The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the comprehensive slate of independent films selected across the feature film categories for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
The 2023 Festival will take place January 19–29, 2023, in person in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort, along with a selection of films available online across the country January 24–29, 2023.
Single film tickets go on sale January 12 at 12pm ET.
Congratulations to the 24 NYWIFT members with 21 projects at the festival!
The NYWIFT member films below are sorted by category. Click the film titles for further details, showtimes, and ticket options.
FROM THE COLLECTION
Slam
Production Coordinator – Eleni Yiovas Tsokanos
The iconic Black film Slam, surrounding the story of a troubled, yet good-hearted poet (Saul Williams) who finds love (Sonja Sohn) and his voice at a local slam poetry session in Washington, D.C. has been restored as a part of the Sundance Institute’s Archives & Collection program in celebration of the 25th anniversary. The film first premiered at Sundance in 1998 and won the Grand Jury Prize.
NEXT
King Coal
Post-Production Supervisor – Jean Lane
The journey of a coal miner’s daughter exploring the region’s dreams and myths, untangling the pain and beauty, as her community sits on the brink of massive change.
To Live and Die and Live
Producer – Dana Offenbach
Muhammad returns home to Detroit to bury his stepfather and is thrust into settling his accounts, but Muhammad’s struggles with depression and addiction may finish him before he finishes the task.
PREMIERES
Cat Person
Head of Production: Goldcrest – NYWIFT Board Member, Gretchen McGowan
Margot, a college student working concessions at an art house theater, meets frequent filmgoer — and rather older local — Robert, on the job. Flirtation across the counter evolves into continuous texting.
Eileen
Stunt Double for Thomasin McKenzie – Ashley Pynn
BG Costumer – Margaret (Meg) Galvin
Based on the book of the same name by literary powerhouse Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen follows a peculiar young woman whose dreary life stretches on toward unending misery.
Invisible Beauty
Editor – Chris McNabb
Fashion revolutionary Bethann Hardison looks back on her journey as a pioneering Black model, modeling agent, and activist, shining a light on an untold chapter in the fight for racial diversity.
Judy Blume Forever
Producers – Marcella Steingart and Sara Bernstein
With humor, sensitivity, and a healthy dose of adolescent cringe, Judy Blume Forever tells the story of the woman whose trailblazing books changed the way millions of readers understand themselves, their sexuality, and what it means to grow up.
Landscape With Invisible Hand
Stunt Coordinator – Nitasha Bhambree
When Earth is taken over by aliens who control the economy, a pair of teenagers come up with a plan to save their family.
Plan C
Executive Producer – Jess Jacobs
A hidden grassroots organization doggedly fights to expand access to abortion pills across the United States keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Producer – NYWIFT Advisory Board Member Annetta Marion
Owning his own narrative, actor Michael J Fox playfully recounts his journey with intimacy, candor, and humor. In the hands of Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, 2006 Sundance Film Festival), Still reveals what happens when an eternal optimist confronts an incurable disease.
SPOTLIGHT
Joyland
Producer – Katharina Otto-Bernstein
The youngest son in a traditional Pakistani family takes a job as a backup dancer in a Bollywood-style burlesque, and he quickly becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman who runs the show.
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Joonam
Executive Producer – Ruth Ann Harnisch
Spurred by a provocative family memory and a lifetime of separation from the country her mother left behind, a young filmmaker delves into her mother and grandmother’s complicated pasts and her own fractured Iranian identity.
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Director – Lisa Cortes
Executive Producer – Amy Entelis
Like a quasar burning past the gaslight, director Lisa Cortés’ eye-opening documentary explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music. Little Richard: I Am Everything shines a clarifying light on the Black, queer origins of rock ’n’ roll, and establishes the genre’s big bang: Richard Wayne Penniman.
Victim/Suspect
Executive Producer – Carolyn Hepburn
Rae de Leon, a reporter working at The Center for Investigative Reporting, discovers a surprising number of legal cases nationwide that involve women reporting sexual assault to the police, only to be accused of fabricating their allegations. These women are then charged with crimes, sometimes facing years in prison. Victim/Suspect follows de Leon as she gathers firsthand accounts from numerous young women and their families and interviews police and legal experts.
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Magazine Dreams
Producer – Jennifer Fox
A Black amateur bodybuilder struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. Jonathan Majors, in a committed performance of tremendous physicality, powerfully embodies the lengths Killian Maddox will go in his desperate need to be seen.
Shortcomings
Additional Director of Photography – Jendra Jarnagin
Cleverly and precisely scripted by Adrian Tomine (based on his own acclaimed graphic novel of the same title), the delightful Shortcomings is Randall Park’s assured directorial debut. Following Ben, Miko, and Alice as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships and traverse the country in search of the ideal connection.
U.S. FICTION SHORT FILMS
Ricky
Associate Producer – Sandra Manzanares
An Ex-Offender struggling with new freedom pursues redemption at all costs when given a job from his neighbor.
Take Me Home
Director and Writer – Liz Sargent
After their mother’s death, a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister must learn to communicate in order to move forward.
U.S. NONFICTION SHORT FILMS
Under G-d
Director, Writer, and Producer – Paula Eiselt
Executive Producer – Ruth Ann Harnisch
The Dobbs U.S. Supreme Court decision sparked a national Jewish response. Inspired by the lived experiences of Jewish women, lawsuits are currently being launched by rabbis, Jewish organizations, and interfaith leaders to challenge the overturning of Roe v. Wade. World Premiere.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
The Longest Goodbye
Executive Producer – Lois Vossen
In his engrossing, heartwarming, and beautifully contemplative documentary, Ido Mizrahy ponders the conflict between our need for connectivity and the urge to explore the unknown.
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Shayda
Executive Producer – Caitlin Gold
An Iranian woman living in Australia, Shayda finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her frightened 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona.
Again, a special congratulations to all the members involved in this year’s Sundance Film Festival!
Sundance Film Festival 2023 will take place from January 19 – 29, 2023. Buy your tickets now!
(All Images Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
