Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival revealed the names of the members of the six juries awarding prizes at the 2015 Festival, taking place January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.  

Comedian Tig Notaro will host the Festival’s feature film awards ceremony on January 31 in Park City.  Notaro executive produced the documentary, Tig, about her life, which will have its world premiere in the Festival’s Documentary Premieres section.

Short Film Awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 27 at Park City’s Jupiter Bowl.

U.S. DOCUMENTARY JURY

Eugene Hernandez
Eugene Hernandez is the deputy director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where he leads strategy and operations for the institution, and is also the co-publisher of the award-winning Film Comment magazine, the official publication of the organization. He previously served as the director of digital strategy, where he oversaw all digital platforms and content. Prior to the Film Society, Hernandez co-founded Indiewire in 1996 and as editor-in-chief built the company over 14 years to become the leading online community and editorial publication for independent and international films and filmmakers. Additionally, he has worked extensively as a consultant for several non-profits, written for major print and online publications, and annually participates in the international film festival circuit as a juror and panelist.

Kirsten Johnson
Kirsten Johnson is a cinematographer and director. Her most recent camera work appears in Citizen Four, Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs Gravity, and The Wound and the Gift. Her credits include Academy Award-nominated The Invisible War, and Tribeca Film Festival documentary winner, Pray the Devil Back to Hell. She and Laura Poitras shared the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Cinematography Award for The Oath. Her shooting is featured in Fahrenheit 9/11, Academy Award-nominated Asylum, Emmy-winning Ladies First, and Sundance Film Festival premieres: A Place at the Table, This Film is Not Yet Rated, and Derrida. Deadline, co-directed with Katy Chevigny, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Thurgood Marshall Award. She is currently editing A Blind Eye, a documentary that investigates her relationship as a cinematographer to those she films.

Michele Norris
Michele Norris is a host and special correspondent at NPR. She produces in-depth profiles, interviews, and series, and guest hosts NPR News programs. Norris was a host on NPR’s “All Things Considered” for a decade. She leads The Race Card Project, an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in America that she created after publishing her family memoir,The Grace of Silence. Norris received a Peabody Award for her work on The Race Card Project. Prior to joining NPR, Norris was a correspondent for ABC News, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. She has received several national honors for her work and has interviewed world leaders, Nobel laureates, Academy Award winners, American presidents, military leaders, and even astronauts traveling in outer space.

Gordon Quinn
Gordon Quinn has been producing documentaries and mentoring filmmakers for five decades as co-founder and artistic director of Kartemquin Films. His credits include directing Golub, Prisoner of Her Past, and A Good Man, and executive producing Hoop Dreams, Stevie, The Interrupters, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, The Homestretch, and Life Itself. Currently, he is executive producer on the Al Jazeera America series Hard Earned, and directing ’63 Boycott. A passionate advocate for independent public media, Gordon is an expert on fair use, ethics, and storytelling in documentary. He has received awards from the Emmys, Peabodys, PGA, DGA, and the Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, he received a Career Achievement award from Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and a Master of Cinema award from the RiverRun International Film Festival.

Roger Ross Williams
Roger Ross Williams directed God Loves Uganda, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and screened at more than 75 film festivals worldwide, winning over a dozen awards. Williams also directed and produced Music by Prudence, which won the 2010 Academy Award for documentary short subject. He is the first African-American to win an Oscar for directing and producing a film, short or feature. Williams has several projects in development, including a transmedia project calledTraveling While Black; a feature documentary, Life, Animated, about the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind; and a narrative feature film. Williams serves on the alumni advisory board of the Sundance Institute. He splits his time between upstate New York and Amsterdam.

U.S. DRAMATIC JURY

Lance Acord
Lance Acord made his feature director of photography debut with Buffalo ’66 at Sundance Film Festival in 1998. A highly sought-after cinematographer, his credits include God’s Pocket, Where the Wild Things Are, Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation, Adaptation, and Being John Malkovich. Acord seamlessly transitioned into commercial directing—collecting three nominations from the Directors Guild of America, numerous Cannes Gold Lions, and an Emmy—for such memorable work asThe Force for Volkswagen, Jogger for Nike and Apple’s Misunderstood. A frequent contributor to the Sundance Film Festival as a producer as well as a cinematographer, Acord, via his production company Park Pictures, was a producer on Robot & Frank, God’s Pocket, and Infinitely Polar Bear.

Sarah Flack
Sarah Flack is an award-winning film editor based in New York. She won a BAFTA award for editing Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, and their collaboration has continued with Marie Antoinette, Somewhere, and The Bling Ring. Flack won an Emmy and an American Cinema Editors award with Robert Pulcini for their editing of the HBO film Cinema Verite, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Pulcini. After working on the Prague set of Steven Soderbergh’s second feature, Kafka, Flack went on to edit three of his subsequent films: Schizopolis, The Limey, and Full Frontal. She has also edited films for Sam Mendes, Michel Gondry, Peter Hedges, Michael Showalter, and Edward Burns. Flack graduated from Brown University with degrees in political science and semiotics.

Cary Fukunaga
Cary Joji Fukunaga graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His film work as a writer, director, and cinematographer has taken him from the Arctic Circle to Haiti and West Africa. He has received several grants, including a 2008 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, a John H. Johnson film award, and a 2005 Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship. Fukunaga wrote and directed the short film Victoria para Chino, which screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and won more than two dozen international awards, including an honorable mention at the Sundance Film Festival and a Student Academy Award. His first feature film, Sin Nombre, premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, earning him the Directing Award and the Excellence in Cinematography Award. He also directed Jane Eyre in 2011 and, most recently, the acclaimed first season of True Detective for HBO, for which he earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

Winona Ryder
With two Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe to her credit, Winona Ryder is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents and classic beauties. She will next be seen in Experimenter opposite Peter Sarsgaard, Taryn Manning, and John Leguizamo, set to premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. She is currently in production on the TV miniseries Show Me a Hero, opposite Oscar Isaac, James Belushi, and Catherine Keener. Ryder was recently seen in The Iceman, which premiered to rave reviews at the Venice and Toronto film festivals in 2012. On television, she recently appeared in Turks and Caicos alongside Bill Nighy and Christopher Walken. She appeared in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 supernatural thriller Black Swan, and appeared in 2011 in The Dilemma from director Ron Howard. Ryder starred in and served as executive producer on the critically acclaimed Girl, Interrupted, and as Jo in Gillian Armstrong’s highly praised version of Little Women, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The previous year she was also nominated, and won the Golden Globe and National Board of Review Awards for Best Supporting Actress for Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence. Ryder has worked with some of today’s most important directors, including Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jim Jarmusch. She was a juror for the 51st Annual Cannes International Film Festival and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Serving on the Board of Trustees to the American Indian College Fund, Ryder has also been very involved with the KlaasKids Foundation since the organization’s inception in 1994.

Edgar Wright
As a teenager in England, Edgar Wright started making short comedy films after winning a video camera in a competition. At 20, he directed the no-budget western A Fistful of Fingers. This led to a foray into television, directing comedy shows for the BBC and Paramount Comedy Channel. He also directed two seasons of Channel 4′s cult classic Spaced. In 2004, Wright directed Shaun of the Dead, the first film in his Cornetto Trilogy. Shaun was followed by Hot Fuzz in 2007 and The World’s End in 2013. The three films combined have amassed a box office of over $150 million. Wright also directed Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which he co-wrote with Michael Bacall; co-wrote Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin; and directed the faux trailer Don’t for Quentin Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse. Upcoming projects include Baby Driver for Working Title, Collider for Bad Robot, and Grasshopper Jungle for Sony.

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY JURY

Elena Fortes Acosta
Elena Fortes Acosta was born in Mexico City in 1981. She is the director and partner of Ambulante, a non-profit organization that was founded in 2005 by Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, and Pablo Cruz, in order to support and promote a documentary film culture. Every year, Ambulante sponsors a traveling festival that brings a selection of over 100 films to more than 100 venues located in 12 regions across Mexico. Since 2007, the festival has been showcased in 20 countries. In 2010, Fortes launched Ambulante Beyond, a long-term training program in documentary filmmaking for youth in Mexico and Central America. In addition to her work in visual media, Fortes has been active in Mexico’s political sphere, working for non-profits focused on advocating increased participation of young people in policymaking and on exposing human rights violations in the country.

Mark Cousins
Mark Cousins is a filmmaker and writer. His films include The Story of Film: An Odyssey, Life May Be, What is this Film Called Love?, The First Movie, Here be Dragons, A Story of Children and Film, I am Belfast, and 6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia. Their themes are Iraq, childhood, cinema, Iran, Mexico City, Albania, walking, bodies and politics. He has won the Stanley Kubrick Award, a Peabody Award, and the Prix Italia. His films have shown in Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, London and at the world’s major festivals, and at Museum of Modern Art in New York. His books include Watching Real People Elsewhereand Imagining Reality. He sometimes co-directs unusual film events with Tilda Swinton, and is honorary professor of film at the University of Glasgow.

Ingrid Kopp
An innovator in interactive storytelling, Ingrid Kopp is director of interactive at the Tribeca Film Institute, where she oversees the New Media Fund. Recent supported projects include Immigrant Nation, Hollow, and Question Bridge. Kopp leads the institute’s other digital and interactive programs, including the TFI Interactive conference and the Tribeca Hacks hackathon series, bringing storytellers, technologists and designers together to explore new projects and collaborations. She also curates the Tribeca Storyscapes program for interactive, transmedia work at the Tribeca Film Festival. Kopp started her career in the documentaries department at Channel 4 Television in the UK before moving to New York to run the U.S. office of Shooting People, an international network for filmmakers. Kopp is constantly working at the intersection between storytelling, technology, design, and social change, and is a frequent speaker on the subject. You can always find her on Twitter: @fromthehip.

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC JURY

Mia Hanson-Løve
After two short movies, in 2007, Mia Hansen-Løve directed her first feature film All is Forgiven, which depicts a family torn apart by the father’s drug addiction. The film was presented at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and received the Louis-Delluc First Film Award. Her second film, Father Of My Children (inspired by the last days of Hansen-Løve’s producer, Humbert Balsan, who committed suicide in 2005), premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2009, leading to a lot of attention on the director. In 2010, Variety ranked Mia Hansen-Løve in the Top Ten international directors to know. The following year, she directed the critically acclaimed film Goodbye First Love, a dramatic comedy about a fragile young woman who stumbles upon her teenage lover years later. In 2013, Hansen-Løve returned to the Director’s Fortnight, as the short films jury president. Eden is her fourth film.

Col Needham
Col Needham is the founder and CEO of IMDb, the No. 1 movie website in the world with a combined web and mobile audience of more than 200 million unique monthly visitors. Born and living in the UK, Needham has had a lifelong interest in both technology and movies. IMDb grew out of a personal database of movie information that he created as a teenager. IMDb became a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com in April 1998. Today, IMDb’s platform includes award-winning mobile apps for iOS and Android, IMDb’s X-Ray for Movies & TV on Kindle Fire HD and Wii U devices, IMDb Pro, Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo. IMDb will celebrate its 25th anniversary in October 2015. Needham continues in his original role to this day, working from an office in Bristol with IMDb staff members in countries around the world.

Taika Waititi
Taika Waititi is a writer, director, actor, and visual artist from New Zealand. Waititi wrote, directed, and acted in Eagle vs Shark, and Boy, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and went on to become the highest-grossing New Zealand film of all time. Taika’s most recent film, What We Do in the Shadows, co-written/directed/acted with Jemaine Clement, was recently named “The best comedy of the year” by The Guardian, and “Funniest film of the year” by Empire Magazine. Waititi’s other writer/director credits include the 2005 short Two Cars, One Night, which was nominated for an Academy Award and the short film Tama Tu, which picked up festival prizes worldwide. He has written and directed multiple episodes of the TV series Flight of the Conchords, and his other acting credits include a believable portrayal of a waiter in a 1996 New Zealand Butter commercial for NZ’s National Butter Commission. Waititi hails from the Te-Whanau-a-Apanui tribe.

SHORT FILM JURY

K.K. Barrett
K.K. Barrett is a production designer, who started his creative journey as a noise musician, painter, then moved to film in music videos and commercials. He is known for working with a select group of filmmakers who have a personal vision. This has led to a diverse body of work which touches on foreign alienation in Lost in Translation, historical playfulness in Marie Antoinette, both for Sophia Coppola, madcap surreality in I Heart Huckabees, with David O. Russell, skewed magical realism in Human Nature for Michel Gondry, a traumatic childhood in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. For Spike Jonze he explored the funhouse of fame in Being John Malkovich, creative conundrums in Adaptation, and childhood fantasy in Where the Wild Things Are. His latest was Jonze’s film HER for which he was nominated for an Academy Award in production design. He is currently directing a live film: Nufonia Must Fall which has played in Europe and will debut in the States in the fall of 2015.

Alia Shawkat
Alia Shawkat just wrapped the Amber Tamblyn-directed film Paint It Black, in which she stars opposite Janet McTeer. Shawkat’s other feature credits include Lawrence Michael Levine’s Wild Canaries, Night Moves (appearing alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning), and The To Do List, written and directed by Maggie Carey. Shawkat’s upcoming credits include The Final Girls, Me Him Her, The Driftless Area, and Green Room with Imogen Poots and Sir Patrick Stewart. Shawkat is known for her role as Maeby Fünke in the cult series Arrested Development. She also can be seen in Comedy Central’sBroad City and HBO’s Getting On. In addition to being an actress, Shawkat is also a talented jazz singer and pianist, as well as an accomplished painter and illustrator. Her artwork can be viewed on her website Mutantalia.com.

Autumn de Wilde
Autumn de Wilde is a photographer and director with a knack for capturing the strange and the special. Her work often depicts an intimate connection and surreal conversation between herself and her subjects. As a result of this creative connection, she’s been instrumental in defining the visual identity of an ever-expanding pool of well-known actors, musicians, and artists. They include: Beck, Elliott Smith, The White Stripes, Childish Gambino, The Decemberists, Keaton Henson, Noah And The Whale, Jenny Lewis, Lena Dunham, Miranda July, Zooey Deschanel, and Elijah Wood. De Wilde’s process also applies to her work with commercial clients such as Cadillac, as well her key art for film and TV campaigns like Jill Soloway’s Transparent for Amazon Prime, Girls for HBO, and Universal Pictures’ 50 Shades of Grey. She has been documenting the life and work of fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte since its inception. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter, Arrow.

ALFRED P. SLOAN FEATURE FILM PRIZE JURY (SCIENCE IN FILM)

Paula Apsell
As director of the WGBH Science Unit and senior executive producer of the PBS science series NOVA, Paula Apsell has overseen the production of hundreds of acclaimed science documentaries, including such distinguished miniseries as The Fabric of the Cosmos with Brian Greene, Origins with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Making Stuff with David Pogue and the magazine spin-off NOVA scienceNOW. NOVA is the nation’s most-watched science series, a top site on pbs.org, and recipient of every major broadcasting honor, including the Emmy, the Peabody, and the duPont-Columbia Gold Baton. Apsell has won numerous individual awards and has served on many boards including the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. In 2012 she was journalist in residence at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at University of California, Santa Barbara and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Janna Levin
Janna Levin is an astrophysicist and writer. She has contributed to an understanding of black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of spacetime. She is the author of the popular-science book How the Universe Got Its Spots and a novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham prize. Levin is a professor at Barnard/Columbia and was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.

Brit Marling
Brit Marling will be seen in Daniel Barber’s The Keeping Room, a film about three Southern women defending their home during the Civil War which premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Marling recently portrayed a molecular biologist in Mike Cahill’s I Origins. and has also been seen in Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep and Nicholas Jarecki’s financial thriller, Arbitrage. At the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Marling became the first female multi-hyphenate to have two films premiere side-by-side: Sound of My Voice, and Another Earth, both of which she co-wrote, co-produced and starred in. Fox Searchlight acquired both films, releasing them in 2012 and 2011, respectively. Marling’s foray into filmmaking started during her college years at Georgetown University. This introduction led Marling to Havana, Cuba, to co-direct the documentary Boxers and Ballerinas which followed young artists and athletes living in the communist country. Marling graduated valedictorian from Georgetown, having studied economics and studio art.

Jonathan Nolan
Jonathan Nolan is an Academy Award-nominated writer of film, fiction, and television. His credits include The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Prestige, and Interstellar. Nolan’s short story Memento Mori, first published in Esquire, was adapted by his brother Christopher into the critically acclaimed film Memento, for which they share an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The brothers were also nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for The Dark Knight screenplay. For television, Nolan created the hit drama Person of Interest, starring Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson. The show is in its fourth season on CBS. Most recently, he directed the pilot Westworld for HBO. Based on the film by Michael Critchon and co-written with his wife, Lisa Joy, the project stars Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris. Nolan and Joy serve as executive producers alongside J.J. Abrams. Nolan was born in London and grew up in the Chicago area. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his family.

Adam Steltzner
Adam D. Steltzner is a Fellow at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is leading the development of the Sampling System for the 2020 Mars Surface Mission project. Most recently he was the phase lead and development manager of the Entry, Descent and Landing phase of the Mars Science Laboratory project. Steltzner received his BS in mechanical engineering from University of California, Davis in 1990, his MS in applied mechanics from Caltech in 1991, and his PhD in engineering physics from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. Steltzner joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1991 and has worked on various projects including Galileo, Cassini, Mars Pathfinder, Champollion, Comet Nucleus Sample Return, Mars Exploration Rovers, and the Mars Science Laboratory. His research interests include structural dynamics, input force determination, mechanical design, systems engineering, and leadership of high-performance teams. He is increasingly aware of the importance of team culture and interpersonal dynamics in delivering a team’s final product.

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Ten more films, plus events and New Frontier installations have been added to the lineup for the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, taking place January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. Among the 10 new films are the Salt Lake City Gala Film World Premiere of A Walk in the Woods starring Robert Redford, in addition to Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen, Nick Offerman; and True Story starring Jonah Hill, James Franco and Felicity Jones. With these additions, the 2015 Festival will present 123 feature-length films, representing 29 countries and 45 first-time filmmakers, including 19 in competition. 

PREMIERES

A Walk in the Woods / U.S.A. (Director: Ken Kwapis, Screenwriters: Rick Kerb, Bill Holderman) — An aging travel writer sets out to hike the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail with a long-estranged high school buddy. Along the way, the duo face off with each other, nature, and an eccentric assortment of characters. Together, they learn that some roads are better left untraveled. Cast: Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen, Nick Offerman, Kristen Schaal. World Premiere. SALT LAKE CITY GALA FILM

True Story / U.S.A. (Director: Rupert Goold, Screenwriters: Rupert Goold, David Kajganich) — When disgraced New York Times reporter Michael Finkel meets accused killer Christian Longo — who has taken on Finkel’s identity — his investigation morphs into an unforgettable game of cat and mouse. Based on actual events, Finkel’s relentless pursuit of Longo’s true story encompasses murder, love, deceit, and redemption. Cast: Jonah Hill, James Franco, Felicity Jones.

SUNDANCE KIDS
This section of the Festival is especially for our youngest independent film fans. Programmed in cooperation with Tumbleweeds, Utah’s premiere film festival for children and youth.

The Games Maker / Argentina, Canada, Italy (Director and screenwriter: Juan Pablo Buscarini) — Ivan Drago’s love of board games catapults him into the fantastical world of game invention and pits him against the inventor Morodian, who wants to destroy the city of Zyl. To save his family, Ivan must come to know what it is to be a true Games Maker. Cast: David Mazouz, Joseph Fiennes, Ed Asner, Megan Charpentier, Tom Cavanagh, Valentina Lodovini. U.S. Premiere

Operation Arctic / Norway (Director and screenwriter: Grethe Bøe-Waal) — This modern-day Robinson Crusoe adventure is set in the Arctic. Through a misunderstanding, 13-year-old Julia and her eight-year-old twin siblings, Ida and Sindre, are left on a deserted island. The children have to find ways to survive, battling fierce winter weather, hungry polar bears, and loneliness.Cast: Kaisa Gurine Antonsen, Ida Leonora Valestrand Eike, Leonard Valestrand Eike, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Kristofer Hivju, Line Verndal. International Premiere

Shaun the Sheep / United Kingdom (Directors and screenwriters: Richard Starzak, Mark Burton) — When Shaun’s mischief inadvertently leads to the Farmer being taken away from the farm, Shaun, Bitzer and the flock have to go into the big city to rescue him, setting the stage for an epic adventure. International Premiere

SPECIAL EVENTS

Pioneers Palace B’92 / Romania (Director and screenwriter: Bobby Paunescu) — In the wild days of post-Ceausescu Bucharest, teenagers open a disco at their high school, terrified of an AIDS scare after their visit to a local brothel. Part of the Festival’s new Art of Film program, Pioneers Palace B’92 was produced by film students and supported by Mandragora Film Academy together with Solar Indie Junction. Cast: Toto Dumitrescu, Mihai Dorobantu, Maria Bata, Dragos Savulescu, Alice Halpert, Alice Peneaca.World Premiere

NEW FRONTIER
The following installations will be featured in The VR works of Felix & Paul, a showcase of groundbreaking live-action virtual reality experiences by artists Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël in the Festival’s New Frontier exhibition.

Herders
Artists: Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël
Mongolian pastoral herders are one of the world’s last remaining nomadic cultures. For millennia they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on the grasslands. Through a series of virtual reality experiences, the viewer is invited into the reality of a nomadic family of yak herders.

Strangers with Patrick Watson
Artists: Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël, Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski
Strangers with Patrick Watson invites the viewer to spend an intimate moment with celebrated Montreal musician Patrick Watson at work in his studio loft on a winter’s day. Cast: Patrick Watson.

WILD – The Experience
Artists: Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël
Fox Searchlight and the Fox Innovation Lab present this virtual reality experience drawing from the film Wild. Viewers enter a fully immersive media environment to join an intimate moment on the Pacific Crest Trail between a woman, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon), and her mother, Bobbi (Laura Dern), a vision from the afterlife.

FROM THE COLLECTION
A selection from The Sundance Collection at UCLA, a film preservation program established in 1997. The Collection is specifically devoted to the preservation of independent documentaries, narratives and short films supported by Sundance Institute and has grown to nearly 2,300 holdings representing 1,800 titles, including recent additions such as 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.

Paris is Burning / U.S.A. (Director: Jennie Livingston) — Paris is Burning visits black and Latino drag balls of the 1980s in New York City, where at raucous celebrations, rival Houses create intense competition and provide deep sustenance. This world within a world is instantly familiar, filled with intense yearnings for “Realness” that reflect America itself. Cast: Dorian Corey, Freddie Pendavis, Pepper Labeija, Junior Labeija, Venus Xtravaganza, Willi Ninja.

The screening will feature a DCP of the new digital restoration of Paris is Burning created from original 16mm elements. This recent effort restores the feature to the original uncropped aspect ratio. The project represents the collaborative efforts of the Sundance Institute, the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, and UCLA Film & Television Archive, with permission of Miramax.

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Dog Bowl

Sundance Film Festival announced today the program of short films selected to screen at the upcoming 2015 Festival taking place January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The 2015 Short Film program is comprised of 60 short films selected from 8,061 submissions. 

Mike Plante, Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, said, “This year’s short filmmakers have broken through their limited timeframe with a high level of artistry and story that will resonate with audiences long after each film has ended.”

U.S. NARRATIVE SHORT FILMS

Actresses / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jeremy Hersh) — The film follows the relationship between a young, aspiring actress and an established off-Broadway star.

A.D. 1363, The End of Chivalry / U.S.A., New Zealand (Director and screenwriter: Jake Mahaffy) — A little-known historical catastrophe leads to the definitive end of the era of chivalry and questing.

Color Neutral / U.S.A. (Director: Jennifer Reeves) — A color explosion sparkles, bubbles, and fractures in this handcrafted 16mm film. Jennifer Reeves utilizes an array of mediums and direct-on-film techniques to create this exuberant, psychedelic morsel of cinema as material.

Dog Bowl / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Gordy Hoffman) — A heartbroken girl spiraling through life stumbles upon the true nature of her existence after stealing the vest off of a service dog.

Hugh the Hunter / U.S.A. (Director: Zachary Heinzerling, Screenwriters: Zachary Heinzerling, Jesse Soursourian) — This fable, inspired by the artwork of Hugh Hayden, follows a fictitious hunter of the Scottish Highlands on a daylong quest to capture the elusive red grouse.

A Million Miles Away / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jennifer Reeder) — Melancholy as survival strategy: A woman on the edge of failing and a pack of teenage girls simultaneously experience a supernatural coming-of-age. The transformation unravels to the infectious beat of a heavy metal anthem rearranged as a lamentation.

Mulignans

Mulignans / U.S.A. (Director: Shaka King, Screenwriters: Shaka King, Kristan Sprague) — mulignan(s) /moo.lin.yan(s)/ n. 1. Italian-American slang for a Black man. Derived from Italian dialect word for “eggplant.” See also: moolie. Source: Urban Dictionary and pretty much every mob movie ever.

Myrna the Monster / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ian Samuels) — A heartbroken alien dreamer from the moon transitions into young adult life in Los Angeles just like any other 20-something.

Oh Lucy! / Japan, Singapore, U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Atsuko Hirayanagi) — Setsuko, a 55-year-old single so-called office lady in Tokyo, is given a blonde wig and a new identity, “Lucy,” by her young unconventional English-language teacher. “Lucy” awakens desires in Setsuko she never knew existed.

Pink Grapefruit / U.S.A. (Director: Michael Mohan, Screenwriters: Michael Mohan, Chris Levitus) — A young married couple bring two of their single friends to Palm Springs for a long weekend. It does not go as planned.

Rabbit / France, U.S.A. (Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Screenwriters: Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre, Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold) — A therapist working in tandem with a correctional facility’s Pet Partnership Program entrusts a small rabbit to a female prisoner. In the confinement of her cell, will the inmate be able to transcend her circumstances and connect with the animal?

SMILF / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Frankie Shaw) — A young single mother struggles to balance her old life of freedom with her new one as mom. It all comes to a head during one particular nap-time when Bridgette invites an old friend over for a visit.

Stop / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Reinaldo Marcus Green) — A young man’s livelihood is put to the test when he is stopped by the police on his way home.

Superior / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Erin Vassilopoulos) — A stranger passing through town sparks a teenage girl’s desire to distinguish herself from her identical twin sister. As one sister struggles to break free, the other insists on preserving their distinctive bond.

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE SHORT FILMS

Back Alley / France (Director and screenwriter: Cécile Ducrocq) — Suzanne, a prostitute for 15 years, has her turf, her regular johns, and her freedom. One day, however, young African prostitutes settle nearby, and she is threatened.

The Chicken / Germany, Croatia (Director and screenwriter: Una Gunjak) — The day-to-day life of a six-year-old girl growing up during unstable times in Sarajevo is shaken up when a chicken joins her family.

Daytimer / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Riz Ahmed) — London, 1999: A young boy gives school and home the slip to attend his first daytime rave.

Followers / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Tim Marshall) — Lynn, an elderly woman stricken with grief after her husband’s death, finds solace in an apparition of Jesus on the swimming trunks of a young gay man at her adult swimming class.

Great Northern Mountain / Sweden (Director and screenwriter: Amanda Kernell) — Elle, 78, doesn’t like Sámi (Laplander) people — even though she is Sámi. Pressured by her son, she returns north for her sister’s funeral. When she realizes he’s planned for them to stay with their relatives, Elle checks into a hotel.

Greenland / Israel (Director and screenwriter: Oren Gerner) — Oren packs his belongings at his parents’ house before moving in with his girlfriend. Through seemingly simple interactions, family dynamics are revealed. The house constitutes the space in which past, present, and future mix into a chronicle of separation.

Hole / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Martin Edralin) — A daring portrait of a disabled man yearning for intimacy in a world that would rather ignore him.

I am Hong Kong

I am Hong Kong / China (Director and screenwriter: Flora Lau) — The recent Umbrella Movement, ignited by the youth of Hong Kong, shows how citizens’ passion and desire for a more fair and just future can bring about a peaceful but powerful social movement, despite criticism, defamation and attacks.

The Little Deputy / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Trevor Anderson) — Trevor tries to have his photo taken with his father.

Out of Sight / United Kingdom (Director: Nick Rowland, Screenwriter: Joe Murtagh) — To clear a debt with a loan shark, Martin, a recoverimg drug addict, agrees to lock a stranger in his spare room while they go cold turkey. As the days pass, Martin suspects something far worse is at play.

Russian Roulette / United Kingdom (Director: Ben Aston, Screenwriter: Oli Fenton) — London becomes a little less lonely when Lucy meets a libidinous cosmonaut on Chatroulette.

Saturday / United Kingdom (Director: Mike Forshaw, Screenwriters: Mike Forshaw, Greg Forshaw) — April 15, 1989: A soccer match changes Liam’s life and the city of Liverpool forever… This fictional account relates how the Hillsborough Stadium disaster — which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters — unfolded for a family in Merseyside, England.

Spring / Mexico (Director and screenwriter: Tania Claudia Castillo) — Elba, an introverted, lonely 14-year-old, wants to bond with her sister Fernanda before she leaves home.

Take Me / Canada (Directors and screenwriters: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, André Turpin) — A nurse working at a center for the disabled is confronted by his principles when he’s asked to accomplish a particular task.

VOLTA / Greece (Director and screenwriter: Stella Kyriakopoulos) — As a mother and daughter start out from downtown Athens, Greece, and head to the northern suburbs, little Nina thinks they’re simply going for a walk.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILMS

The 414s: The Original Teenage Hackers / U.S.A. (Director: Michael T. Vollmann) — In 1983, a group of Milwaukee teenagers gained notoriety when they broke into dozens of high-profile computer systems. The ensuing media frenzy terrified a nation previously ignorant of the capabilities of computer interconnectivity.

Abandoned Goods / United Kingdom (Directors: Pia Borg, Edward Lawrenson) — Patients committed to Netherne psychiatric hospital between 1946 and 1981 created an extraordinary collection of artworks in a pioneering studio under artist Edward Adamson. Abandoned Goods is a moving portrait of the little-known history of UK postwar asylum life.

The Collectors: Beekeeping / U.S.A. (Director: Steven Cantor) — Dennis van Engelsdorp, former state apiarist for Pennsylvania and current entomology professor at the University of Maryland, is worried that bees — a crucial part of humanity’s ecosystem — are dying.

Every Day / U.S.A. (Director: Gabe Spitzer) — At 86, Joy Johnson was the oldest woman to run the 2013 New York City Marathon. The story of an inspiring athlete with an uncommon passion for her sport, and for life.

The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul

The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul / Australia (Director: Kitty Green) — Adorned in pink sequins, little girls from across a divided, war-torn Ukraine audition to play the role of Olympic champion figure skater Oksana Baiul, whose tears of joy once united their troubled country.

Hotel 22

Hotel 22 / U.S.A. (Director: Elizabeth Lo) — Each night in Silicon Valley, the Line 22 public bus transforms into an unofficial shelter for the homeless. This film captures one dramatic night on the “Hotel 22” bus.

It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise / U.S.A. (Director: Matt Wolf) — This portrait of Hilary Knight, the artist behind the iconic Eloise books, sees him reflecting on his life as an illustrator and his relationship to his most successful work.

Making it in America / U.S.A. (Director: Joris Debeij) — A Salvadoran immigrant who fled to the United States as a teenager is now a single mother striving to build a future for her family in Los Angeles.

{THE AND} Marcela & Rock / U.S.A. (Director: Topaz Adizes) — Exploring the intimate spaces of modern-day relationships, THE AND is the best couples therapy session you’ll ever witness.

Midnight Three & Six / U.S.A. (Director: Joe Callander) — A mother awakens at midnight, 3:00 a.m., and 6:00 a.m. every day so her daughter will wake up in the morning.

Object / Poland (Director: Paulina Skibińska) — A creative image of an underwater search in the dimensions of two worlds — ice desert and under water — told from the point of view of the rescue team, of the diver, and of the ordinary people waiting on the shore.

One Year Lease / U.S.A. (Director: Brian Bolster) — In a story told almost entirely through voicemail messages, Brian, Thomas, and Casper endure a year with Rita, their cat-loving landlady.

Papa Machete / U.S.A. (Director: Jonathan David Kane) — Two hundred years ago, Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon’s armies with the same tool used to work the land: the machete. Papa Machete explores a martial art evolved from this victory through the practice of one of its few remaining masters.

Pop-Up Porno: f4m / Canada (Director: Stephen Dunn) — Pop-up Porno: f4m tells the story of a breast cancer survivor trying to reclaim her sexuality.

Pop-Up Porno: m4f / Canada (Director: Stephen Dunn) — A painfully ill Dutch Montrealer has to use the bathroom while his date is in the shower.

Pop-Up Porno: m4m / Canada (Director: Stephen Dunn) — A lonely traveler on a business trip to New York finds himself in a heated Grindr chat with his worst nightmare.

Serenity / U.S.A. (Director: Jack Dunphy) — An animated memoir recounting first love, addiction, losing one’s virginity, and turning to pizza in times of crisis.

Starting Point / Poland (Director: Michał Szcześniak) — Aneta rebelled at age 19 and wound up in prison for murder. Nine years later, her daily routine takes her from behind prison walls to a nursing home.

ANIMATED SHORT FILMS

Bath House / Sweden (Director: Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Screenwriter: Jerker Virdborg) — Six characters meet in a public bathhouse: the pedant bathhouse manager, a couple with a strange way of communicating and a gang with shady intentions. Something goes wrong.

Beach Flags / France (Director and screenwriter: Sarah Saidan) — Vida, a young Iranian lifeguard, is determined to be the one to participate in an international competition in Australia. However, when Sareh, who is as fast and talented as her, joins the team, Vida faces an unexpected situation.

The Horse Raised By Spheres / U.S.A., Ireland (Director and screenwriter: David OReilly) — Horse ponders his loneliness.

Mynarski Death Plummet / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Matthew Rankin) — A completely handmade historical micro-epic combining wartime aviation melodrama with classical and avant-garde animation techniques, Mynarski Death Plummet is a psychedelic photo-chemical war picture on the themes of self-sacrifice, immortality, and jellyfish.

OM Rider / U.S.A.(Director and screenwriter: Takeshi Murata) — In a vast desert bathed in neon hues, a misfit werewolf tears full speed ahead over forbidding terrain while his hoary counterpart awaits.

Palm Rot / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ryan Gillis) — An old Florida fumigator discovers a mysterious crate in the Everglades that ruins his day.

Storm hits jacket

Storm hits jacket / France (Director and screenwriter: Paul Cabon) — A storm reaches the shores of Brittany. Nature goes crazy, two young scientists get caught up in the chaos. Espionage, romantic tension and mysterious events clash with enthusiasm and randomness.

The Sun Like a Big Dark Animal / U.S.A. (Directors: Christina Felisgrau, Ronnie Rivera, Screenwriters: Ronnie Rivera, Bernardo Britto) — A computer and a woman fall in love, only to be torn apart because of their inappropriate feelings for each other.

Symphony no. 42 / Hungary (Director and screenwriter: Réka Bucsi) — The film applies an unconventional narrative. It presents a subjective world through 47 scenes. Small events, interlaced by associations, express the irrational coherence of our surroundings. The surreal situations are based on the interactions of humans and nature.

teeth / United Kingdom, U.S.A., Hungary (Directors and screenwriters: Daniel Gray, Tom Brown) — Things of worth are often neglected in favor of that which is more immediately gratifying. Unfortunately, things that are neglected are often lost forever. In teeth a misguided and intensely focused man’s life is chronicled through his oral obsessions.

Tupilaq / Denmark (Director and screenwriter: Jakob Maqe) — The Tupilaq is both a symbol of the spirit of a forefather and a curse. This personal and moving short film revolves around the themes of cultural alienation, abuse and the contrast between mythological greenlandic nature and western urban culture.

Two Films About Loneliness / United Kingdom (Directors and screenwriters: William Bishop-Stephens, Christopher Eales) — A split screen separates the worlds of Jonathan Smallman, who is recording his online dating profile, and Philip Button, Internet chef and hamster, who is noisily recording his new cooking video.

World of Tomorrow / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Don Hertzfeldt) — A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of the distant future.

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Brooklyn

Sundance Film Festival today announced the films selected to screen in the out-of-competition Premieres and Documentary Premieres sections, as well as the selections for a new Special Events section and participants for two panels, at the 2015 Festival taking place, January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. 

John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, said, “Filmmakers in the Premieres and Documentary Premieres sections, many of whom are returning to the Festival, do not shy away from controversial, challenging and provocative subject matter. Their work enrages, engages and entertains audiences, shining a light on issues and people we thought we knew.”

In addition to those announced today, films in the U.S. and World Competitions, NEXT <=>, Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, New Frontier and Sundance Kids sections have been announced. An announcement of the selections for the Short Film section are forthcoming. 

PREMIERES
A showcase of world premieres of some of the most highly anticipated narrative films of the coming year.

Brooklyn / United Kingdom (Director: John Crowley, Screenwriter: Nick Hornby, based on the book by Colm Tóibín) — 1950s Ireland: Eilis must confront a terrible dilemma — a heartbreaking choice between two men and two countries, between duty and true love. Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent.

Digging for Fire / U.S.A. (Director: Joe Swanberg, Screenwriters: Jake Johnson, Joe Swanberg) — The discovery of a bone and a gun sends a husband and wife on separate adventures over the course of a weekend. Cast: Jake Johnson, Rosemarie Dewitt, Orlando Bloom, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell, Anna Kendrick.

Don Verdean / U.S.A. (Director: Jared Hess, Screenwriters: Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess) — Biblical archaeologist Don Verdean is hired by a local church pastor to find faith-promoting relics in the Holy Land. But after a fruitless expedition he is forced to get creative in this comedy of faith and fraud. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Jemaine Clement, Amy Ryan, Danny McBride, Leslie Bibb, Will Forte.

End of the Tour / U.S.A. (Director: James Ponsoldt, Screenwriter: Donald Margulies) — This story of the five-day 1996 interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace explores the tenuous yet intense relationship that develops between journalist and subject. The two men bob and weave, sharing laughs and also concealing and revealing their hidden vulnerabilities. Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Segel, Anna Chlumsky, Joan Cusack, Mamie Gummer, Ron Livingston.

Experimenter

Experimenter / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Michael Almereyda) — Experimenter is based on the true story of famed social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who in 1961 conducted a series of radical behavior experiments that tested ordinary humans’ willingness to obey authority by using electric shock. We follow Milgram from meeting his wife through his controversial experiments that sparked public outcry. Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder, Jim Gaffigan, Kellan Lutz, Taryn Manning, John Leguizamo.

Grandma / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Paul Weitz) — Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future. Cast: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer, Laverne Cox, Sam Elliott.

I Am Michael / U.S.A. (Director: Justin Kelly, Screenwriters: Justin Kelly, Stacey Miller) — The controversial true story of a gay activist who rejects his homosexuality and becomes a Christian pastor. Cast: James Franco, Zachary Quinto, Emma Roberts.

I’ll See You in My Dreams / U.S.A. (Director: Brett Haley, Screenwriters: Brett Haley, Marc Basch) — A sudden loss disrupts Carol’s orderly life, propelling her into the dating world for the first time in 20 years. Finally living in the present tense, she finds herself swept up in not one, but two unexpected relationships that challenge her assumptions about what it means to grow old.Cast: Blythe Danner, Martin Starr, Sam Elliott, Malin Akerman, June Squibb, Rhea Perlman.

Last Days in the Desert / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Rodrigo Garcia) — Ewan McGregor is Jesus — and the Devil — in an imagined chapter from his 40 days of fasting and praying in the desert. On his way out of the wilderness, Jesus struggles with the Devil over the fate of a family in crisis, setting himself up for a dramatic test. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ciarán Hinds, Ayelet Zurer, Tye Sheridan.

Lila & Eve / U.S.A. (Director: Charles Stone III, Screenwriter: Patrick Gilfillan) — Lila, a grief-stricken mother reeling from her son’s murder, attends a support group where she meets Eve, who urges her to take matters into her own hands to track down her son’s killers. They soon embark on a journey of revenge, but also recovery. Cast: Viola Davis, Jennifer Lopez, Shea Whigham, Julius Tennon, Ron Caldwell, Aml Ameen.

Mississippi Grind / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden) — Gerry is a talented poker player whose habit is getting the best of him. He convinces younger player Curtis to join him on a road trip, and they begin gambling their way towards a high-stakes game in New Orleans. During their journey, true motivations are revealed, and the two bond. Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn, Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton, Alfre Woodard, Robin Weigert.

Mistress America / U.S.A. (Director: Noah Baumbach, Screenwriters: Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig) — Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is rescued from her solitude by her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke, an adventurous gal about town who entangles her in alluringly mad schemes. Mistress America is a comedy about dream-chasing, score-settling, makeshift families, and cat-stealing. Cast: Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke.

Seoul Searching / U.S.A., Korea (Director and screenwriter: Benson Lee) — Seoul Searching is a comedy set in the ’80s about a group of foreign-born Korean teenagers who meet at a Seoul summer camp to learn what it means to be Korean. The three boys, from the U.S., Mexico, and Germany, then meet three girls who rock their world. Cast: Justin Chon, Jessika Van, In-pyo Cha, Teo Yoo, Esteban Ahn, Byul Kang.

Sleeping With Other People / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Leslye Headland) — Jake and Lainey impulsively lose their virginity to each other in college. When their paths cross twelve years later in NYC, they realize they both have become serial cheaters. Bonding over their chronic infidelity, they form a platonic friendship to support each other in their quests for healthy romantic relationships. Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Alison Brie, Adam Scott, Amanda Peet, Jason Mantzoukas, Natasha Lyonne.

Ten Thousand Saints / U.S.A. (Directors: Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman, Screenwriters: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini) — Based on the acclaimed novel, Ten Thousand Saints follows three lost kids and their equally lost parents as they come of age in New York’s East Village in the era of CBGB, yuppies, and the tinderbox of gentrification that exploded into the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988. Cast: Ethan Hawke, Asa Butterfield, Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Hailee Steinfeld, Emile Hirsch.

Zipper / U.S.A. (Director: Mora Stephens, Screenwriters: Mora Stephens, Joel Viertel) — Sam Ellis is a man on the rise — a hot-shot federal prosecutor on the cusp of a bright political future. But what was meant to be a one-time experience with an escort turns into a growing addiction — a new demon threatening to destroy his life, family, and career. Cast: Patrick Wilson, Lena Headey, Richar Dreyfuss, Ray Winstone, John Cho, Dianna Agron.

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES
Renowned filmmakers and films about far-reaching subjects comprise this section highlighting our ongoing commitment to documentaries. Each is a world premiere.

Beaver Trilogy Part IV / U.S.A. (Director: Brad Besser) — A chance meeting in a parking lot in 1979 between filmmaker Trent Harris and a young man from Beaver, Utah, inspired the creation of an underground film that is now known as Beaver Trilogy. But the film itself is only part of the story.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution / U.S.A. (Director: Stanley Nelson) — This feature-length documentary tells of the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, one of the 20th century’s most alluring and controversial organizations that captivated the world’s attention for nearly 50 years.

DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: The Story of the National Lampoon / U.S.A. (Director: Douglas Tirola) — Three Harvard graduates start the first national humor magazine for adults, launching the careers of some of Hollywood’s most legendary talent. But success and excess among its brilliant and subversive contributors begins to challenge its existence.

Fresh Dressed / U.S.A. (Director: Sacha Jenkins) — The history of hip-hop fashion from its birth in the South Bronx to its rise as a billion-dollar global industry, Fresh Dressed is supported by rich archival materials, in-depth interviews with individuals crucial to the evolution, and the outsiders who study and admire them.

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief / U.S.A. (Director: Alex Gibney) — Going Clear intimately profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how they attract true believers and the things they do in the name of religion.

In Football We Trust / U.S.A. (Directors: Tony Vainuku, Erika Cohn) — Four young Polynesian football players struggle to overcome gang violence and poverty as they enter the high-stakes world of recruiting, competitive athletics and family pressures.

The Hunting Ground / U.S.A. (Director: Kirby Dick) — From the makers of The Invisible War comes a startling exposé of rape crimes on U.S. campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and brutal social toll. Weaving together verite footage and first-person testimonies, the film follows survivors as they pursue their education and justice — despite harsh retaliation, harassment, and pushback.

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Brett Morgen) — Kurt Cobain, lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of Nirvana, remains an icon 20 years after his death. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is a raw and visceral journey through Cobain’s life and his career with Nirvana through the lens of his home movies, recordings, artwork, photography, and journals.

The Mask You Live In / U.S.A. (Director: Jennifer Siebel Newsom) — Is there a “boy crisis” in America? Is our male population suffering due to our emphasis on power, dominance, and aggression? The Mask You Live In explores how our narrow definition of masculinity is harming our boys, men, and society at large and unveils what we can do about it.

Most Likely to Succeed / U.S.A. (Director: Greg Whiteley) — Our current education system is attempting to teach and test skills, that even when mastered, leaves graduates woefully unprepared for the 21st century. This feature-length documentary examines what sort of educational environment is most likely to prepare students for a world changing exponentially.

Prophet’s Prey / U.S.A. (Director: Amy Berg) — When Warren Jeffs rose to prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he bridged the gap between sister wives and ecclesiastically justified rape, befuddling the moral compass of his entire congregation.

Tig / U.S.A. (Directors: Kristina Goolsby, Ashley York, Screenwriter: Jennifer Arnold) — This documentary explores comedian Tig Notaro’s extraordinary journey as her life unfolds in grand and unexpected ways, all while she is battling a life-threatening illness and falling in love.

What Happened, Miss Simone? / U.S.A. (Director: Liz Garbus) — Classically trained pianist, dive-bar chanteuse, black power icon, and legendary recording artist Nina Simone lived a life of brutal honesty, musical genius, and tortured melancholy. This astonishing epic interweaves never-before-heard recordings and rare footage, creating an unforgettable portrait of one of our least understood, most beloved artists. DAY ONE FILM

SPECIAL EVENTS
One-of-a-kind moments highlighting new independent works that add to the unique Festival experience. An evolving section, this year includes episodic work, short films and live performance.

Animals. / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Phil Matarese, Mike Luciano) — Animals. is an independently produced animated series that focuses on the downtrodden creatures native to Earth’s least habitable environment: New York City. Whether it’s lovelorn rats, gender-questioning pigeons, or aging bed bugs in the midst of a mid-life crisis, the awkward small talk, moral ambiguity, and existential woes of non-human urbanites prove startlingly similar to our own. Cast: Phil Matarese, Mike Luciano, Mark Duplass, Katie Aselton, Nick Kroll, Rob Corddry. World Premiere. FOLLOWED BY A CONVERSATION with the creative team of Animals.: Mark Duplass, Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano. They will discuss how their unique project came to light as well as the changing landscape of episodic storytelling in the digital era.

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst / U.S.A. (Director: Andrew Jarecki, Screenwriters: Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, Zac Stuart-Pontier) — Robert Durst, scion of New York’s billionaire real estate family, has been accused of three murders but never convicted. Brilliant, reclusive, and the subject of relentless media scrutiny, he’s never spoken publicly–until now. During interviews with Andrew Jarecki, Durst reveals secrets that have baffled authorities for 30 years. Cast: Robert Durst, Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, Zac Stuart-Pontier, Dick DeGuerin, Cody Cazalas. World Premiere

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Misery Loves Comedy / U.S.A. (Director: Kevin Pollak, Screenwriters: Kevin Pollak, John Varhous) — Do you have to be miserable to be funny? Children cry, “Hey, look at me,” but who turns that into a profession? Over 50 funny people, like Tom Hanks, Larry David, Jimmy Fallon, Judd Apatow, and Amy Schumer share pain-filled insights from a life in pursuit of laughter.Cast: Tom Hanks, Larry David, Amy Schumer, Jimmy Fallon, Judd Apatow, Jim Gaffigan. World Premiere

The Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge — An international shorts program designed to spark global conversation highlighting human ingenuity and imaginative solutions real people are creating to overcome challenges like extreme hunger and poverty. Filmmakers include Sundance Institute alumni Gael Garcia Bernal, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Diego Luna, Marialy Rivas, and six storytellers from around the world. Presented with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Way of the Rain / U.S.A. (Creative Director: Sibylle Szaggars Redford, Collaborators: Will Calhoun, Dave Eggar, Chuck Palmer, Desmond Richardson, Ron Saint Germain, Steve Cohen, Floyd Thomas McBee III) — A live multidisciplinary performance art inspired by the annual monsoon rains that sustain life on the fragile high desert plateaus of the southwest. Conceived by environmental artist Sibylle Szaggars Redford and world-renowned artistic collaborators, this unique work comes to life through paintings, music, dance, film, light and spoken word. Special Guest Appearances: Sussan Deyhim, Marc Roberge, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Robert Redford. LIVE PERFORMANCE

“POWER OF STORY” PANELS
The Festival’s “Power of Story” panel series deepens public engagement with storytelling, explores cinema culture and celebrates artists whose work pushes the form. These events will be live streamed on sundance.org.

Power of Story: Serious Ladies — The range of three-dimensional female characters on film and television suggest a sea change in the cultural zeitgeist. Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling, Jenji Kohan, Kristen Wiig and New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum discuss anti-heroes and archetypes, using humor to push boundaries and how far art can go in exploring truths.

Power of Story: Visions of Independence — Kicking off “Art of Film,” a new program celebrating the craft of filmmaking, join Robert Redford and George Lucas — two iconic filmmakers who epitomize the spirit of independence in American cinema — in conversation with critic Leonard Maltin.

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6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia

The 2015 Sundance Film Festival, which takes place January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah, announced the films that will screen in the out-of-competition sections Spotlight and Park City at Midnight, as well as the films and installations to be featured in the New Frontier program. Trevor Groth, Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, said, “This year’s Park City at Midnight selections have much to offer genre enthusiasts. With everything from futuristic fantasies to paranormal nightmares, it’s an all-out trip to the cinematic edge.”

New Frontier champions films that expand, experiment with, and explode traditional storytelling. Recognizing the crossroads of film, art, and media technology as a hotbed for cinematic innovation, New Frontier is also a venue showcasing innovative media installations and panel discussions that explore the expansion of cinema culture in today’s rapidly changing media landscape. The installations will be housed on the top two floors of the historic Claim Jumper, at 573 Main Street in Park City. Admission to all New Frontier installations is free.

Shari Frilot, Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer and curator of the New Frontier exhibition, said, “The content creators in the 2015 edition of New Frontier radically challenge the very notion of storytelling. Working with virtual reality and new gaming technologies, these artists, filmmakers, journalists, media scientists, game designers and creative technologists present a peek at the dawn of a bold new cinematic world, through an unprecedented exploration of the most basic state of being.”

In addition to those announced today, films in the U.S. and World Competitions and NEXT <=> sections have been announced. Selections for the Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Short Film, Sundance Kids and new Special Events sections have not yet been announced. 

SPOTLIGHT
Regardless of where these films have played throughout the world, the Spotlight program is a tribute to the cinema we love.

6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia / United Kingdom, Italy (Director: Mark Cousins) — In winter 1921, DH Lawrence and his wife journeyed to Sardinia, and he chronicled their experiences in Sea and Sardinia. Now, Mark Cousins retraces Lawrence’s footsteps. The film is conceived partly as a letter to Lawrence — or “Bert” — a detail that’s typical of the film’s inviting sense of conversational intimacy. International Premiere

’71 / United Kingdom (Director: Yann Demange, Screenwriter: Gregory Burke) — ’71 takes place over a single night in the life of a young British soldier accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971. Unable to tell friend from foe, he must survive the night alone and find his way to safety. Cast: Jack O’Connell, Paul Anderson, Richard Dormer, Sean Harris, Barry Keoghan, Martin McCann.

99 Homes / U.S.A. (Director: Ramin Bahrani, Screenwriters: Ramin Bahrani, Amir Naderi, Bahareh Azimi) — A father struggles to get back the home that his family was evicted from by working for the greedy real-estate broker who’s the source of his frustration. Cast: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern, Tim Guinee, Cullen Moss, J.D. Evermore.

Aloft / Spain, France, Canada (Director and screenwriter: Claudia Llosa) — Aloft tells the story of a struggling mother, Nana, and her evolution to becoming a renowned healer. When a young artist tracks down Nana’s son 20 years after she abandoned him, she sets in motion an encounter between the two that will bring the meaning of their lives into question. Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy, Mélanie Laurent, William Shimell. North American Premiere

Eden / France (Director: Mia Hansen-Løve, Screenwriters: Mia Hansen-Løve, Sven Hansen-Løve) — Mia Hansen-Løve’s electronic-dance-music epic follows the rise and fall of a DJ (based on her brother, Sven, a contemporary of Daft Punk) who gets into the rave scene in 1994 and spends the next 20 years navigating the French club scene. Cast: Félix de Givry, Pauline Etienne, Greta Gerwig, Brady Corbet, Arsinee Khanjian, Vincent Macaigne.

Girlhood

Girlhood / France (Director and screenwriter: Céline Sciamma) — Oppressed by her family, dead-end school prospects, and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name and dress, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping to find a way to freedom. Cast: Karidja Touré, Assa Sylla, Lindsay Karamoh, Mariétou Touré, Idrissa Diabaté, Simina Soumaré.

The Tribe / Ukraine (Director and screenwriter: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy) — Set at a Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf, the film’s narrative unfolds purely through sign language without the need for employing subtitles or voiceover, resulting in a unique, never-before-seen cinematic experience that engages the audience on a new level. Cast: Grigoriy Fesenko, Yana Novikova, Rosa Babiy, Alexander Dsiadevich.

White God / Hungary (Director: Kornél Mundruczó, Screenwriters: Kata Wéber, Kornél Mundruczó, Viktória Petrányi) — When young Lili is forced to give up her beloved dog, Hagen, because its mixed-breed heritage is deemed “unfit” by The State, she and the dog begin a dangerous journey back toward each other. Cast: Zsófia Psotta, Sandor Zsótér, Szabolcs Thuróczy, Lili Monori, László Gálffi, Lili Horváth. U.S. Premiere

Wild Tales / Argentina, Spain (Director and screenwriter: Damián Szifrón) — Inequality, injustice, and the demands of the world cause stress and depression for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This is a movie about those people. Vulnerable in the face of an unpredictable reality, the characters of Wild Tales cross the thin line dividing civilization and barbarism. Cast: Ricardo Darín, Julieta Zyberberg, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Darío Grandinetti, Erica Rivas, Oscar Martínez.

PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT
From horror flicks to comedies to works that defy any genre, these unruly films will keep you edge-seated and wide awake.

Cop Car / U.S.A. (Director: Jon Watts, Screenwriters: Christopher D. Ford, Jon Watts) — Two 10-year-old boys steal an abandoned cop car. Cast: Kevin Bacon, James Freedson-Jackson, Hays Wellford, Shea Whigham, Camryn Manheim. World Premiere

The Hallow

The Hallow / Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Corin Hardy, Screenwriters: Corin Hardy, Felipe Marino) — When a London-based conservationist is sent to Ireland to survey an area of ancient forest believed by the superstitious locals to be hallowed ground, he unwittingly disturbs a horde of terrifying beings and must fight to protect his family. Cast: Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton, Michael Smiley. World Premiere

Hellions / Canada (Director: Bruce McDonald, Screenwriter: Pascal Trottier) — Teenage Dora Vogel must survive a Halloween night from hell when malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door. Cast: Chloe Rose, Robert Patrick, Rossif Sutherland, Rachel Wilson, Peter DaCunha, Luke Bilyk. World Premiere

It Follows / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: David Robert Mitchell) — After a strange sexual encounter, a teenager finds herself haunted by nightmarish visions and the inescapable sense that something is after her. Cast: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe.

Knock Knock / U.S.A. (Director: Eli Roth, Screenwriters: Eli Roth, Nicolas Lopez, Guillermo Amoedo) — Two beautiful young girls walk into a married man’s life and turn a wild fantasy into his worst nightmare. Cast: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, Colleen Camp. World Premiere

The Nightmare / U.S.A. (Director: Rodney Ascher) — A documentary-horror film exploring the phenomenon of sleep paralysis through the eyes of eight people. They (and a surprisingly large number of others) often find themselves trapped between the sleeping and awake realms, unable to move but aware of their surroundings while subject to disturbing sights and sounds.World Premiere

Reversal / U.S.A. (Director: J.M Cravioto, Screenwriters: Rock Shaink, Keith Kjornes) — A gritty psychological thriller about a young woman chained in a basement of a sexual predator and manages to escape. However, right when she has a chance for freedom, she unravels a hard truth and decides to turn the tables on her captor. Cast: Tina Ivlev, Richard Tyson, Bianca Malinowski. World Premiere

Turbo Kid / Canada, New Zealand (Directors: Anouk Whissell, Francois Simard, Yoann-Karl Whissell, Screenwriters: Anouk Whissell, Francois Simard, Yoann-Karl Simard) — In a post-apocalyptic future, The Kid, an orphaned outcast, meets a mysterious girl. They become friends until Zeus, the sadistic leader of the Wasteland, kidnaps her. The Kid must face his fears, and journey to rid the Wasteland of evil and save the girl. Cast: Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Aaron Jeffery, Edwin Wright. World Premiere

NEW FRONTIER FILMS

The Forbidden Room / Canada (Directors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Screenwriters: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk) — A submarine crew, a feared pack of forest bandits, a famous surgeon, and a battalion of child soldiers all get more than they bargained for as they wend their way toward progressive ideas on life and love. Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Caroline Dhavernas, Roy Dupuis, Udo Kier, Charlotte Rampling, Karine Vanasse. World Premiere

Liveforever / Colombia, Mexico (Director: Carlos Moreno, Screenwriters: Alberto Ferreras, Alonso Torres, Carlos Moreno) ­— Driven by the music and dancing she finds along the way, a teenager leaves home willing to try anything her provocative and tolerant city has to offer, even if she burns out in the process. Inspired by the best-selling novel “Que viva la música” by Andres Caicedo. Cast: Paulina Davila, Alejandra Avila, Luis Arrieta, Juan Pablo Barragan, Nelson Camayo, Christian Tappan. World Premiere

The Royal Road / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jenni Olson) — This cinematic essay, a defense of remembering, offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, butch identity and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo — all against a contemplative backdrop of 16mm urban California landscapes.Cast: Jenni Olson, Tony Kushner. World Premiere

Sam Klemke’s Time Machine

Sam Klemke’s Time Machine / Australia (Director: Matthew Bate) — Sam Klemke has filmed and narrated 50 years of his life, creating a strange and intimate portrait of what it means to be human. World Premiere

Station to Station / U.S.A. (Director: Doug Aitken) — Station to Station is composed of 60 individual one-minute films featuring different artists, musicians, places, and perspectives. This revolutionary feature-length film reveals a larger narrative about modern creativity. World Premiere

Things of the Aimless Wanderer / Rwanda, United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Kivu Ruhorahoza) — A white man meets a black girl, then she disappears. The white man tries to understand what happened to her while also trying to finish a travelogue. Things of the Aimless Wanderer is a film about the sensitive topic of relations between “locals” and Westerners, about paranoia, mistrust, and misunderstandings. Cast: Justin Mullikin, Grace Nikuze, Ramadhan Bizimana, Eliane Umuhire, Wesley Ruzibiza, Matt Ray Brown. World Premiere

NEW FRONTIER INSTALLATIONS

1979 Revolution Game
Artists: Navid Khonsari, Vassiliki Khonsari
1979 Revolution Game presents an innovative approach to non-fiction storytelling. Designed to engage players with an immersive “on the ground” experience of the Iranian Revolution, the game integrates an emotionally impactful narrative with interactive moral choices and intuitive touchscreen gameplay while remaining true to history.

Assent
Artist: Oscar Raby
This immersive documentary uses virtual reality technology to put the user in the footsteps of Director Oscar Raby’s father, who in 1973 was a 22-year-old army officer stationed in the north of Chile, on the day when the Caravan of Death came to his regiment.

Birdly
Artist: Max Rheiner
Flying is one of the oldest dreams of humankind. Birdly is an experiment to capture this dream, to simulate the experience of being a bird from a first-person perspective. This embodiment is conducted through a full-body virtual reality setup.

Dérive
Artist: François Quévillon
This interactive installation uses the audience’s body motions and positions to explore 3-D reconstructions of urban and natural spaces that are transformed according to live environmental data, including meteorological and astronomical phenomena.

Evolution of Verse
Artist: Chris Milk
Chris Milk, working with visual effects powerhouse Digital Domain and virtual reality production company VRSE.works, has created this photo-realistic CGI-rendered 3-D virtual reality film that takes the viewer on a journey from beginning to new beginning.

Kaiju Fury

Kaiju Fury!
Artist: Ian Hunter
A dark energy experiment leads to a devastating attack by monstrous Kaiju, and you are standing at ground zero — all in 360-degree, stereoscopic 3-D cinematic virtual reality. You will “be there” as the beasts lay waste to a crumbling city and humanity makes its last stand. Cast: Susie Abromeit, Bill Lippincott, Daniel Martin, Brian Dodge, Vincient Chiantelli​.

Paradise
Artist: Pleix
Paradise is certainly not paradisiacal if you look at it through our eyes. But neither is it totally devoid of humor, melancholy and absurdity. Perhaps it is first and foremost life as it is, and then a touch exaggerated in the digital overdrive.

Perspective; Chapter I: The Party
Artists: Rose Troche, Morris May
A young college woman attends a party with the intention of shedding her “shy girl” persona. At the same party, a young man is after a similar reinvention. They meet, drink, and misinterpreted signals turn into things that cannot be undone. Virtual reality simulators let viewers experience both characters. Cast: Tabitha Morella, Caleb Thomas, Zachary Zagoria, Anna Grace Barlow.

Possibilia
Artists: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Possibilia is a multi-layered narrative experience from acclaimed directing duo the Daniels. The story of two quarreling lovers splits exponentially into more and more possible worlds as their relationship unravels. Cast: Alex Karpovsky, Zoe Jarman.

Project Syria
Artist: Nonny de la Peña
More than one million children have fled Syria and news reports indicate children are being specifically targeted in the violence. By combining pioneering virtual reality technologies with audio and video captured during a real event, audiences feel transported to the powerful scene, becoming witnesses as the intense tragedy unfolds.

The VR works of Felix & Paul
Artists: Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël
Felix & Paul’s groundbreaking live-action virtual reality experiences range from independent documentary to fictional work with major Hollywood studios and stars. These experiences let viewers sit in the room with musicians making music, roam the Mongolian plains with yak herders, and experience an encounter with the afterlife​.

Way to Go
Artist: Vincent Morisset
It is a walk in the woods. It is an astonishing online and virtual reality interactive experience, a restless panorama, a mixture of hand-made animation, 360-degree video capture, music, dreaming, and code; but mostly it is a walk in the woods, c’mon!

Zero Point
Artist: Danfung Dennis
Zero Point, a 3-D and 360-degree documentary for the Oculus Rift headset, creates an entirely new digital dimension. From combat training simulations to research labs at Stanford to indie game developers and hackers, this immersive experience highlights the future of virtual reality.

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The Summer of Sangaile

Sundance Film Festival today announced the films selected for the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions and the out-of-competition NEXT <=> section of the 2015 Festival taking place, January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.  For the 2015 Festival, 118 feature-length films were selected, representing 29 countries and 45 first-time filmmakers, including 19 in competition. These films were selected from 12,166 submissions, including 4,105 feature-length films and 8,061 short films. Of the feature film submissions, 2,016 were from the U.S. and 2,089 were international. 103 feature films at the Festival will be world premieres.

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 Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’s 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH, featuring musician and cultural icon Nick Cave has been acquired by Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, for release in the U.S. Fusing drama and reality by weaving the journey of a fictional day in Cave’s life, the film is an intimate portrayal of the artistic process. The film made its World Premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where it was awarded both “Best Directing” and “Best Editing” Awards in the World Cinema Documentary category and receives its European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. It is the debut directorial feature film by visual artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard and is set to an original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. A theatrical release is planned for 2014.

“I’ve always liked their unorthodox approach to things” says Cave, of the filmmakers. He invited Forsyth and Pollard to film the early stages of writing his 2013 album “Push The Sky Away”. They knew it was an unmissable, unique opportunity and started filming, without a plan for what the footage might become. With unprecedented access they began to capture extraordinary moments of Cave’s creative process. Next, Cave agreed to hand over his notebooks, which proved fertile ground for the filmmakers. “We were able to trace the transformation of his ideas,” says Forsyth. “We found disparate phrases which instantly sparked ideas that excited us. This included a calculation to work out how many days he had been alive on the day they started recording the album, next to the unusually coined phrase ‘20,000 days on earth.’” Pollard adds, “We began to work with the idea of what makes us who we are and what we do with our time on earth.” The phrase eventually spawned the opening line of the film and the pair resolved to structure the film around a fictional narrative of his 20,000th day.

“Partnering with Drafthouse Films to release our first film in North America is a huge thrill for us. They release the kind of films we want to watch! Tim’s passion for film is infectious and together with his team we know their vision will ensure ‘20,000 Days on Earth’ reaches the widest possible audience” says Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard.

“I am among many who consider Nick Cave the unofficial poet laureate of the modern age,” says Drafthouse Films founder Tim League. “While his music fans are already eagerly anticipating this release, I am personally excited to share this riveting portrait of a modern creative genius with a much wider audience.”

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The Australian film, 52 TUESDAYS, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award, has been acquired by Kino Lorber for release in the U.S. Kino Lorber is planning a limited Spring 2014 release. 52 TUESDAYS is now playing at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival where it is screening in the Generation 14 Plus program. 

Sixteen-year-old Billie is blindsided by the news that her mother is planning to transition from female to male and that, during this time, Billie will live at her father’s house. Billie and her mother have always been extremely close, so the two make an agreement they will meet every Tuesday during their year apart. As her mother transitions and becomes less emotionally available, Billie covertly explores her own identity and sexuality with two older schoolmates, testing the limits of her own power, desire, and independence. Sundance Film Festival.

According to the filmmakers, Sophie Hyde’s directorial debut, 52 TUESDAYS, is a one of a kind film. The fascinating aspect of this intimate story is also the unique form representing the chronology of the story, as it was shot every Tuesday for 52 consecutive weeks. The filmmakers had set themselves the same rule, that they could only shoot on Tuesdays up until midnight and only consecutively, so whatever filmed on that day is what happens in the story on that day. The writers, Matthew Cormack and Sophie Hyde, created the structure first before they decided on character and story. Led by the very real performances of the collaborators playing the mother, “James” (Del Herbert-Jane) and teenage daughter “Billie” (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), the actors, all non-professional, were given the script one week at a time and only given the scenes that they were in.

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