The fest will feature documentaries about Bill Cosby, Princess Diana, Kanye West and Lucille Ball and the directorial debuts of Eva Longoria, Tig Notaro and Jesse Eisenberg.
The Sundance Film Festival is returning to the Utah mountains in January with documentaries about Bill Cosby, Princess Diana, Kanye West and Lucille Ball and the directorial debut of Eva Longoria, Tig Notaro and Jesse Eisenberg.
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Festival organizers on Thursday unveiled the lineup for the 2022 edition, which includes 82 feature-length films, drawn from more than 3,700 submissions.
“This year’s program reflects the uncertain and uncertain times we’ve been living in for the past year and a half,” said Sundance programming director Kim Yutani.
As in previous years, the festival has a strong documentary lineup, including “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” which featured director W. Kamau Bell attempts to examine the question of art and artist as it applies to the actor/comedian, who spent time in prison before overturning his sentence of sexual assault.
Festival director Tabitha Jackson says Cosby is the doctor, “a true cultural analysis of what happened.”
“Lucy and Desi,” which marks the documentary debut of Amy Poehler, and director Ed Perkins’ “The Princess” are also in the lineup.
Directors Clarence “Cuddy” Simmons and Chick Ozah also have “Jean-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy,” with 21 years of never-before-seen footage of Kanye West, and Katherine Ferguson as Sinead O’Connor’s career. Charted in “Nothing Compare”. ,
Documentaries go well beyond big names and biopics. Director Ramin Bahrani will begin his film “Second Chance” about the bankrupt pizzeria owner who invented the modern bulletproof vest, and Rory Kennedy with “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,” which deals with two Boeing 737 MAX crashes and He looks after that. Others see the last ship carrying enslaved Africans to America (“descendants”), the American maternal health crisis (“aftershock”), TikTok (“TikTok, boom”) and dais (“midwives”) in Myanmar.
Lena Dunham goes behind the camera once again with “Sharp Stick,” about a 26-year-old who begins an affair with her old boss, Michelle Hazanavicius, will premiere her zombie comedy, “Final Cut,” and Riley Stearns will debut “Dual”, starring Karen Gillan as a woman who attempts to clone herself after a terminal diagnosis.
There are some notable debuts, such as “Am I OK?” A film about female friends directed by Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allin and starring Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno. Eva Longoria directs a documentary about the rivalry between boxers Oscar de la Hoya and Julio César Chávez, and “When You Finish Saving the World” starring Jesse Eisenberg as mother and son to Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard. “Carol” screenwriter Phyllis Nagy also wrote and directed “Call Jane,” about abortion in the late 1960s. It stars Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver in the lead roles.
The American theatrical competition slate, which has launched films such as “CODA,” “Passing” and “Minari,” includes one of Michael Kenneth Williams’ final projects, “892,”, starring John Boyega as a desperate veteran. who are on the verge of homelessness.
“We saw a lot of films which have psychological thriller or horror elements throughout the programme. We have a dedicated midnight segment, but we were able to find space for a lot of these movies that were doing really interesting things,” said Yutani. “And in our American theatrical section, there are many films exploring racial injustice by women and the status of women of color in academia through this horror film lens.”
After going largely virtual in 2021, organizers plan to return to an in-person festival in Park City, Utah, with some satellite screenings as well as virtual options at regional theaters across the US during the second weekend. Earlier this year, the festival announced that all attendees, from filmmakers to ticket buyers and volunteers, would be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We are excited to return to our home in Utah, but to come together in new ways,” Jackson said. “Based on our experience over the past year, we have explored new possibilities for convergence, and we recognize the fact that we are now an expanding community in which active participation matters, and audience presence – however it appears is – essential to our mission.”
In that spirit, the festival will kick off on January 20 with the “immersive live-cinema” documentary “32 Sounds,” which will debut online and at the Egyptian Theater in Park City. A premiere on the second day included Longoria’s “La Guerra Civil” and “The Princess”.
“This year, we look forward to celebrating the most innovative storytellers of this generation as they share their work across a wide range of styles and forms,” said Robert Redford, Sundance Institute founder and president. “These artists have provided a light through the darkest of times, and we look forward to welcoming their unique visions into the world and experiencing them together.”
The festival will run from January 20 to January 30. Ticket packages will go on sale from 17 December and individual tickets will be available on 6 January.
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