The Film Festival of Sundance is back, both in person and virtually, which is extremely exciting for big moviegoers.
The event, to be held this year in Park City, Utah, from January 19 to 29, has evolved over the years. It started as a low-key venue for independent filmmakers, but now it's a huge media extravaganza that includes stars from Hollywood and endless paparazzi.
It should be noted that this is the first year since 2020 that Sundance will have face-to-face events.
Although the event begins for the public on January 19, preparations have been underway for some tiempo. This includes transforming different spaces into event venues, such as makeshift screening rooms and film clinic locations.
Scene from Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, by Lana Wilson. Source: Sundance Film Festival
The effort, which involves converting as many spaces as possible into movie theaters, means that almost every gallery in Park City is now some kind of lounge or some kind of project to show films.
An important fact to highlight from this edition is that in the same way that Latino inclusion has increased considerably in large film productions, whether independent or from large studios, the same thing has also happened in film competitions such as Sundance.
It turns out that this year 13% of the short films on the billboard accredit Latino or Hispanic origin, while the feature films in competition are 11%.
This year there are films that have generated wide expectations, such as Fishbowl (Puerto Rico), by Glorimar Marrero, and the premieres of Radical (Mexico), with Eugenio Derbez, and Cassander (United States/Mexico), with Gael García Bernal, which are based on true stories.
Gael Garcia Bernal stars Cassanderby Roger Ross Williams. Source: Sundance Film Festival
With a hybrid modality, since almost 40% of the films included in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival can be seen digitally, the event will also include the films Heroic, by David Zonana (Mexico); Witchcraft (Chile/Mexico/Germany), by Christopher Murray, and the short Factory Girl (Mexico), by Selma Cervantes and which stars Oscar nominee Yalitza Aparicio.
In addition, the festival founded by the legendary Robert Redford will have a special screening and question and answer session of CODA: Signs of the Heart, which two years ago won the Audience Award and ended up winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
The selection of the 110 productions was a unique curatorship by the entire team of programmers and of which up to 89% constitute world premieres.
