As Seen at Sundance

Sundance 2023

Presented by

Sundance 2023

Presented by

In Park City, Utah, at the first in-person Sundance Film Festival since 2020, you could go be devastated by the Cynthia Erivo–Alia Shawkat film Drift, about an impoverished refugee, then fête it in a lounge at an after-party sponsored by Chase Sapphire. Sundance has always been half about the movies and half about the atmosphere surrounding them. Strangers talk to you in line for coffee or for a panel. You go to a temporary outpost of Tao and see former network-TV star [redacted] dragged out shit-faced. It’s in these spaces where hype ferments and introductions are made and the upcoming year in cinema is decided.

One of the biggest stories this year is that the majority of feature films that premiered were directed by women; some high-profile, positively received examples include the full-sentence titles You Hurt My Feelings (from Nicole Holofcener) and Sometimes I Think About Dying (Rachel Lambert), featuring banger lead performances from Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Daisy Ridley, respectively. It’s also the year of trendy literary adaptations, spanning one of the best-received premieres of the entire festival in William Oldroyd’s take on Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen, starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie, as well as one of the worst: Susanna Fogel’s version of Kristen Roupenian’s viral New Yorker short story, “Cat Person,” with Nicholas freaking Braun. All of the cool kids were most excited about Mutt and Rotting in the Sun, just two of a robust lineup of queer films that included Cannes fave Joyland, Ira Sachs’s Passages, and D. Smith’s documentary about Black trans sex workers, Kokomo City. One festivalgoer breathlessly told me that last movie changed their life.

A weirdly high number of movies, which is to say two, were about female stunt performers (Polite Society and Bad Behaviour). And there were good notices for Gael García Bernal as a gay wrestler in Cassandro and an even-huger-than-usual Jonathan Majors as a bodybuilder in Magazine Dreams, which faced a jury walkout at its premiere after actress Marlee Matlin, who is deaf, was given a faulty closed-captioning device. Randall Park made his directorial debut with Shortcomings, which critics called “breezy,” “charming,” and “amiable.” Another notable first-timer was Korean Canadian playwright Celine Song, whose Past Lives earned raves for star Greta Lee.

Although there were fewer overall major sales, the trend of streaming services making eight-figure acquisitions continued apace with Apple TV+ paying “nearly” $20 million for John Carney’s Flora and Son and Netflix spending $20 million for erotic thriller Fair Play, which Vulture critic Alison Willmore says she hates because it’s neither erotic nor thrilling. As Vulture writer Rachel Handler put it, the vibe of this year’s Sundance was “a lot of sad moms and dead kids,” which don’t often lead to a lot of happy execs and alive box offices. They do, however, make for some portraits courtesy of the Vulture photo studio that are, in a word, gorg and, in two, a serve.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Left: Chris Chalk, Charleen McClure, Raven Jackson, and Sheila Atim. Right: Atim. JJ Geiger. Left: Chris Chalk, Charleen McClure, Raven Jackson, and Sheila Atim. Right: Atim. JJ Geiger.

The Persian Version

Niousha Noor, Layla Mohammadi, Maryam Keshavarz, and Kamand Shafieisabet.

A Thousand and One

Left: Teyana Taylor. Right: A.V. Rockwell. JJ Geiger. Left: Teyana Taylor. Right: A.V. Rockwell. JJ Geiger.

Past Lives

Left: Celine Song, John Magaro, Greta Lee, and Teo Yoo. Top right: Lee. Bottom right: Yoo. JJ Geiger. Left: Celine Song, John Magaro, Greta Lee, and Teo Yoo. Top right: Lee. Bottom right: Yoo. JJ Geiger.

My Animal

Left: Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Jacqueline Castel, and Jae Matthews. Right: Menuez. JJ Geiger. Left: Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Jacqueline Castel, and Jae Matthews. Right: Menuez. JJ Geiger.

Murder in Big Horn

Matthew Galkin, Lucy Simpson, Luella Brien, and Razelle Benally.

Sometimes I Think About Dying

Top left: Daisy Ridley. Top right: Dave Merheje. Bottom left: Parvesh Cheena. Bottom right: Brittany O'Grady. JJ Geiger. Top left: Daisy Ridley. Top right: Dave Merheje. Bottom left: Parvesh Cheena. Bottom right: Brittany O'Grady. JJ Geiger.

Theater Camp

Clockwise from top left: Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt, Owen Thiele, Patti Harrison, Jimmy Tatro, Noah Galvin, and Molly Gordon. Left: Galvin and Platt. Right: Gordon. JJ Geiger. Left: Galvin and Platt. Right: Gordon. JJ Geiger.

Shayda

Noora Niasari and Zar Amir Ebrahimi.

Shortcomings

Left: Randall Park. Right (clockwise from left): Sherry Cola, Justin H. Min, Ally Maki, and Park. JJ Geiger. Left: Randall Park. Right (clockwise from left): Sherry Cola, Justin H. Min, Ally Maki, and Park. JJ Geiger.

Cassandro

Gael García Bernal

To Live and Die and Live

Left: Omari Hardwick. Top right: Cory Hardrict. Bottom right: Qasim Basir. JJ Geiger. Left: Omari Hardwick. Top right: Cory Hardrict. Bottom right: Qasim Basir. JJ Geiger.

Fair Play

Left: Phoebe Dynevor. Right: Alden Ehrenreich. JJ Geiger. Left: Phoebe Dynevor. Right: Alden Ehrenreich. JJ Geiger.

Mayfair Witches

Harry Hamlin

Earth Mama

Left: Doechii, Erika Alexander, Tia Nomore, and Savanah Leaf. Top right: Doechii. Bottom right: Leaf. JJ Geiger. Left: Doechii, Erika Alexander, Tia Nomore, and Savanah Leaf. Top right: Doechii. Bottom right: Leaf. JJ Geiger.

Magazine Dreams

Jonathan Majors

Fremont

Left: Anaita Wali Zada. Right: Gregg Turkington. JJ Geiger. Left: Anaita Wali Zada. Right: Gregg Turkington. JJ Geiger.

Rotting in the Sun

Jordan Firstman

Drift

Left: Cynthia Erivo. Right: Alia Shawkat. JJ Geiger. Left: Cynthia Erivo. Right: Alia Shawkat. JJ Geiger.

Invisible Beauty

Frédéric Tcheng and Bethann Hardison.

Polite Society

Left: Priya Kansara, Nida Manzoor, and Ritu Arya. Right: Arya and Kansara. JJ Geiger. Left: Priya Kansara, Nida Manzoor, and Ritu Arya. Right: Arya and Kansara. JJ Geiger.

Young. Wild. Free.

Sierra Capri, Thembi L. Banks, and Algee Smith.

Mutt

Top left: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz. Top right: Lío Mehiel. Bottom left: Cole Doman. Bottom right: MiMi Ryder. JJ Geiger. Top left: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz. Top right: Lío Mehiel. Bottom left: Cole Doman. Bottom right: MiMi Ryder. JJ Geiger.

The Starling Girl

Wrenn Schmidt, Lewis Pullman, Austin Abrams, Laurel Parmet, Jimmi Simpson, and Eliza Scanlen. Left: Abrams. Right: Scanlen and Schmidt. JJ Geiger. Left: Abrams. Right: Scanlen and Schmidt. JJ Geiger.

Radical

Jennifer Trejo, Eugenio Derbez, and Mia Fernanda Solis.

Passages

Top left: Adèle Exarchopoulos. Top right: Franz Rogowski. Bottom left: Ben Whishaw. Bottom right: Ira Sachs. JJ Geiger. Top left: Adèle Exarchopoulos. Top right: Franz Rogowski. Bottom left: Ben Whishaw. Bottom right: Ira Sachs. JJ Geiger.

Flora and Son

Top left: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Top right: Eve Hewson. Bottom left: Orén Kinlan. Bottom right: John Carney. JJ Geiger. Top left: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Top right: Eve Hewson. Bottom left: Orén Kinlan. Bottom right: John Carney. JJ Geiger.

It’s Only Life After All

Emily Saliers and Amy Ray.

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields

Left: Brooke Shields. Right: Shields and Lana Wilson. JJ Geiger. Left: Brooke Shields. Right: Shields and Lana Wilson. JJ Geiger.

Food and Country

Ruth Reichl and Laura Gabbert.

Fairyland

Left: Scoot McNairy, Adam Lambert, Cody Fern, and Andrew Durham. Right: McNairy. JJ Geiger. Left: Scoot McNairy, Adam Lambert, Cody Fern, and Andrew Durham. Right: McNairy. JJ Geiger.

Bad Behaviour

Ben Whishaw and Jennifer Connelly.

A Little Prayer

Top left: Celia Weston. Top right: Jane Levy. Bottom right: Anna Camp. Bottom left: Will Pullen. JJ Geiger. Top left: Celia Weston. Top right: Jane Levy. Bottom right: Anna Camp. Bottom left: Will Pullen. JJ Geiger.

Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out

Emma Tremblay, Will Forte, Jake Van Wagoner, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Jacob Buster.

The 2023 Sundance portrait studio is presented by La Mer.

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the January 30, 2023, issue of New York Magazine.

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As Seen at Sundance

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