Sundance Selects announced the lineup for its twenty-fourth annual Sundance Film Festival today with appearances from what it’s calling “No Longer Home,” a collection of narrative films by first-time directors that is being curated by its director of programming, Dana Stevens. The premieres will be shown at Park City, Utah’s Eccles Theater, and the unspoolings at the Village at the Lift, Sundance’s free downstairs theater. The centerpiece films, meanwhile, will be shown at New Frontier, a venue called the Apple Store that houses unusual or experimental films, interactive installations, costumes and props.
The festival will open on January 24 with Roxanne Roxanne, from Spike Lee and Amazon Studios, which will star Regina Hall, Omari Hardwick and Eniko Miltall. Last year’s Opening Night movie, Lucky as Lazzaro, was made by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, co-directors of Bringing Out the Dead, and tells the story of an Alsatian shepherdboy. They will premiere their latest feature, The Stranger, this year, at New Frontier, and its premiere will be the only film shown at the Eccles Theater, whose opening-night festival goers will be offered free passes to New Frontier.
It’s worth noting that these are premieres, and that in the lineup below, Sundance Selects does not include the Main Slate of films that played at Sundance last year. That Main Slate lineup included the comedies Bad Times at the El Royale and I Feel Pretty, as well as the dramas, The Rider, If Beale Street Could Talk and If Beale Street Could Talk. That Main Slate also includes the hip-hop flick, Nappily Ever After, directed by Rick Famuyiwa and starring Mariah Carey.
Among the films not showing in the Main Slate are I Can Only Imagine, the biopic on Chris Cornell, that I profiled in my box office blog. Sundance Selects also hasn’t given a release date for Project Eternity, Kevin Hart’s upcoming film that stars Star Wars actor Billy Dee Williams. (The film was developed and financed by Hart’s Hartbeat Productions.)
Who will be at the films? In addition to Spike Lee, possibly coincidentally the biggest Sundance surprise last year, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, and Bruce Dern are scheduled to appear.
Here is the full lineup:
AN INVESTIGATION INTO GHOSTED, Director: Eli Roth, U.S. Dramatic
HEIDER: A SWEET FAITH, Director: Chris Kelly, U.S. Dramatic
IN THE FOG, Director: Christopher Doyle, World Cinema Dramatic
LIKE A BATTERED BEATLE, Director: Damian Chazelle, U.S. Dramatic
LOVE, JOY, SWEET SOUL, Director: Pam MacKinnon, U.S. Dramatic
NORDIC NOIR, Director: Anders Walter, World Cinema Dramatic
POLTERGEIST, Director: Kåre Hedebrant, World Cinema Documentary
TAKE ME TO THE MIRROR, Director: Sara Colangelo, U.S. Dramatic
THE TWILIGHT KILLERS, Director: Alejandro Agresti, U.S. Dramatic
TIME BOMB, Director: Cheng Pei Pei, World Cinema Documentary
WASTED, Director: Morgan Spurlock, U.S. Documentary
NO LONGER HOME, Director: Dana Stevens, World Cinema Documentary
360, Directors: Bradford Young, Phil Dorling, U.S. Documentary
VICTORY LANE, Director: Salvatore Stabile, World Cinema Documentary
OUT OF MY CONTROL, Director: Dustin Guy Defa, World Cinema Documentary