by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

While I don’t make the trek out to Utah for the annual Sundance Film Festival this year, I am still grateful that I can attend from the red carpet of my living room thanks to the virtual programming. While I may miss some of the hot titles, I prefer discovering films I wouldn’t see otherwise; this is why I love film festivals. (I also like seeing all of the shorts programs—so I can poach films for my BMFI class.)

Here are a five features I am hoping to catch at this year’s Sundance Film Festival which begins Thursday, January 23 until Sunday, February 2. Schedule and ticket information here.

Atropia
Written and Directed by Hailey Gates
Screens in person starting January 25, available to watch online January 30
Ticket info here

This film, the feature directorial debut by Hailey Gates, has strong talent supporting it—David Siegel and Scott McGehee of The Deep End fame are executive producers, and Luca Guadaginio is credited as a producer. The cast includes indie stalwarts Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny, and Tim Heidecker. All this makes Atropia, set in an invented city, and featuring military role-playing, look very promising and the kind of big swing I gravitate to.

Bubble and Squeak
Written and Directed by Evan Twohy
Screens in person starting January 24, available to watch online January 30
Ticket info here

The title refers to a dish of leftover cabbage and other foods. It is familiar to me from having lived in the UK, but I’ve never tried it. That said, I will try this film, because the plot—"Accused of smuggling cabbages into a nation where cabbages are banned, Declan and Delores must confront the fragility of their new marriage while on the run for their lives”—sounds wonderfully absurdist and deadpan, which is my kind of humor. I am eager to immerse myself in this strange world for ninety-five minutes.

LUZ
Written and Directed by Flora Lau
Screens in person starting January 23, available to watch online January 30
Ticket info here

Isabelle Huppert, arguably the greatest actress in contemporary cinema, headlines this film set in Chongqing and Paris. I don’t even need to know what this is about to know that I want to see it. Apparently, it concerns virtual reality, family, and “a mystical deer.” Huppert chooses interesting projects, so I’m excited to take a chance on this one because that kind of discovery is what I like most about film festivals.

Omaha
Directed by Cole Webley
Written by Robert Machoian
Screens in person starting January 23, available to watch online January 30
Ticket info here

This American indie starts John Magaro as a dad who takes his kids on a road trip. It sounds like many a Sundance film (see also: Little Miss Sunshine, Will & Harper) from years previous. I’m primed to see this because I have affection for the genre, and those simple indie films that are fest staples. I also enjoy seeing Magaro who has such a terrific everyman presence. In the past year, I’ve seen him in several films at festivals, from September 5, to The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer and LaRoy, Texas. All these reasons put Omaha high on my list.

Ricky
Written and Directed by Rashad Frett
Screens in person starting January 24, available online to watch January 30
Ticket info here

I am always interested—and also justly concerned—when a short is turned into a feature. Some films are perfect at 20 minutes. But shorts are often used as calling cards or to provide proof of concept. It will be interesting to see how Rashad Frett, making his directorial debut here, expands his short, as well as how the title character is portrayed by Stephan James. When the short film Ricky came out of Sundance in 2023, I wrote:

Ricky has the title character (Parish Bradley) reentering society after being incarcerated. He is pressured by his parole officer to find work and tries to avoid drugs and alcohol. When he reluctantly accepts a job at a restaurant, Ricky faces unexpected difficulties; he encounters trouble as he is running late to work. This thoughtful, tense, and terrific short shows how Ricky tries to do the right thing but makes some bad choices. Bradley makes Ricky incredibly sympathetic even if he is his own worst enemy.

I hope to report back on how this film succeeds or fails.

Stay tuned for more Sundance dispatches from Gary M. Kramer here. In the meantime you can find the entire schedule and ticket information here.

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