Sundance lineup includes Robin Williams doc, female-focused Hamlet
LOS ANGELES — Documentaries about Robin Williams, Gloria Allred and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a Lizzie Borden film with Kristen Stewart and Debra Granik’s longawaited follow-up to Winter’s Bone are among the 110 features set to première at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
The Sundance Institute announced the diverse lineup of films Wednesday for the annual festival held in Park City, Utah. Festival programmers say the films this year highlight the stories of alternative voices and points of view, including films by and about women, and the experience of African-American men in the world right now.
The African-American experience is highlighted in competition films like Blindspotting, a buddy comedy starring Daveed Diggs, and Sorry to Bother You,a dystopian tale about a telemarketer with Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson. Both are from Oakland-based filmmakers.
“I think they’re going to make really big splashes,” said Trevor Groth, the director of programming for Sundance.
Films with complex female characters include Lizzie, a psychological thriller about Lizzie Borden starring Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny as Borden, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, about a girl who is forced to go to therapy for her sexuality, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, and The Tale, about a woman re-evaluating her first relationship, starring Laura Dern. Star Wars star Daisy Ridley also stars in Ophelia a female-focused spin on Hamlet.
Granik, whose last feature Winter’s Bone earned Jennifer Lawrence her first Oscar nomination and ostensibly catapulted her to stardom, is back with her first narrative feature in more than seven years — an untitled film about a father and daughter living in a secluded nature reserve in Oregon starring Ben Foster.
The domestic documentary competition includes a timely film called Seeing Allred, which focuses on the women’s rights attorney’s life and taking on both Bill Cosby and Donald Trump. Others include a Hal Ashby portrait, Hal, and a look at the deportation of 1,200 immigrant miners living at the Arizona-Mexico border in 1917 (Bisbee ’17).
Documentary premières include a film about the life of Robin Williams told mostly through his own voice, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, a look at Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, RBG, and a Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbour.
Actor Idris Elba also makes his feature directorial debut with Yardie, a thriller about a boy who sees his brother’s assassination in 1973 Jamaica. Ethan Hawke BLAZE, Paul Dano (Wildlife) and Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince) are among other actors who directed films that will première at the festival.
“This year’s festival is full of artfully told stories that provoke thought, drive empathy and allow the audience to connect, in deeply personal ways, to the universal human experience,” said Sundance founder Robert Redford in a statement.
The Sundance Film Festival runs from Jan. 18-28.