By Vanessa Zimmer ‘Tis July and the heat is on, both in our sun-filled days and in at least one Sundance Film Festival alum coming
Ever wonder why so many of the best coming-of-age stories in cinematic history are set during the summer? We expect it might have something to do with the wistfulness we adults tend to have for the long, unstructured days and cool, breezy nights that made up the summers of our youth — the ideal backdrop for plenty of thoughtful reflection, personal growth, and memories of ill-advised adventures we treasure to this day.
While the Sundance Film Festival takes place at the peak of winter in snowy Utah every January, over the years, we’ve had plenty of must-see coming-of-age stories come through Park City to heat things up a bit. Today we’re rounding up some of those key titles in a watchlist packed with formative first loves, first heartbreaks, and first jobs, starting with Joyce Chopra’s beloved drama Smooth Talk from the 1986 Festival and spanning the way up to Lucia Garibaldi’s The Sharks, a prize-winning film that was released just last year.
By Vanessa Zimmer Seven films from the 2022 Sundance Film Festival — including the suspenseful Watcher and the warm and quirky comedy Brian and Charles
An epic frat party turns into an examination of racial dynamics for three students of color (RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins, Sebastian Chacon) in Emergency.
By Vanessa Zimmer Truth to tell, there’s something frightening about every one of the Sundance Film Festival offerings coming to America’s theaters in April. Maybe
Keke Palmer portrays Alice, a slave who escapes into 1973 America, in Alice. By Vanessa Zimmer Eight fan favorites at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival
Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie appear in The Worst Person in the World. By Vanessa Zimmer The larger world wastes no time in spreading the
Renata de Lélis stars in ‘The Pink Cloud.’
By Vanessa Zimmer Craving an indie-thoughtful break from holiday movie overload and celluloid superhero battles? We’ve got three powerful documentaries and a drama immersed in
Yllka Gashi stars in Hive, a 2021 Sundance Film Festival award-winner about a woman in war-torn Kosovo who is determined to provide for her family.
Five 2021 Sundance Film Festival alums released to wide audiences in October attest to the variety of independent cinema created in our times. A fantasy, a thriller, a fantasy thriller, a Harlem Renaissance–set period film, and a drama imagined in the distant aftermath of a mass shooting are among the films opening in theaters and/or on streaming services this month.
Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the team behind the Oscar-nominated film about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, bring another trailblazing personality to light this fall.
My Name Is Pauli Murray, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, is one of eight Sundance-supported gems opening to wider audiences in the United States this September. The pair’s previous project, RBG, played the Festival in 2018.
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