgian whose tale of evading the Nazis during an epic girlhood odyssey across Europe became a book and later a movie, is the subject of a twisty-turning documentary from British filmmaker Sam Hobkinson.Time Out’s verdict: ‘A documentary full of narrative trapdoors, this Holocaust detective story is a film to tiptoe through carefully, reserving judgment until the end credits roll. The best fiction films we saw at Sundance, from the bizarre to the sublime. Like many festivals covering entertainment, Sundance 2021 had to make do during a global pandemic. “At the Ready”. We already have this email. But under the superb leadership of the newly minted festival director, Tabitha Jackson, the former head of the Sundance Institute’s documentary film program, Sundance maintained its independent spirit despite the odds, expanding Park City’s intoxicating atmosphere beyond the mountainous skirts of Utah. Thompson also deftly draws the story into the present via his interviewees, many of whom we see watching footage of the concerts, and their reactions – laughs, tears, wonder – raise the stakes for us too.’, Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and FBI informer William O'Neal are the subjects of a Ryan Coogler-produced investigation of Black radicalism that plays like a surveillance thriller. Winner of a best actor Special Jury Award, Clifton Collins Jr. delivers a haunting, profoundly poignant performance as a sportsman at a high-stakes personal and professional crossroads. “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”. 'Wild Indian,' 'Summer of Soul' and 'The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet' — Rolling Stone's picks for the best Sundance 2021 movies. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. By Jordan Farley, Jane Crowther 04 February 2021. Consequently, the festival’s 2021 edition yielded no standing ovations, no frosty lines outside of screening venues or parties, and no amusing Twitter-based complaints about the perennially late and overpacked shuttle busses. Here are some of the best that premiered there. Date TBD. 1. It’s a great underdog tale, told with infectious, childlike glee.’, Director: Prano Bailey-BondCast: Adrian Schiller, Nicholas Burns, Michael SmileyThe ‘80s era of the ‘Video Nasty’ provides a pungent backdrop for this self-reflexive horror debut about a film censor losing touch with reality.Time Out’s verdict: ‘Director and co-writer Prano Bailey-Bond’s debut feature is an impressive mix of psychological wig-out, judicious jump shocks and magnificently OTT body horror.’, Director: Jonas Poher RasmussenThe traumatic story of Afghan refugee Amin Nawabi is recounted in a stylised animation with a moving queer dimension Time Out’s verdict: ‘One of the many paradoxes in this gut-punch adult animation – a worthy heir to Waltz with Bashir and Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner – is that the price of freedom is frequently temporary imprisonment and nearly always long-term trauma.’, Director: Lucy WalkerWaste Land director Lucy Walker surveys a different kind of desolation with this boots-on-the-ground account of the 2018 California bush fires.Time Out’s verdict: ‘Bring Your Own Brigade leans into the overwhelming power, even beauty, of these infernos, allowing us to feel their sheer magnitude through startling imagery. Passing will be released by Netflix. Dramatic section—the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award, an Audience Award, and the Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble—writer-director Siân Heder’s winsome dramedy follows high schooler Ruby (a sensational Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of her family, as she reconciles her passion for singing with her parents’ expectations. Dramatic Competition. The 15 Best Films From the Sundance Film Festival By Peter Debruge, Owen Gleiberman, ... the encouraging thing about the 2021 edition has been … In this pandemic-hit year, of course, it’s a slightly different story. You know where it’s going – and then you don’t.’. Top Stories. 14 films and projects announced today were supported by Sundance Institute in development, through direct granting or residency Labs. Cusp. But it’s maestro Questlove’s faultless mixing and spinning that contextualizes the material’s liberating character. Courtesy Sundance Institute. Time Out’s verdict: ‘Rebecca Hall’s chief allies in bringing her smart script to screen are Edu Grau’s stunning black-and-white photography, Dev Hynes’s repeating piano jazz score and two extraordinarily thoughtful central performances from Negga and Thompson.’, Director: Shaka KingCast: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique FishbackBlack Panther leader Fred Hampton and FBI informer William O'Neal are the subjects of a Ryan Coogler-produced investigation of Black radicalism that plays like a surveillance thriller, Time Out’s verdict: ‘Carrying a few extra pounds and nailing the Illinois accent right down to the last syllable, Daniel Kaluuya commits himself full-bore to playing ’60s Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. A certain Joni Mitchell song featured here will bring even the fiercest skeptics of sentimentality to tears. Culturess 1 month Trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League teases darker story, better villains. Image: Sundance Institute / mashable composite. Natalie Shepel Posted Nov 8, 2018. director Lucy Walker surveys a different kind of desolation with this boots-on-the-ground account of the 2018 California bush fires. In his stunning directorial debut, the multi-hyphenate artist and living music legend Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson not only puts a year of seismic shifts and the summer of Woodstock in renewed historical perspective by shifting the focus to another comparatively underappreciated event, but also reclaims a forgotten piece of Black culture with aching timeliness. . Partly this is a killer concert film; a series of powerful gigs finally given their due. 4. Except this one was like no other, having mostly moved to the virtual space due to the ongoing pandemic, save for a handful of in-person outdoor screenings and events taking place around the country. In that regard, its lucidity about the recognizable highs, lows, and rock bottoms of humankind’s present-day reality registers as even more impressive. The Best Movies at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival A Glitch in the Matrix. Director: Ben WheatleyCast: Ellora Torchia, Joel Fry, Reece ShearsmithBen Wheatley swaps the grand surrounds of Rebecca’s Manderley to the English woods for an earthier, lower-budget horror in a similar vein to Kill List and A Field in England.Time Out’s verdict: ‘The latest from leftfield British indie powerhouse Ben Wheatley is a quarantine quickie – a low-budget trippy horror, set during a pandemic. “The Sparks Brothers”. 2. Adapted from the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier and featuring real-life deaf actors in non-hearing parts—Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, and Daniel Durant—CODA tenderly captures the unique beats of Ruby’s familial love with startling specificity and, ultimately, universality. Cusp is one of the best films of Sundance 2021, according to our critics survey. Director Pascual Sisto was on to something when he cheekily defined his debut as a version of Home Alone but directed by Michael Haneke . With visual grace and an unambiguous ideological perspective, El Arabi deftly articulates that it’s fair opportunities, not pity, that people like his film’s central characters, Mahmoud and Fawzi, deserve. Perhaps the pickings were slimmer in number this year, an expected side effect of COVID-19’s impact on the industry. “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It”. In this pandemic-hit year, of course, it’s a slightly different story. Indeed, this 2021 Sundance Film Festival premiere ranks as one of the most uniquely memorable animated films of the last decade. Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. The existential, claustrophobic, cozy, and horny quarantine movie you didn’t know you needed, Iuli Gerbase’s intimate chamber piece was amazingly conceived and filmed pre-COVID-19. “El Planeta”. But while the fest has gone fully virtual, the slate of films on offer still represents a starting gun for 12 months of thrilling new movies: today’s Sundance breakouts are tomorrow’s Oscar hopefuls. The Sundance Institute, 3. “At the Ready” is a riveting piece of ... “ CODA ”. “Cryptozoo”. Best Documentary 1. Summer of Soul will be released by Searchlight Pictures and Hulu. The 2021 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 28 to February 3, 2021. Jockey will be released by Sony Pictures Classics. This year’s version was held virtually. With soulful echoes of Steve James’s masterful Hoop Dreams, war correspondent-turned-filmmaker Ali El Arabi’s artfully lensed documentary invites viewers into the world of two soccer-obsessed Syrian teenagers, dreaming of leaving their Jordan-based refugee camp behind for a better future. A critique of affluent boredom, an exploration of adolescent anguish, a parenting lesson by way of Yorgos Lanthimos—designed with a disquieting sense of minimalism (Sisto is also an installation artist), John and the Hole is all of these things and something even more in the aftermath, thanks to its alarming open-endedness. But watching it felt like discovering a significant new cinematic voice in the vein of Sean Durkin with an unassailable point of view. February 6, 2021; The Best Movies We Saw at Sundance 2021 Of the more than 70 features at the festival, these are our favorites, including the latest from Ben Wheatley and the first from Questlove. Compassionate in its chronicling of a friendship, euphoric through its genuine appreciation of soccer, but consistently honest and clear-eyed, Captains of Zaatari is one of the most singular documentaries ever made about the Syrian crisis. Written in the early days of the lockdown and shot almost entirely outdoors in just two weeks, it’s a soil-under-the-fingernails, forest-bound mindmelter – with bonus pagan chills. Impressively polished and inarguably big-screen mainstream, it owns a proud sense of risk-taking. The deserving winner of this year’s Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Courtesy Sundance Institute. The book is a first-person narrative told from the perspective of Irene (Tessa Thompson), who lives in Harlem with her husband … Arriving later in Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s expressively animated documentary, a flawless scene in Flee, scored to Daft Punk’s melancholic “Veridis Quo,” brings home the film’s emotional resonance about identity and acceptance. But this isn’t just a disaster movie – it’s fuelled by empathy, and also for curiosity at what causes these fires, and what can be done to prevent them.’, Cast: Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Bought by Apple TV+ for a festival record $25m, this comedy-drama explores the pressures on a hearing impaired New England family and the daughter who provides their ears and a spare pair of hands on their fishing boat, Time Out’s verdict: It hails from the same school of warm, family-centric comedy-drama as past Sundance breakouts Little Miss Sunshine and The Farewell, but while touching and always likeable, Coda falls a way short of those heights.’. Déjà vu! A top-shelf addition to the Indigenous canon, Wild Indian pulsates with well-calibrated tension and a rare kind of vitality in its shrewd examination of today through the eyes of history. Superfan Edgar Wright turns the camera on one of his favourite bands, veteran American pop shapeshifters Sparks, in a debut documentary that features a grab bag of musical cameo-ers (Beck. Written in the early days of the lockdown and shot almost entirely outdoors in just two weeks, it’s a soil-under-the-fingernails, forest-bound mindmelter – with bonus pagan chills. Rodney Ascher is well practiced when it comes to making documentaries about the rabbit holes pop... CODA. But this isn’t just a disaster movie – it’s fuelled by empathy, and also for curiosity at what causes these fires, and what can be done to prevent them.’, from the same school of warm, family-centric comedy-drama as past Sundance breakouts. With queries about trauma, loyalty, and race on its mind, On the Count of Three achieves something near impossible in its conclusion, distilling its themes into something both heartbreaking and disarmingly hopeful. Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut is an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s short 1929 novel about two Black women who have a chance meeting in a New York hotel – both of whom are ‘passing’ for white. It is remarkably successful as a study of the refugee experience, as a coming-of-age drama set against a backdrop of fear and danger, and as a tribute to one individual’s ability to survive and even flourish. A dark suicide-pact comedy might sound impossible to pull off on paper. Fact checked. Honoring the majestic tradition of horse movies with sweeping widescreen vistas and lyrical shots of crimson dusks, Clint Bentley’s poetic character study of an ailing jockey at the rear end of his career recalls The Wrestler through an enduring story of parental affection and spiritual healing. Through the childhood and adulthood of an Anishinaabe boy with a murderous past (a terrifyingly vacant Michael Greyeyes as the latter) and his well-meaning former school friend, Corbine Jr. tells a searing, deeply American story of crime and remorse, rooted in the country’s generations-spanning past of unforgivable violence. “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”. The bizarre true-life story of Misha Defonseca, a Belgian whose tale of evading the Nazis during an epic girlhood odyssey across Europe became a book and later a movie, is the subject of a twisty-turning documentary from British filmmaker Sam Hobkinson. Flea, Duran Duran et al), a lot of giddy enthusiasm and a tonne of music. Adapted from Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel by Hall with a knowing sense of melancholy and quiet psychological unease, Passing is among the most major films that came out of this year’s Sundance with its incisive lens focused on a gray area of racial identity rarely spelled out in contemporary cinema. . Director and co-writer Prano Bailey-Bond’s debut feature is an impressive mix of psychological wig-out, judicious jump shocks and magnificently OTT body horror.’, The traumatic story of Afghan refugee Amin Nawabi is recounted in a stylised animation with a moving queer dimension, ‘One of the many paradoxes in this gut-punch adult animation – a worthy heir to, – is that the price of freedom is frequently temporary imprisonment and nearly always long-term trauma.’. And there were still virtual talks, panels, a boundary-pushing New Frontier program, and online parties that preserved a sense of unity between audiences and storytellers around the globe. Thanks for subscribing! But while the fest has gone fully virtual, the slate of films on offer still represents a starting gun for 12 months of thrilling new movies: today’s Sundance breakouts are tomorrow’s Oscar hopefuls. For me, Sundance 2021 was a fest of strong work by female and non-binary directors (my entire top five), and excellent documentaries (just outside this list are Flee , In The Same Breath , Summer of Soul , and Misha and the Wolves , all highly recommended). Starring Daniel Kaluuya as the firebrand Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield as the petty criminal and FBI informant who led the bureau to 21-year-old Hampton’s brutal assassination, King’s historic picture opens a significant, shameful wound in American history and lets it bleed through Sean Bobbitt’s stylishly earthy cinematography. More disturbing than most horror offerings in the lineup, this time-freezing, gradually darkening psychodrama follows a death-curious 13-year-old boy (a sinisterly stone-faced Charlie Shotwell) who traps his family in a bunker and experiments with the freedoms of adulthood through perturbing indifference. David Fear. The Sundance Film Festival is usually a mountaintop feast of indie cinema upon which critics and film studios descend – or rather, ascend – with keyboards and chequebooks out and a hope of discovering the next Reservoir Dogs or The Blair Witch Project. Sundance 2021: which films might break out this year? A feat of humanistic filmmaking, this is a movie we will be celebrating all through next year’s awards season and talking about long after. Best Films From Sundance 2021: Hollywood Reporter Critics Pick 15 Favorites 6:00 AM PST 2/4/2021 by David Rooney , Sheri Linden , Jon Frosch , Daniel Fienberg , Leslie Felperin , … Plus, five titles as honorable mentions. Luzzu (Alex Camilleri), Mass (Fran Kranz), The Sparks Brothers (Edgar Wright), Users (Natalia Almada), Pleasure (Ninja Thyberg), Gucci Hacks Balenciaga for 100th Anniversary Show, Shop the Summer Bags That We Can't Stop Staring At, 4 Iconic Watches to Know If You're New to the Game, An Audrey Hepburn TV Series Is in the Works, These Woman Are Changing Menswear as We Know It, This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. Date TBD. Previously best known for working on prestigious TV comedies like High Maintenance and Shrill, King makes a hard, ... A still from Flee, selected for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Documentary Competition, this sizzling concert film is a resurrected piece of power-to-the-people art, featuring dizzyingly rich footage from 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival that has been sitting in a basement for more than five decades. Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! The ‘80s era of the ‘Video Nasty’ provides a pungent backdrop for this self-reflexive horror debut about a film censor losing touch with reality. Sundance 2021 Film Festival Line-Up Includes New Films By Edgar Wright, Rebecca Hall, Robin Wright, Ben Wheatley & More The 23 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Tenet,’ ‘Ma Rainey,’ ‘Sound Of Metal’ & More © 2021 Time Out England Limited and affiliated companies owned by Time Out Group Plc. Here’s what has landed at this year’s festival – and what hasn’t. Sundance 2021 film preview - Nathan & Ty choose their most anticipated film from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, check out their picks here. Announced today: the full 2021 slate of works, including 71 feature-length films, representing 29 countries and 38 first-time feature filmmakers. The filmmaking duo follows three small-town Texan teenage girls through their sleepy hangouts and boozy parties to gradually honor the sensitive gradients of girlhood without the filtered sheen of social media. On the programme are some notable debuts, like Questlove’s concert doc, and Welsh filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond’s VHS horror homage, , as well as some more familiar Sundance faces like Shaka King, who debuts his awards-tipped Black Panther thriller. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Judas and the Black Messiah in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday, February 12. (Available on HBO Max for 31 days from theatrical release.). Another Sundance Film Festival came to a close. Three films from Sundance 2021, from left to right: CODA, We're All Going to the World's Fair, Judas and the Black Messiah. Both an acting showcase from some of the finest actors working today and a necessary reckoning with the past, Judas and the Black Messiah is what we mean when we say timelyand urgent. 3. Flee. Director: Questlove The Roots frontman Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson revisits the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival – the ‘Black Woodstock’ – to reassert the cultural status of a gig that drew 300,000 people.Time Out’s verdict: ‘Partly this is a killer concert film; a series of powerful gigs finally given their due. Big victor of this year’s festival with four awards in the U.S. Rebecca Hall’s feature debut, Passing, features an incredible ensemble cast in this almost too faithful adaptation of Nella Larsen’s landmark 1929 novel about two light-skinned black women who form a friendship and flirtation. By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. The 10 best movies from Sundance Film Festival 2021. Try another? CODA. CODA will be released by Apple after a record-breaking $25 million deal. Sundance 2021: The best films from this year’s festival The hits (and misses) of this year’s virtual indie-palooza By Time Out Film Posted: Monday February 1 2021 66 of the Festival’s feature films, or 93% of the lineup announced today, will be world premieres. Portraying the pathways and fractures of a live racetrack with a documentarian’s attention to detail, Bentley’s disciplined feature debut as a writer-director is bound to join the contemporary ranks of The Rider, The Mustang, and Lean on Pete as an evocative study of American life on the fringes that unfolds alongside the grand mysticism of stallions. It’s a great underdog tale, told with infectious, childlike glee.’. this Holocaust detective story is a film to tiptoe through carefully, reserving judgment until the end credits roll. By Alissa Wilkinson @alissamarie Feb 9, 2021, 12:50pm EST Share this story All rights reserved. Date TBD. Best Films of Sundance 2021. The latest from leftfield British indie powerhouse Ben Wheatley is a quarantine quickie – a low-budget trippy horror, set during a pandemic. Sundance 2021 may have had to adjust due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the quality of films didn't suffer. The days of major hand-drawn animated movies being a major force in film are long behind us, but it still exists at the margins, and Shaw’s sophomore feature is a shining example of how lovely and entrancing the medium can be. , but while touching and always likeable, Ben Wheatley swaps the grand surrounds of, ’s Manderley to the English woods for an earthier, lower-budget horror in a similar vein to. From Nic Cage’s latest to a powerful Rita Moreno documentary, 2021’s Sundance line-up looks to be one of the best in recent memory. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival combined in-person screenings at the Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah with screenings held online as well as on screens and drive-ins in 24 states and territories across the United States. 10 of the best movies on Sundance Now in April 2021 Sundance Now offers a curated on-demand library of indie darlings and we've picked out the best of the bunch. Harper's BAZAAR participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. But narrative films and documentaries alike still seized the moment, speaking to our times of the virus and quarantine, political turmoil, gun violence, and refugee crisis in sharp and thought-provoking ways. Just how intimately acquainted Hill and Bethencourt’s subjects already are with rape culture is both eye-opening and impossible to shake. Passing is one of the best films of Sundance 2021. 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