Sundance Film Festival added five feature films and a Special Event to the 2019 lineup alongside announcing the winner of the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, seven Day One films and the Closing Night Film. The Festival will take place in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 24 to February 4, 2019.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, screening in the Premieres section, has been named the winner of the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, and will screen at the Festival’s Salt Lake City Opening Night.
Additionally, 7 films were confirmed as Day One Films: Apollo 11, The Edge of Democracy, Give Me Liberty, The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley, The Last Tree, MEMORY – The Origins of Alien and Shorts Program 1. The Closing Night Film will be Troop Zero.
Midnight films Corporate Animals and Wounds, Premiere Paddleton and Special Event Pop-Up Magazine join archive films The Hours and Times and The Blair Witch Project, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992 and 1999, respectively. The archive films are selections from the Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA, a joint venture between UCLA Film & Television Archive and Sundance Institute. The Collection, established in 1997, has grown to over 4,000 holdings representing nearly 2,300 titles, and is specifically devoted to the preservation of independent documentaries, narratives and short films supported by Sundance Institute, including Paris is Burning, El Mariachi, Winter’s Bone, Johnny Suede, Working Girls, Crumb, Groove, Better This World, The Oath and Paris, Texas. Titles are generously donated by individual filmmakers, distributors and studios.
With these additions, the 2019 Festival has selected a total of 117 feature films. Of these, 39%, or 45, of all films were directed by one or more women; 35%, or 41, were directed by one or more filmmaker of color; 13% or 15 by one or more people who identify as LGBTQIA. 105 of the Festival’s feature films, or 91% of the program lineup, will be world premieres.
PREMIERES
Paddleton / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Alex Lehmann, Producers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Alana Carithers, Sean Bradley) — An unlikely friendship between two misfit neighbors becomes an unexpectedly emotional journey when the younger man is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Cast: Mark Duplass, Ray Romano, Ravi Patel, Christine Woods. World Premiere
MIDNIGHT
Corporate Animals / U.S.A. (Director: Patrick Brice, Screenwriter: Sam Bain, Producers: Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, Mike Falbo, Ed Helms) — Disaster strikes when the egotistical CEO of an edible cutlery company leads her long-suffering staff on a corporate team-building trip in New Mexico. Trapped underground, this mismatched and disgruntled group must pull together to survive. Cast: Demi Moore, Ed Helms, Jessica Williams, Karan Soni. World Premiere
Wounds / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director and Screenwriter: Babak Anvari, Producers: Lucan Toh, Christopher Kopp) — Disturbing and mysterious things begin to happen to a bartender in New Orleans after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar. Cast: Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Karl Glusman, Brad William Henke. World Premiere
FROM THE COLLECTION
The Blair Witch Project / U.S.A. (Directors and Screenwriters: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez) — On October 21, 1994, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams hiked into Maryland’s Black Hills Forest to shoot a documentary on local legend “The Blair Witch.” They were never heard from again. One year later, their footage was found, capturing the terrifying events that led up to their disappearance. Cast: Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, Joshua Leonard.
The Hours and Times / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Christopher Munch) — In spring 1963, The Beatles were on their meteoric rise to worldwide superstardom. Following a grueling winter of touring, 22-year-old John Lennon vacations in Spain with his brilliant manager, Brian Epstein, often called the “Fifth Beatle.” Their four-day holiday, intimate and charged, became the subject of speculation and mythology. Cast: David Angus, Ian Hart, Stephanie Pack, Robin McDonald, Sergio Moreno, Unity Grimwood.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Pop-Up Magazine / U.S.A. (Producers: Anita Badejo, Haley Howle, Derek Fagerstrom, Tina Antolini) — A touring “live magazine” show, created for a stage, a screen, and a live audience. Contributors, including filmmakers, bestselling authors, popular radio and podcast voices, and artists perform vivid, multimedia stories accompanied by illustration, animation, film, photography, and an original live score.