bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

James Mottram

The Sundance Film Festival returns to Park City, Utah, in the United States on January 18.
Founded by actor Robert Redford, the celebration of independent cinema turns 40 this year, so you can expect a dash of nostalgia, with Sundance classics such as Go Fish, Dig! and Napoleon Dynamite screening.
The 2024 line-up of films features an exciting array of established performers and newcomers, including some unique Asian-set stories.
Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan will also be honoured with the Sundance Institute’s inaugural Trailblazer Award.
12 Hollywood movies we can’t wait to see in early 2024, from Migration to Dune 2
Here are our 10 picks from this year’s festival.
1. Brief History of a Family
Featuring in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition strand is this Chinese drama from Lin Jianjie, who graduates to feature-film making after directing a series of short films, including A Visit and Gu.
Set in the post one-child era in China and with a cast led by Zu Feng and Guo Keyu, the film puts a middle-class family under the microscope as tension rises after their only son brings home a new friend.

The director notes that his familial study sets out to “amplify their hidden fears, desires and tensions … the closer we get, the more mysterious they become”.
2. Black Box Diaries
In 2020, journalist and writer Shiori Ito was listed as one of the most 100 influential people in the world by Time magazine for her contribution to Japan’s #MeToo movement. Now she adds documentary filmmaker to her list of achievements with Black Box Diaries, which debuts in the World Cinema Documentary category.

The film chronicles her own attempt to investigate the sexual assault she was subjected to, as she tries to take down the high-profile offender. Already famous in Japan, Ito attracted notoriety as she sought to expose the country’s antiquated judicial system and societal norms.
This is destined to become one of the festival’s most talked about films.
3. Agent of Happiness
What is fulfilment? What does it mean for each individual? These questions occupy Agent of Happiness, an idiosyncratic non-fiction film that plays in the World Cinema Documentary strand.

Directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, the film follows Amber, an agent for the Bhutanese government tasked with measuring people’s happiness in the Himalayan mountain kingdom.
Searching for love, and also grappling with his place in society as a member of Bhutan’s Nepali minority, Amber explores what it means to be happy as he broaches various households in the remote kingdom.
It’s a fascinating insight into a little-documented country.
4. Nocturnes
It’s rare that a nature documentary gets programmed in Sundance, but from two filmmakers based in New Delhi, India, comes this very spiritual and surprising non-fiction film.

Premiering in the World Cinema Documentary line-up, Nocturnes, directed by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, takes us into the forests of the Eastern Himalayas and into the secret world of moths.
These most mysterious of insects are drawn to a large canvas in the forest via a bright light, allowing viewers to observe them in their habitat.
An experiential work blessed with immersive sound, it’s a unique look at how moths form a vital part of ecosystems.
5. Love Lies Bleeding
British filmmaker Rose Glass enjoyed remarkable acclaim for her well-crafted feature debut, the stark horror Saint Maud, back in 2019. Now, five years on, she’s back with Love Lies Bleeding, her first American-set adventure and one that mixes love and loyalty with hedonistic violence.


Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a reclusive gym manager who falls for Jackie (Katy O’Brian), an ambitious bodybuilder who is heading through Las Vegas. But as their relationship unfolds, so Lou’s criminal family become involved, turning their world upside down.
Playing in the festival’s Midnight strand, this has got cult tattooed all over it.
6. And So It Begins
Ramona Diaz is a well-established Filipino-American documentary filmmaker whose work includes 2003’s Imelda, a look at the Philippines’ former first lady Imelda Marcos.

Now she’s back with And So It Begins, set against the backdrop of national elections at the end of Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial presidency as a people’s movement forms to fight against attacks on truth and democracy.
At a time when election campaigning in the US is ramping up, Diaz’s film will offer a stark reminder of the fragile nature of electoral systems around the globe.
7. Freaky Tales
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden are well acquainted with Sundance after their 2006 debut Half Nelson, starring Ryan Gosling, broke out at the festival. More recently, they dipped into the superhero universe with Captain Marvel, but Freaky Tales brings them back to the independent scene.

Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) co-stars with Ji-young Yoo, who is also about to be seen in the Hong Kong-set TV drama Expats, in a loving tribute to the Eighties. Set in Oakland, California, teen punks, Nazi skinheads, hip hop artists and more join forces in this wild series of interconnected tales that plays in the Premieres section.
8. Presence
Steven Soderbergh, who famously launched his career in Sundance with 1989’s sex, lies, and videotape, is back with what might be his first out-and-out horror film.
Presence also marks his second collaboration with David Koepp, the famed screenwriter behind Jurassic Park, following their 2022 tech-thriller, Kimi.

Set in a single location, Presence stars Lucy Liu and Julia Fox (who previously featured in Soderbergh’s underrated No Sudden Move) in a creepy-sounding story about a family who move into a suburban house and become convinced they’re not alone.
Showing in the festival’s Premieres strand, you can expect this not to be a run-of-the-mill haunted house tale given the track records of Soderbergh and Koepp.
9. The Outrun
German director Nora Fingscheidt made a startling impression with 2019’s System Crasher, a film about an unruly child pinballed through social care institutions. Since then, she has made the The Unforgivable with Sandra Bullock, released on Netflix. Now she returns with The Outrun.

A collaboration with the brilliant Saoirse Ronan, the film is an adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir of addiction and recovery. Ronan plays Rona, a drug and alcohol addict who flees London, where her life spiralled out of control, for the wilds of Scotland’s Orkney Islands, where she grew up.
Expect a deeply personal, poignant journey, fiercely acted by Ronan.
10. Winner
Following 2023’s Reality with Sydney Sweeney, Susanna Fogel’s Winner is the second film inside a year to focus on real-life whistle-blower Reality Winner.
This time Britain’s Emilia Jones, who featured in Fogel’s recent film Cat Person, takes on the role of the US National Security Agency contractor who wound up being prosecuted for exposing Russia’s hacking of the 2016 US elections.

While Reality focused on Winner’s initial interrogation by the FBI, using verbatim transcripts from her arrest, Winner will offer a broader view of her story. Given Winner’s contradictory nature – she is a fitness fanatic from Texas who also held guns at home – it should be fascinating.
The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 18 to January 28.
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


Discovery of Antarctic explorer Shackleton’s lost ship Endurance brought to big screen

Jimmy O. Yang gets personal in his first lead role as Interior Chinatown’s Willis Wu

Tron: Catalyst developer on new game and working with Disney

Meet Stanley Tucci’s literary wife, Felicity Blunt: Emily Blunt’s sister was behind the negroni vid that earned him ‘internet’s boyfriend’ status, and was in CNN’s Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

American cinema

Sundance Film Festival 2024: 10 to watch, from Kristen Stewart in Love Lies Bleeding and Pedro Pascal in Freaky Tales to Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun

Pedro Pascal in a still from “Freaky Tales”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute

Katy O’Brian (left) as a bodybuilder and Kristen Stewart as a gym manager who falls for her in a still from “Love Lies Bleeding”, one of the Post’s 10 picks of films screening at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival to watch out for. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute

Zu Feng (left) and Guo Keyu in a still from “Brief History of a Family”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Shiori Ito in a still from her documentary film “Black Box Diaries”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Amber Kumar Gurung, Gunaraj Kuikel and Kinley Tshering in a still from the documentary “Agent of Happiness”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute.

A still from “Nocturnes”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute.

A still from “And So It Begins”. Photo: Cine Diaz; courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Pedro Pascal in a still from “Freaky Tales”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Callina Liang in a still from “Presence”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Saoirse Ronan in a still from “The Outrun”. Photo: The Outrun Film Ltd – Roy Imer; courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Emilia Jones in a still from “Winner”. Photo: courtesy of Sundance Institute.

What to expect from Hollywood in 2024: superhero lite, sequels dominate – Godzilla, Inside Out, Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn – and Parasite director goes sci-fi

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker: Folie à Deux”.

Hollywood in 2024 will dial down on superheroes, but churn out sequels galore, including “Inside Out 2” (above). Parasite’s Bong Joon-ho will direct Robert Pattinson in a sci-fi movie, and Joaquin Phoenix will be back as the Joker with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. Photo: Disney/Pixar

John David Washington in a still from “The Creator”. Photo: 20th Century Studios

Christian Friedel in a still from “The Zone of Interest”. Photo: A24 via AP

Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in a still from “Back to Black”. Photo: Dean Rogers/Focus Features

Mark Gatiss (left) and Charles Parnell in front of ‘The Entity’, one of the film’s main antagonists, in a still from “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1”. Photo: Paramount Pictures and Skydance

Mid-career Jackie Chan: every Hong Kong film he made in the 1990s rated, from Rumble in the Bronx to Drunken Master II

Jackie Chan in a still from “Crime Story” (1993).

Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh in a still from “Police Story 3: Supercop”. The actress gave Chan a run for his money, and the result was his best film of the 1990s and “one of the most polished action comedies released in the past decade”, the Post’s critic wrote. Photo: Golden Harvest

Jackie Chan and Carol Cheng in a still from “Operation Condor: Armour of God 2” (1991).

Jackie Chan in a still from “Twin Dragons” (1992). 

Jackie Chan in a still from “City Hunter” (1993).

Jackie Chan in a still from “Thunderbolt” (1995).

Tony Leung and Andy Lau on The Goldfinger, their new movie that sees the Hong Kong superstars reunited for the first time since Infernal Affairs

Tony Leung Chiu-wai (left) and Andy Lau Tak-wah in a still from “The Goldfinger”.

Tony Leung (left) and Andy Lau in a still from the new movie “The Goldfinger”. The two Hong Kong superstars are reunited again after last appearing onscreen together in the Infernal Affairs trilogy. 

Andy Lau (left) and Tony Leung in a still from “Infernal Affairs” (2002).

Tony Leung in a still from “The Goldfinger”.

Andy Lau (left) and Tony Leung at the Hong Kong premiere of “The Goldfinger” on December 20, 2023.

Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin (left) and Andy Lau in a still from “The Goldfinger”.

(From left) Ken Hung Cheuk-lap, Tony Leung, Andy Lau and Will Or Wai-lam in a still from “The Goldfinger”.

Andy Lau (left) and Tony Leung in a still from the TV series “The Duke of Mount Deer” (1984).

(From left) Carlos Chan Ka-lok, Simon Yam Tat-wah and Tony Leung in a still from “The Goldfinger”.

Tony Leung (left) and Andy Lau in a still from “The Goldfinger”.

Ranked: the 12 best Asian films of 2023, from Concrete Utopia to Hidden Blade and Godzilla Minus One

Zafreen Zairizal (centre) in a still from “Tiger Stripes”.

Our top 12 Asian films from 2023 include a cyberpunk detective story, Godzilla’s 37th feature film (above), a Korean disaster movie, a Tony Leung -led spy thriller and basketball anime Slam Dunk. 

12 Hollywood movies we can’t wait to see in early 2024, from Migration and The Color Purple to Dune 2, Kung Fu Panda and Ghostbusters sequels

Timothée Chalamet (left) and Zendaya in a still from “Dune: Part Two”. Photo: Niko Tavernise.

Emma Stone (front) and Ramy Youssef in a still from “Poor Things”, one of this winter’s top Hollywood films. Photo: Yorgos Lanthimos/Searchlight Pictures.

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Lists

Screening at the 40th Sundance Film Festival are, among others, Love Lies Bleeding, with Kristen Stewart as a gym manager who falls for a bodybuilder
Pedro Pascal headlines Freaky Tales, Chinese director Lin Jianjie makes his feature debut, there’s a Soderbergh horror film, and several documentaries from Asia


Films screening at the 40th Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, include Love Lies Bleeding, starring Kristen Stewart, Freaky Tales with Pedro Pascal, and Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun.
