Christopher Nolan and Kristen Stewart supported young filmmakers

Sundance Independent Film Festival opens for the fortieth time

The 40th Sundance Independent Film Festival will take place over ten days in Park City and Salt Lake City. It opened with a spectacular Gala, featuring A-list stars.

The traditionally overlapping Sundance and Rotterdam Film Festivals are not usually star-driven, but they are lit up. It was at Sundance that the names of Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh became known. The priority remains not red carpets and celebrities, but independent and auteur films and promising debuts.

However, this time, venerable filmmakers came to Park City to participate in the opening ceremony, all proceeds from which will be used to support independent cinema. Among the guests are participants from previous festivals. Among them are Christopher Nolan, who began his career in independent cinema, and Robert Downey Jr., who played one of his best roles in his latest film, Oppenheimer. Kristen Stewart, who has already received an award for her contribution to independent cinema at the opening ceremony, will present two of her new works. Steven Soderbergh, who first showed the now famous film Sex, Lies and Videotape at Sundance in 1989, also came with a new film. Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, will present two films. “Real Pain” is his second and very recent directorial work.

The jury included those who once participated in the festival with their paintings. There are 16 people in total in various competitions – world and American cinema, documentaries and fiction, which is called drama here, as well as short films. Among the jury members are Indian director Mira Nair, who directed Monsoon Wedding (Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival) and Vanity Fair, Portuguese cinematographer of the year Rui Posas, who was on the jury of Critics Week in Cannes in 2023 and is known for films “Taboo” and “Frankie”, debutant from Great Britain Charlotte Regan, who won at Sundance a year ago.

On the eve of the anniversary film screening, its organizers conducted a survey in which 500 critics and filmmakers took part. Thus, the best films in the entire history of the festival were selected. The top three places were taken by Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash (2014), Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992), and Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017).

Last year, the main award went to the debut film “Badass” by Charlotte Regan from the UK. The aspiring director has now joined the jury of the short film competition. Her modest story about a little girl who was left without a mother and unexpectedly found a father could probably have won at a festival like Sundance, where they value ingenuous cinema, which is like life itself.

Georgie is 12 years old. She was played by the very capable young actress Lola Campbell. The girl lives completely alone in a modest home in a London suburb, in a house that resembles rows of garages. She is left to her own devices. For some reason, the guardianship staff lost sight of this fact. Georgie tells them stories about her uncle named Winston Churchill, who is supposedly raising her. A salesperson from a grocery store speaks to them on the phone on behalf of their uncle. And guardianship officials believe in these fables, which cannot be said about the audience. How does the girl survive? She borrows the essentials from the same guy from the store, who introduces himself over the phone as her uncle. Georgie is also supported by her friend Ali (Alin Uzun). Together they become bicycle thieves.

The role of the girl’s unexpectedly appearing father was played by British actor Harris Dickinson, known for the films “Triangle of Sadness,” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” “King’s Man: The Beginning,” and “Full Grit.” His hero Jason is a dyed-haired blond who once abandoned Georgie’s mother, went to Spain and did not remember his daughter for all her 12 years. No one was waiting for his return, and the girl has doubts whether he is who he claims to be. She has a rich imagination, and she sees the uninvited guest as either a gangster or a ghoul. He can kill too. But gradually father and daughter will understand that they need each other.

Behind the camera is Molly Manning Walker, who primarily directed videos and is now a director. She made her debut at the recent Cannes Film Festival, where she won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prix for her film How to Have Sex. In Bully, she captures life as if she were making a documentary. Without any frills, simple and crystal clear.

There is nothing special about this simple story. There were many like this. And there are no innovations either to give the film the main prize of such an authoritative festival aimed at finding something new. It is clear why the choice was made in his favor. This movie is like life, simple and everyday, truthful, with the exception of some nuances, where no one plays or tries to reinvent the wheel.