2023 Sundance Film Festival: 10 Movies To Be Excited About

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival is just around the corner, returning in-person and virtually for the first time since 2020. I will be attending this year’s festival in person and I cannot wait to go back to the snowy mountains of Park City, Utah. 

The Sundance Film Festival is my favorite film festival in the world. I have been attending the festival since 2011 and love it every single year I go. I love the atmosphere, the focus and love of cinema throughout the festival, and the movies. I love the diversity of films at the festival. I love discovering new, talented filmmakers, actors, and creatives throughout the festival and see up-and-coming grow as filmmakers and as talents.

Here are ten movies playing at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival that I am most excited to see.

 

Descriptions of the films are from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Program.

 

The Accidental Getaway Driver

What It’s About: During a routine pickup, an elderly Vietnamese cab driver is taken hostage at gunpoint by three recently escaped Orange County convicts. Based on a true story.

Why I’m Excited: In a story that sounds too weird to be real, this could be the surprise thriller at this year’s festival.

The Eternal Memory

What It’s About: Augusto and Paulina have been together for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Both fear the day he no longer recognizes her.

Why I’m Excited: Director Maite Alberdi’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent sounds like a heartbreaking look at growing old and losing memories.

Fair Play

What It’s About: An unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund pushes a young couple’s relationship to the brink, threatening to unravel far more than their recent engagement.

Why I’m Excited: Chloe Domont makes her directorial debut in this cut-throat drama starring the always-great Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor.

Fantastic Machine

What It’s About: From the first camera to 45 billion cameras worldwide today, the visual sociologist filmmakers widen their lens to expose both humanity’s unique obsession with the camera’s image and the social consequences that lay ahead.

Why I’m Excited: Produced by Palme d’Or-wining filmmaker Rubert Östland, this sounds like a fascinating documentary about the evolution and usage of cameras.

Infinity Pool

What It’s About: James and Em are enjoying an all-inclusive beach vacation when a fatal accident exposes the resort’s perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence, and surreal horrors.

Why I’m Excited: Despite his father, David Cronenberg, being one of the great horror directors of all time, his son Brandon, director of Infinity Pool, has solidified himself as an exciting voice in the horror world. I cannot wait to see what twisted vision he has for Infinity Pool.

Landscape With Invisible Hand

What It’s About: When Earth is taken over by aliens who control the economy, a pair of teenagers come up with a plan to save their families.

Why I’m Excited: Cory Finley, a director I’ve been having my eye on since 2017’s Thoroughbreds, is back with his third feature film, this time with a sci-fi twist.

Magazine Dreams

What It’s About: An amateur bodybuilder struggles to find human connection as his relentless drive for recognition pushes him to the brink.

Why I’m Excited: Jonathan Majors is one of the most exciting actors working today, if not the most exciting, and in Magazine Dreams he stars alongside two other exciting actors, Haley Bennett (Swallow) and Taylour Paige (Zola). This is my most anticipated movie of this year’s festival.

Mami Wata

What It’s About: When the harmony in a village is threatened by outside elements, two sisters must fight to save their people and restore the glory of a mermaid goddess to the land.

Why I’m Excited: One of the great things about Sundance is that for most of the films, all you have is an image and a synopsis to go off of. Mami Wata landed a spot on this list simply because of the gorgeous black-and-white image shown above and the compelling plot.

Sometimes I Think About Dying

What It’s About: Fran likes to think about dying. It brings sensation to her quiet life. When she makes the new guy at work laugh, it leads to more: a date, a slice of pie, a conversation, a spark. The only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.

Why I’m Excited: Sometimes I Think About Dying stars Daisy Ridley in what sounds like her best role since her run in the latest Star Wars films. I hope Ridley is given the opportunity to show us a different side of her as an actor.

You Hurt My Feelings

What It’s About: A novelist’s longstanding marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.

Why I’m Excited: One of the more high-profile films at this year’s festival is Nicole Holofcener’s comedy starring the great Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

 

 

 

 

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