The Sundance Film Festival Starts Tonight!

ComingSoon.net and our associated horror/genre site ShockTillYouDrop.com are in Park City, Utah, for what is always one of the biggest and most prestigious United States film festivals, where thousands of independent filmmakers, journalists and celebrities converge on the town’s movie theaters and clubs for eleven days of movies, music, more movies, food and lots of fun!

The Sundance Film Festival is so vast and rich with things to do I’m still working out exactly what I’m going to be able to see and do as well as which filmmakers and actors I’m going to have a chance to talk to. My preview ran a bit earlier than normal, although you can still check it out in the gallery below. Since putting that together, other movies have come up that I’m curious about including The Forbidden Room, the latest from Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin, who I’ve become a fan of, as well as James White, the latest from Borderline Productions, specifically the directorial debut by that group’s Josh Mond. He has some tough tough footsteps to follow in, considering that it was proceeded by Martha Marcy May Marlene and Simon Killer, both which premiered at Sundance in past years.

I’ve seen a good deal of the movies playing at Sundance this year that have already done the festival circuit like Damien Szifron’s Wild Tales (nominated for an Oscar in the Foreign Language category) and ‘71 starring Jack O’Connell, both which could end up in my Top 25 this year.  I recently saw the Hungarian thriller White God and the drama Aloft, which had also been playing the festival circuit in 2014 and are making Sundance their last stop before theatrical release.

While I’m a fan of genre films and there’s lots of cool genre films to choose from in the Park City at Midnight section including Eli Roth’s Knock Knock, I’m probably going to let Shock’s new managing editor Sam Zimmerman handle that stuff while I focus on other things. 

I’m sure I’ll find a number of other hidden gems that I wasn’t expecting, especially in the second week when I’ll have more time. (The next couple of days are absolutely insane with premieres as everyone tries to be the first out of the gate.)  Who knows, maybe there’ll even be a Whiplash or a Boyhood in the bunch, movies so good that they sustain themselves through the year right up until Oscar night.

Tonight is Opening Night and I’m planning to catch two of the narrative features in competition, Melissa Rauch’s The Bronze about a washed-up Olympic gymnast and Alainte Kavaite’s Lithuanian coming-of-age drama The Summer of Sangaille, which kicks off the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Stay tuned to ComingSoon.net’s Sundance Film Festival channel and ShockTillYouDrop.com for reviews, interviews and other updates. I’m sure I’ll be doing a lot of writing while standing in line to see my next movie of the day as things are fairly non-stop from here on in. 

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