One of the leading US festivals for independent films, the Sundance Film Festival, is bracing for a homecoming from 19-29 January. The gathering’s 2023 edition is the first one to take place in person (in Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance Resort) since 2020, after last year’s edition had to be cancelled shortly before it was due to begin (see the news). However, the festival is maintaining its online platform, screening the movies both in theatres and online in a hybrid, “phygital” model that many festivals embraced last year. This coming iteration is led by Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente alongside director of programming Kim Yutani and the institute’s leadership team after Sundance director Tabitha Jackson announced her departure in June. New Sundance Film Festival director and head of public programming Eugene Hernandez is set to helm the 40^th edition in 2024.

“Maintaining an essential place for artists to express themselves and to take risks, and for visionary stories to endure and entertain is distinctly Sundance,” says Robert Redford, the Sundance Institute’s founder and president. “The programme for this year’s festival reiterates the relevance of trailblazing work serving as an irreplaceable source of original stories that resonate and fuel creativity and dialogue,” notes Yutani. “In so many ways, this year’s slate reflects the voices of communities around the world who are speaking out with urgency and finally being heard. Across our programme, impactful storytelling by fearless artists continues to provide space for the community to come together to be entertained, challenged and inspired,” she adds.

Similarly to previous editions, the festival will premiere a rich variety of European fiction and non-fiction oeuvres. The United Kingdom and France are leading the way in terms of the number of co-productions selected for the line-up. Ira Sachs’ latest work, Passages [+lire aussi :
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More new voices from British cinema will be bowing at Sundance alongside Barthes. Raine Allen Miller will introduce her romantic comedy Rye Lane [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], starring Harris Dickinson, of Triangle of Sadness [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ruben Östlund
interview : Ruben Östlund
fiche film] fame; and the story of 11-year-old Ama and her mother, who “take solace in the gentle but isolated world they obsessively create”, in Girl [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Adura Onashile. All three films have been supported throughout development and production by BBC Film, and New Europe Film Sales has already boarded Girl ahead of its world premiere.

The non-fiction line-up includes the documentaries on Ukraine 20 Days in Mariupol [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Mstyslav Chernov, about a group of journalists trapped in the besieged city as they document the atrocities of the war; and Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], investigating the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine. Jakub Piątek will offer a glimpse from the backstage of the legendary International Chopin Piano Competition in Pianoforte [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], Anna Hints observes a type of sisterhood forged in saunas in Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+lire aussi :
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interview : Anna Hints
fiche film], and British filmmaker Ella Glendining will be unveiling her feature-length documentary debut, Is There Anybody Out There? [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], where she searches for someone with the same disability as her – bilateral proximal femoral focal deficiency.

World premieres constitute the vast majority of the announced films that the festival programmers have picked from among 1,662 US and 2,399 international feature-length submissions. 53% of the announced films were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as women, 45% were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as people of colour, 20% by one or more filmmakers who identify as LGBTQ+, and 3% by one or more filmmakers who identify as a person with a disability.

Here is the full list of announced titles:

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Animalia [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sofia Alaoui
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Girl [+lire aussi :
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interview : Adura Onashile
fiche film] - Adura Onashile (UK)
Heroic [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - David Zonana (Mexico/Sweden)
Mamacruz [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Patricia Ortega (Spain)
La Pecera [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Glorimar Marrero Sánchez (Puerto Rico/Spain)
Scrapper [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Charlotte Regan (UK)
Slow [+lire aussi :
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interview : Marija Kavtaradze
fiche film] - Marija Kavtaradze (Lithuania/Spain/Sweden)
Sorcery [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Christopher Murray (Chile/Mexico/Germany)
When It Melts [+lire aussi :
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interview : Veerle Baetens
fiche film] - Veerle Baetens (Belgium)

World Cinema Documentary Competition

5 Seasons of Revolution [+lire aussi :
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interview : Lina
fiche film] – Lina (Germany/Syria/Netherlands/Norway)
20 Days in Mariupol [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mstyslav Chernov
fiche film] - Mstyslav Chernov (Ukraine)
And the king said, what a FANTASTIC MACHINE [+lire aussi :
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interview : Axel Danielson et Maximili…
fiche film] - Axel Danielson, Maximilien Van Aertryck (Sweden/Denmark)
Iron Butterflies [+lire aussi :
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interview : Roman Liubyi
fiche film] - Roman Liubyi (Ukraine/Germany)
Is There Anybody Out There? [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Ella Glendining (UK)
Pianoforte [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Jakub Piątek (Poland)
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+lire aussi :
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interview : Anna Hints
fiche film] - Anna Hints (Estonia/France/Iceland)
Twice Colonized [+lire aussi :
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interview : Lin Alluna
interview : Lin Alluna
fiche film] - Lin Alluna (Greenland/Denmark/Canada)

Midnight

Polite Society [+lire aussi :
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interview : Nida Manzoor
fiche film] - Nida Manzoor (UK)
Infinity Pool [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Brandon Cronenberg (Canada/Hungary/Croatia/France)

Premieres

Cat Person [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Susanna Fogel (France/USA)
The Deepest Breath [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Laura McGann (UK/Ireland)
Drift [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Anthony Chen (France/UK/Greece)
Passages [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Ira Sachs (France)
The Pod Generation [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Sophie Barthes (Belgium/France/UK)
Rye Lane [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Raine Allen-Miller (UK)

Spotlight

The Eight Mountains [+lire aussi :
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interview : Felix van Groeningen & Cha…
fiche film] - Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch (Italy/Belgium)
L’Immensità [+lire aussi :
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interview : Emanuele Crialese
fiche film] - Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
Other People’s Children [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rebecca Zlotowski
fiche film] - Rebecca Zlotowski (France)

Kids

The Amazing Maurice [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Toby Genkel (Germany/UK)