By Stephanie Ornelas
“If your film is ready for Sundance, that means you’re ready for all the other festivals that are coming for the year. That’s what sets the calendar. Just looking at the Sundance [Film Festival] deadline and setting that as a deadline to complete your film is a hell of a first start because if you hit that, you’re on track to be at all the other festivals the rest of the year.” — Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck (Charlie and the Rabbit, The Field Trip)
It’s hard to believe the 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival is behind us, but just as filmmaker Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck says in Sundance Collab’s Advisor Studio, the 2024 festival circuit has only just begun. Berlin International Film Festival (better known simply as the Berlinale) kicks off today, and we’re delighted to see that 12 films in the program were supported by Sundance Institute labs and the 2024 Festival.
Below, explore some familiar titles screening from our 2024 Festival slate and discover world premiere projects supported by our artist programs — including the Documentary Film Program and Feature Film Program — that will be at the Berlinale. If you plan on attending, be sure to look these films up in the program. And if you’d like to know more about the initiatives mentioned in this list, click here.
A Different Man — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Aspiring actor Edward undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.
Between the Temples — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher reenters his life as his new adult bat mitzvah student.
I Saw the TV Glow — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
Jia ting jian shi | Brief History of a Family — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: A middle-class family’s fate becomes intertwined with their only son’s enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China, putting unspoken secrets, unmet expectations, and untended emotions under the microscope.
Love Lies Bleeding — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
No Other Land — Documentary Film Program
Logline: For ten years, Basel, a young Palestinian activist, has been filming homes in his community being destroyed by Israeli soldiers. During the darkest period of his life, in the face of mass eviction of his community, he develops an unlikely, intimate relationship with a similarly aged Israeli journalist who joins his struggle.
Mé el Aïn | Who Do I Belong To — Feature Film Program
Logline: In rural Tunisia, Salha works to keep her family together when her sons leave to fight for the Islamic State. When her eldest returns home with a mysterious young wife in tow, she struggles to reconcile the darkness that he has brought back with him.
The Outrun — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: After living life on the edge in London, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. She returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands — where she grew up — hoping to heal. Adapted from the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot.
Reas — Documentary Film Program
Logline: Reas will be shot at Ezeiza Prison in Buenos Aires. A group of women and trans people wait out their sentences, reconstructing scenes from their past lives and imagining their future lives in the form of a musical in which they sing, dance, and perform.
Reinas — 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Documentary Film Program
Logline: Surrounded by social and political chaos in Lima during the summer of 1992, Lucia, Aurora, and their mother, Elena, plan to leave and seek opportunities in the United States. Their farewell involves reconnecting with their estranged father, Carlos, adding turbulence to the regrets, hopes, and fears of their emotional departure.
Sasquatch Sunset — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: A year in the life of a singular family.
Tongo Saa | Rising Up at Night — Documentary Film Program
Logline: As Congo launches the construction of Africa’s largest power plant on the Congo River, Kinshasa finds itself in darkness, and its people struggle for access to light.
