2019 Sundance Film Festival Explained

2019 Sundance Film Festival
Location:	Park City, Salt Lake City, and Sundance, Utah
Host:	Sundance Institute
Date:	January 24 to February 3, 2019
Language:	English
Preceded By:	2018 Sundance Film Festival
Followed By:	2020 Sundance Film Festival

The 2019 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 24 to February 3, 2019. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 28, 2018.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Films

U.S. Dramatic Competition

• Before You Know It by Hannah Pearl Utt
• Big Time Adolescence by Jason Orley
• Blush by Debra Eisenstadt festival titled Imaginary Order
• Brittany Runs a Marathon by Paul Downs Colaizzo
• Clemency by Chinonye Chukwu
• The Farewell by Lulu Wang
• Hala by Minhal Baig
• Honey Boy by Alma Har'el
• The Last Black Man in San Francisco by Joe Talbot
• Luce by Julius Onah
• Ms. Purple by Justin Chon
• Native Son by Rashid Johnson
• Share by Pippa Bianco
• The Sound of Silence by Michael Tyburski
• Them That Follow by Britt Poulton and Dan Savage
• To the Stars by Martha Stephens

U.S. Documentary Competition

• Always in Season by Jacqueline Olive
• American Factory by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Apollo 11 by Todd Douglas Miller
• Bedlam by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg
• by A.J. Eaton
• Hail Satan? by Penny Lane^[4]
• Jawline by Liza Mandelup
• Knock Down the House by Rachel Lears
• Midnight Family by Luke Lorentzen
• Mike Wallace Is Here by Avi Belkin
• Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements by Irene Taylor Brodsky
• One Child Nation by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang
• Pahokee by Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan
• TIGERLAND by Ross Kauffman
• Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary by Ben Berman
• Where’s My Roy Cohn? by Matt Tyrnauer

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

• Dirty God by Sacha Polak
• Divine Love by Gabriel Mascaro
• Dolce Fine Giornata by Jacek Borcuch
• Judy and Punch by Mirrah Foulkes
• Koko-di Koko-da by Johannes Nyholm
• The Last Tree by Shola Amoo
• Monos by Alejandro Landes
• Queen of Hearts by May el-Toukhy
• The Sharks by Lucía Garibaldi
• The Souvenir by Joanna Hogg
• This is not Berlin by Hari Sama
• We Are Little Zombies by Makoto Nagahisa

World Cinema Documentary Competition

• Advocate by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche
• Cold Case Hammarskjöld by Mads Brügger
• The Edge of Democracy by Petra Costa
• The Disappearance of My Mother by Beniamino Barrese
• Gaza by Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell
• Honeyland by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska
• Lapü by Juan Pablo Polanco and César Alejandro Jaimes
• The Magic Life of V by Tonislav Hristov
• Midnight Traveler by Hassan Fazili
• Sea of Shadows by Richard Ladkani
• Shooting the Mafia by Kim Longinotto
• Stieg Larsson – The Man Who Played With Fire by Henrik Georgsson

Premieres

• After the Wedding by Bart Freundlich
• Animals by Sophie Hyde
• Blinded by the Light by Gurinder Chadha
• Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile by Joe Berlinger
• Fighting with My Family by Stephen Merchant
• I Am Mother by Grant Sputore
• Late Night by Nisha Ganatra
• Mope by Lucas Heyne
• Official Secrets by Gavin Hood
• Paddleton by Alex Lehmann
• Photograph by Ritesh Batra
• Relive by Jacob Aaron Estes
• Sonja - The White Swan by Anne Sewitsky
• The Mustang by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Chiwetel Ejiofor
• The Report by Scott Z. Burns
• The Sunlit Night by David Wnendt
• The Tomorrow Man by Noble Jones
• Top End Wedding by Wayne Blair
• Troop Zero by Bert & Bertie
• Velvet Buzzsaw by Dan Gilroy

Midnight

• Greener Grass by Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe
• Little Monsters by Abe Forsythe
• by Alexandre O. Philippe
• Mope by Lucas Heyne
• Sweetheart by J. D. Dillard
• The Hole in the Ground by Lee Cronin
• The Lodge by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala

Documentary Premieres

• Ask Dr. Ruth by Ryan White
• Halston by Frédéric Tcheng
• Love, Antosha by Garret Price
• by Nick Broomfield
• MERATA: How Mum Decolonised The Screen by Heperi Mita
• by Stanley Nelson
• Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins by Janice Engel
• The Brink by Alison Klayman
• The Great Hack by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim
• by Alex Gibney
• by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
• Untouchable by Ursula Macfarlane
• Words from a Bear by Jeffrey Palmer

Special Events

• Documentary Now! Original Cast Album: Co-Op by Alex Buono
• Documentary Now! Season 52 Preview
• Documentary Now! Waiting for the Artist by Alex Buono and Rhys Thomas
• Leaving Neverland by Dan Reed
• Lorena by Joshua Rofe
• Now Apocalypse by Gregg Araki
• Pop-Up Magazine
• This Is Personal by Amy Berg

Next

The following 10 films were selected for a world premiere in the Next program to highlight American cinema.^[5]

• Adam by Rhys Ernst
• Give Me Liberty by Kirill Mikhanovsky
• Light from Light by Paul Harrill
• Paradise Hills by Alice Waddington
• Premature by Rashaad Ernesto Green
• Selah and the Spades by Tayarisha Poe
• Sister Aimee by Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann
• The Death of Dick Long by Daniel Scheinert
• The Infiltrators by Alex Rivera, Cristina Ibarra
• The Wolf Hour by Alistair Banks Griffin

Awards

The winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Award was Clemency (2019), directed by Chinonye Chukwu.^[6]

The winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary Award was One Child Nation (2019), directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang.

The winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was The Souvenir (2019), directed by Joanna Hogg.

The winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was Honeyland (2019), directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov.

The winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award was Monos (2019) directed by Alejandro Landes.^[6]

Juries

Jury members for each program of the festival, including the Alfred P. Sloan Jury, were announced on January 17, 2019.^[7]

U.S. Documentary Jury

• Lucien Castaing-Taylor
• Yance Ford
• Rachel Grady
• Jeff Orlowski
• Alissa Wilkinson

U.S. Dramatic Jury

• Desiree Akhavan
• Damien Chazelle
• Dennis Lim
• Phyllis Nagy
• Tessa Thompson

World Documentary Jury

• Carl Spence
• Marina Stavenhagen
• Lynette Wallworth

World Dramatic Jury

• Jane Campion
• Charles Gillibert
• Ciro Guerra

World Cinema Documentary Jury

• Maite Alberdi
• Nico Marzano
• Verena Paravel

Alfred P. Sloan Jury

• Mandë Holdford
• Katie Mack
• Sev Ohanian
• Lydia Dean Pilcher
• Corey Stoll

Short Film Jury

• Young Jean Lee
• Carter Smith
• Sheila Vand

Acquisitions

Sources:^{[8] [9]}

• American Factory: Netflix
• : Kino Lorber
• Ask Dr. Ruth: Hulu
• Blinded by the Light: New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. Pictures (select territories)
• The Brink: Magnolia Pictures
• Brittany Runs a Marathon: Amazon Studios
• : Sony Pictures Classics
• Delhi Crime Story: Netflix
• The Dispossessed: New York Times Op-Docs
• The Farewell: A24
• Hala: Apple TV+
• Halston: 1091 Media
• Honey Boy: Amazon Studios
• Honeyland: Neon
• Late Night: Amazon Studios
• Lavender: Fox Searchlight Pictures
• Little Monsters: Neon and Hulu
• The Lodge: Neon
• Luce: Neon and Topic Studios
• : Roadside Attractions
• Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen: ARRAY
• Monos: Neon
• The Mountain: Kino Lorber
• Native Son: HBO Films
• The Nightingale: IFC Films (US distribution); Transmission Films (Australia distribution)
• Official Secrets: IFC Films
• One Child Nation: Amazon Studios
• Quarter Life Poetry: FX
• The Report: Amazon Studios
• Sea of Shadows: National Geographic Documentary Films
• Share: HBO Films (in association with A24)
• Shooting the Mafia: Cohen Media Group
• The Souvenir: A24
• Them That Follow: 1091 Media
• The Tomorrow Man: Bleecker Street (US distribution); Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (international distribution)
• Them That Follow: 1091 Media
• Where’s My Roy Cohn?: Sony Pictures Classics
• : Showtime

Notes and References

1. News: Sundance Unveils Politics-Heavy Lineup Featuring Ocasio-Cortez Doc, Feinstein Drama. The Hollywood Reporter. November 28, 2018. en.
2. News: Sundance 2019: Films by Dan Gilroy, Shia LaBeouf, Chiwetel Ejiofor & More Announced In First Wave Of Festival. November 28, 2018. The Playlist. November 28, 2018. en-US.
3. Web site: Sundance Film Festival 2019 Last Minute Adds: Pics Starring Dakota Johnson, Demi Moore, Armie Hammer, Mark Duplass & More. D'Alessandro. Anthony. December 20, 2018. Deadline. en. December 22, 2018.
4. Web site: Hail Satan? . Sundance Institute . 2019-01-27 . March 26, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190326143837/https://www.sundance.org/projects/hail-satan . dead .
5. Web site: NEXT. Sundance Film Festival. 2019-05-04. May 4, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190504053630/https://www.sundance.org/festivals/sundance-film-festival/program/NXT-guide. dead.
6. https://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/2019-sundance-film-festival-awards-announced
7. Web site: Sundance Film Festival: Juries, Awards Night Host Announced . Sundance Institute . 28 October 2019 . 17 January 2019.
8. https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/the-complete-list-of-movies-sold-at-sundance-2019.html The Complete List of Movies Sold at Sundance 2019
9. Web site: Sundance 2019 Deals: The Complete List of Festival Purchases So Far . . Michael . Nordine . January 18, 2019 . February 28, 2021.