Sundance annuncia una line-up ricca di produzioni europee

di David Katz

12/12/2024 - Al raduno di Park City saranno presenti film provenienti da numerosi territori di coproduzione, tra cui spicca Peter Hujar's Day di Ira Sachs

Sundance annuncia una line-up ricca di produzioni europee

Ben Whishaw in Peter Hujar’s Day

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As ever, anticipation for the 2025 elite festival season begins in December, with the Sundance Film Festival announcing its full line-up yesterday (and the Berlinale and IFFR drip-feeding us titles from theirs). Unspooling from 23 January-2 February next year, it will be the legendary US independent film event’s penultimate year in its customary location of Park City, Utah, with Boulder, Colorado; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Salt Lake City, Utah bartering to host the gathering from 2027. A short window taking place from 30 January-2 February will see the competition titles, and a handful from other sections, available for online viewing to the public and industry.

Further confirmations will abound as we learn more about the line-up, but for now, the festival has listed 25 European-backed world premieres across its various sections, with European helmers and co-productions from international directors equally well represented. Being an event centred around discovery and fresh voices, few have immediate name recognition, yet the festival has proved time and again to be an ideal launchpad for European work that travels well, competes for awards, and finds audiences across and beyond the festival circuit.

Perhaps the most pedigreed European co-pro in the line-up is Peter Hujar’s Day [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] from Ira Sachs, who brought more sex appeal and pizzaz into his work with 2023’s Passages [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film]. The 75-minute biographical drama takes place in December 1974 in New York City, and tracks a meeting between legendary photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), with Sachs calling it “a film about what it is to be an artist among artists in a city where no one was making any money”.

Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov follows up his Academy Award-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Mstyslav Chernov
scheda film] with the relatedly titled 2000 Meters to Andriivka [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film], once again playing in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. The new film takes place during a failing counteroffensive in the Russia-Ukraine War and focuses on a Ukrainian platoon’s mission to liberate a strategic village from occupation. They need to traverse “one mile of heavily fortified forest, but the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realise that this war may never end”.

Close and sensitive looks at trans issues are an emerging theme in the selection, highlighted by Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa, which sees a mother played by Olivia Colman take her non-binary teenager to visit her gay grandfather (John Lithgow) in Amsterdam; assurances Colman’s character has about the family and parenting are challenged. Danish director Mathias Broe’s competition title Sauna [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Mathias Broe
scheda film] sees a comfortably out gay man begin a relationship with a transgender man, defying further societal norms around queer relationships.

Festival director Eugene Hernandez described the programme as “ready to meet our audiences, the industry and the wider culture in a moment of many global questions. The works our artists debut at our upcoming festival will spark conversation and invite connection.” This was echoed by Kim Yutani, director of programming, who said: “It presents stories that confront many critical issues of our time, encouraging us to look both inward and outward.”

Here are the European productions included in the festival’s announcement:

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Mr. Nobody Against Putin [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - David Borenstein (Denmark/Czech Republic)
2000 Meters to Adriivka [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film] - Mstyslav Chernov (Ukraine)
The Dating Game [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Violet Du Feng (USA/UK/Norway)
Coexistence, My Ass! [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Amber Fares (USA/France)
Cutting Through Rocks - Sara Khaki (Iran/Germany/USA/Netherlands/Qatar/Chile/Canada)
GEN_ [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Gianluca Matarrese
scheda film] - Gianluca Matarrese (France/Italy/Switzerland)
Khartoum [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmad, Ti…
scheda film] - Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox (Sudan/UK/Germany/Qatar)

NEXT

Rains Over Babel [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] - Gala del Sol (Colombia/USA/Spain)
Zodiac Killer Project [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Charlie Shackleton (USA/UK)

Premieres

All That’s Left of You [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Cherien Dabis
scheda film] - Cherien Dabis (Germany/Cyprus/Palestine)
FOLKTALES - Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady (USA/Norway)
The Ballad of Wallis Island - James Griffiths (UK)
Jimpa - Sophie Hyde (Australia/Netherlands/Finland)
Lurker - Alex Russell (USA/Italy)
Peter Hujar’s Day [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Ira Sachs (USA/Germany/UK/Spain)
The Thing with Feathers [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Dylan Southern (UK)