Vancouver Sun

Sundance Film Festival unveils its 2023 lineup

- LINDSEY BAHR

A documentar­y about Michael J. Fox is among the world premières set for the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim's Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie looks at what happens when “an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease.”

The doc, which Apple Original Films nabbed the rights to earlier this year, documents Fox's career, as well as his struggles with fame and the impact Parkinson's disease has had on his life.

Sundance, running Jan. 19 to 29, is expected to debut other documentar­ies about well-known names.

Lana Wilson's Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields charts the actor and model's early days, when photograph­ers and filmmakers depicted Shields in sexualized way as a very young girl, and how she found her agency.

There are also documentar­ies about Little Richard, food writer Ruth Reichl, pioneering Black fashion model Bethann Hardison and the Indigo Girls.

Programmer­s for the world's most prestigiou­s showcase for independen­t films announced the lineup for the 2023 edition on Wednesday. After two pandemic hobbled years, plans are in motion to return to Park City in full force, with stars such as Anne Hathaway, Tiffany Haddish, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alexander Skarsgård, Gael García Bernal, Cynthia Erivo, Daisy Ridley and Jonathan Majors headlining some of the 101 feature films in the slate.

The festival is once again celebratin­g a diverse slate of features from first-time filmmakers. Among the narrative features premièring, 16 are from first-time directors, seven of whom are women. In feature documentar­ies, 16 are from first timers.

“First-time filmmakers are in the DNA of the festival. We're always looking to find fresh voices to champion,” said Kim Yutani, the festival's director of programmin­g. “It's such a pleasant surprise to look back and see those numbers and our program and to know that organicall­y happens.”

 ?? ?? Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox

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