The 2013 Sundance Film Festival is in full swing and will be going on until January 27! Entertainment Weekly writer Anthony Breznican has shared a list of thirteen (13) films from the festival that he thinks we should keep an eye on during 2013. Here is the list of films with their official synopsis’ and cast list:
1. The Way, Way Back
Director: Nat Faxon
Cast: Steve Carell, AnnaSophia Robb, Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry, Amanda Peet, and Robert Capron.
Synopsis: “Over the course of his summer break, a teenager comes into his own thanks in part to the friendship he strikes up with one of the park’s managers.”
2. Austenland
Director: Jerusha Hess
Cast: Kerri Russell, JJ Field, Jennifer Coolidge, Bret McKenzie, Jane Seymour, Georgia King, and James Callis.
Synopsis: “Austenland is a romantic comedy about 30-something, single Jane Hayes, a seemingly normal young woman with a secret: her obsession with Mr. Darcy-as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice-is ruining her love life; no real man can compare. But when she decides to spend her life savings on a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined.”
3. Breathe In
Director: Drake Doremus
Cast: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Kyle MacLachlan, Amy Ryan, Alexandra Wentworth, Lucy Davenport, and Hugo Becker.
Synopsis: “When a foreign exchange student arrives in a small upstate New York town, she challenges the dynamics of her host family’s relationships and alters their lives forever.”
4. Blue Caprice
Director: Alexandre Moors
Cast: Isaiah Washington, Tim Blake Nelson, Joey Lauren Adams, Al Sapienza, Cassandra Freeman, and Leo Fitzpatrick.
Synopsis: “A narrative feature film inspired by the events known as the Beltway sniper attacks.”
5. The Spectacular Now
Director: James Ponsoldt
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kyle Chandler, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Dayo Okeniyi.
Synopsis: “Based off of the coming of age novel The Spectacular Now by Tim Sharp, this film follows Sutter (Teller) and Aimee (Woodley) on their journey of self-discovery and first love.”
6. Upstream Color
Director: Shane Carruth
Cast: Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Brina Palencia, Amy Semietz, Trey Walpole, Juli Erickson, Lynn Backburn, Frank Mosley, and Ted Ferguson.
Synopsis: “A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.”
7. Before Midnight
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Ariane Labed, and Athina Rachel Tsangari.
Synopsis: “We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.”
8. Lovelace
Director: Rob Epstein
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Juno Temple, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Chris North, Adam Brody, Hank Azaria, Wes Bentley, and James Franco.
Synopsis: “Story of Linda Lovelace, who is used and abused by the porn industry at the behest of her coercive husband, before taking control of her life.”
9. Prince Avalanche
Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, Lance LeGault, Joyce Payne, Gina Grande, and Lynn Shelton.
Synopsis: “Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind.”
10. Don Jon’s Addiction
Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Brie Larson, Tony Danza, Rob Brown, Lindsey Broad, Italia Ricci, Antoinette Kalaj, and Amanda Perez.
Synopsis: “The journey of a contemporary, porn-addicted Don Juan-type as he attempts to become less selfish.”
11. In a World…
Director: Lake Bell
Cast: Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Demetri Martin, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Rob Corddry, Alexandra Holden, Geena Davis, Stephanie Allynne, and Jeff Garlin.
Synopsis: “An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation.”
12. Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes
Director: Francesca Gregorini
Cast: Jessica Biel, Kaya Scodelario, Alfred Molina, Jimmi Simpson, Frances O’Connor, Sam Jaeger, Anne Ramsay, Aneurin Barnard, Spencer Garrett, and Kevin McCorkle.
Synopsis: “A troubled girl (Emanuel) becomes preoccupied with her mysterious new neighbor (Linda), who bears a striking resemblance to her dead mother. In offering to baby-sit Linda’s newborn, Emanuel unwittingly enters a fragile, fictional world, of which she becomes the gatekeeper.”
13. Two Mothers
Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Ben Mendelsohn, Xavier Samuel, James Frecheville, Sophie Lowe, and Gary Sweet.
Synopsis: “A pair of childhood friends and neighbors fall for each other’s sons.”
Do you think you will be interested in any of these films? Do you think any of these films will be successful at the festival or in the theaters? Have you been following everything that is going on at Sundance 2013 so far? Take a look at what Entertainment Weekly writer Anthony Breznican had to say about all of these films here.
Sources: Entertainment Weekly and IMDbPro (for the film synopses)
