2023 Sundance Film Festival: 13 Films to See

We’re only a few weeks away from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Whether you’ll be in Park City, Utah, or enjoying the programming from the comfort of your own home, there are tons of great films to see at this year’s event.

With so much content at your fingertips, you might be wondering what you should check out. Lucky for you, we’ve put together a list of thirteen films that you must see at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. So without further ado…

Fair Play

Hot off the heels of their new engagement, thriving New York couple Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) can’t get enough of each other. When a coveted promotion at a cutthroat financial firm arises, supportive exchanges between the lovers begin to sour into something more sinister. As the power dynamics irrevocably shift in their relationship, Luke and Emily must face the true price of success and the unnerving limits of ambition.

In her explosive feature debut, writer-director Chloe Domont weaves a taut psychological thriller, unflinchingly staring down the destructive gender dynamics that pit partners against each other in a world that is transforming faster than the rules can keep up. Dynevor and Ehrenreich deliver commanding performances as a couple whose romance hardens into ruthlessness when stakes climb higher than even the volatile fortunes of their clients. With razor-sharp precision in its writing and tense cinematography, Fair Play unravels the uncomfortable collision of empowerment and ego.

Available in person and online.

Shortcomings

Ben, a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an art house movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blond women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend, Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices and begins to explore what he thinks he might want.

Cleverly and precisely scripted by Adrian Tomine (based on his own acclaimed graphic novel of the same title), the delightful Shortcomings is Randall Park’s assured directorial debut. Exposing a multiplicity of Asian American identities in a fresh and groundbreaking way, the film is poised to challenge audiences with its protagonist Ben — who is cynical and snobbish with a dash of charm — gamely played by Justin H. Min. With wit, humor, and a deep understanding of being an outsider within a marginalized community, Shortcomings embraces the complexity of being human, flaws and all.

Available in person and online.

Theater Camp

As summer rolls around again, kids are gathering from all over to attend AdirondACTS, a scrappy theater camp in upstate New York that’s a haven for budding performers. After its indomitable founder Joan (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, her clueless “crypto-bro” son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) is tasked with keeping the thespian paradise running. With financial ruin looming, Troy must join forces with Amos (Ben Platt), Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon), and their band of eccentric teachers to come up with a solution before the curtain rises on opening night.

First-time feature directorial duo Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman authentically celebrate the brilliant and slightly unhinged educators and magical spaces that allow kids to be themselves and find their confidence, nailing the details after experiencing decades of camp life. With a winning comedic ensemble cast and boundless creativity, Theater Camp wears its cult-following potential squarely on its sequined shoulders, gifting us with instantly quotable lines and zany, lovable characters in the kind of hilarious mockumentary that deserves rapturous applause.

Available in person and online.

Girl

Mother-daughter duo Grace and Ama have established a deep bond that’s protected them from outsiders, but as they start anew in Glasgow, things begin to change. Ama’s burgeoning puberty and curiosity set off reminders of a past that 24-year-old Grace has been running from. The comforting fairytale-like origin story that Grace has been telling Ama for years is interrupted by flashbacks of her painful past — their sheltered world begins to erode from the inside.

Adura Onashile’s debut feature is an impressively delicate story about trauma and coming-of-age. Where Grace is stunned and paralyzed outside of their safe nest, Ama blossoms, exploring the world with new friend Fiona. Onashile’s compassionate handling of Grace’s trauma takes an impressionist approach, deftly revealing just enough details. Déborah Lukumuena’s portrayal of Grace is sensitive and arresting, while an intimate camera and choral score heighten the evocative experience of the pair’s dueling realities. Onashile has crafted a poignant story about healing and the painful sacrifices that are sometimes needed to love ourselves and those closest to us.

Available in person and online.

birth/rebirth

Rose is a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession — the reanimation of the dead. Celie is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox 6-year-old daughter, Lila. One unfortunate day, their worlds crash into each other. The two women and young girl embark on a dark path of no return where they will be forced to confront how far they are willing to go to protect what they hold most dear.

The devilishly perceptive script by Laura Moss and Brendan J. O’Brien reimagines a classic horror myth with such a complete, contemporary understanding that it becomes something exciting, terrifying, and singularly new. They ground this chilling fantasy in the complex psychologies of its leads, all too convincingly played by Judy Reyes, Marin Ireland, and A.J. Lister. This standout directorial debut by Laura Moss is a wonderfully twisted tale that is sure to be one of the big cerebral shockers of the year.

Available in person and online.

Cat Person

Margot, a college student working concessions at an art house theater, meets frequent filmgoer — and rather older local — Robert, on the job. Flirtation across the counter evolves into continuous texting. As the two inch toward romance, shifts between them, awkward moments, red flags, and discomforts pile up. Margot feels both attached and reticent, as her gnawing hesitations blossom into vivid daydreams where Robert realizes his most threatening potential. As her distrust and uncertainty mount, an evening, their relationship, and possibly their lives unravel.

Exploring power dynamics, the terrifying nature of some gray areas, and the way young women must balance their relationships to themselves alongside their lovers, Cat Person is a provocative portrait of modern dating. Director Susanna Fogel (co-writer of Booksmart) brings these questions to the screen with a vibrant tension that packs a serious punch, aided by great performances from Emilia Jones (CODA) and Nicholas Braun (Succession). Inspired by the most-read piece of fiction ever published in The New Yorker, Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person”, the film continues a conversation whose urgency is clear, present, and dangerous.

Available in person and online.

Cassandro

In the lucha libre wrestling scene of Juárez, Mexico, gay luchador Saúl is tired of playing El Topo, a nondescript, masked runt who always loses his matches. He wants to be a star. His fierce new trainer, Sabrina, suggests he develop an exótico character — an unmasked, stereotypically effeminate role audiences love to hate. But exóticos never get to win. All that changes when Saúl debuts the flamboyant and powerful Cassandro, who captures the crowd’s attention and affection. But how will Cassandro’s ascent affect Saúl’s relationship with his mother — still pining away for his unavailable father — and with Gerardo, Saúl’s secret lover?

Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated, 2016 Sundance Film Festival) makes his fiction directorial debut with the real-life tale of Cassandro, the “Liberace of lucha libre,” crafting an engaging origin story for an outsider turned unlikely superstar. Gael García Bernal embodies the two distinct sides of Saúl, capturing both his feelings of otherness and the boisterous ring persona who embraces and revels in his difference.

Available in person and online.

Jamojaya

James (Brian Imanuel), an aspiring Indonesian rapper, is at a resort in Hawai‘i to cut his debut album for a major U.S. record label. Accompanying him is his father and former manager (Yayu A.W. Unru), who is still mourning the death of James’ brother and unwilling to surrender control of his career. While James sinks deeper in debt to the label, his father insists on acting as a de facto personal assistant. Caught between the music industry’s commercial demands and a power struggle with his suffocating stage dad, James is forced to find his voice.

Writer-director Justin Chon (Gook, 2017 NEXT Audience Award winner and Ms. Purple, 2019) returns to Sundance with this introspective family drama set against the infernal neon backdrop of the showbiz machine. Jamojaya juxtaposes anxious handheld shots that follow James through cramped corridors and busy backstage areas with quiet, lyrical passages depicting the growing gulf between father and son. In his feature film debut, acclaimed rapper Imanuel brings sensitivity to the would-be star, while Unru delivers a heart-wrenching performance as his doting but demanding father.

Available in person and online.

A Little Prayer

Tammy (Jane Levy) and husband David (Will Pullen) lead a quiet life in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, sharing a home with David’s parents, Bill (David Strathairn) and Venida (Celia Weston). David and Bill work together and have always been closely involved in each other’s lives. When Bill begins to suspect that David is straying in his marriage, he is drawn into a relationship minefield, caught between wanting to protect his amicable daughter-in-law and trying to understand his impulsive son. As Bill confronts the limits of patriarchal influence, he is also forced to reckon with disheartening behavioral patterns that may be transcending generations.

Writer-director Angus MacLachlan returns to the Sundance Film Festival (writer, Junebug, 2005) with another deeply personal and humorous tale that beautifully reveals complex family dynamics and the inner workings of Southern towns. Placing a gentle lens on the extraordinary moments that lurk just beneath ordinary conversations, MacLachlan guides an ensemble cast to nuanced performances rooted in empathy. With realism, wit, and charm, A Little Prayer beckons us to embrace the unexpected ways we can connect with one another.

Available in person and online.

Murder in Big Horn

Within the past decade, dozens of young Indigenous women and girls from the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Nations have disappeared from Montana’s Big Horn County and its surrounding areas. Understandably, grieving Native families who fear the worst press local law enforcement for answers, but their pleas are most often met with silence or indifference. Arrests in these cases are rare, and convictions are virtually nonexistent. Elsewhere in America, similar stories shock communities and become nationwide news, but when they occur on Native reservations, a circle of bereft family members, friends, and activists are left to fight for justice on their own.

Murder in Big Horn examines the circumstances surrounding many of these cases, told solely through the perspectives of those involved: Native families, Native journalists, and local law enforcement officers. Directors Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota/Diné) and Matthew Galkin craft a powerful portrait of tribal members and their communities battling an epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) that was set in motion almost 200 years ago.

Available in person and online.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

At age 16, an undersized army brat landed a part as a 12-year-old on a Canadian television show. Confident he could make it in the U.S., he moved into a tiny apartment in the slums of Beverly Hills. Three years later, he was struggling to scrape by and ready to retreat. But then came his breakout roles — Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties and Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy — and a superstar was born. Michael J. Fox dominated the industry for most of the 1980s and ’90s, but a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease at age 29 threatened to derail his career.

Fox’s improbable story sounds like the stuff of Hollywood, so what better way to tell it than through scenes from his own work, supplemented with stylish recreations? Owning his own narrative, the actor playfully recounts his journey with intimacy, candor, and humor. In the hands of Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, 2006 Sundance Film Festival), Still reveals what happens when an eternal optimist confronts an incurable disease.

Available in person and online.

Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out

Teenage aspiring journalist Itsy is miserable when her family moves to the small town of Pebble Falls. Among the new challenges — a fixer-upper house and unfriendly high schoolers, to name a few — Itsy meets Calvin, her strange, space-obsessed neighbor and classmate. Itsy befriends Calvin in hopes of writing an exposé on the oddball for a summer internship back in New York City, but she soon discovers that the amateur astronaut has an out-of-this-world secret. Calvin believes his parents were abducted by aliens, and it’s his mission to find and join them in outer space. As they endeavor to uncover the truth, the pair of outsiders foster a surprising and heartwarming friendship.

A lighthearted yet touching family narrative set against the backdrop of the beautiful Utah landscape, Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out is a story about embracing what makes us different, finding belonging, and staying true to yourself. Suitable for kids (and aliens) of all ages.

Available in person and online.

Flora and Son

Flora, a young mother living in Dublin, lost touch with aspiration long ago. She juggles a sustenance-necessitated child care job and a fraught co-parenting arrangement with her unkind ex as she tries to raise her son, Max. Flora and Max’s brash rapport is both hilarious and revealing of their struggle to understand each other — she searches for autonomy and self-love masquerading as selfishness, while his longing for independence and self-expression manifests as delinquency. When the two connect over a twice-discarded used guitar, the uniting power of music brings them closer than what simple proximity can provide.

In John Carney’s signature melodic style, Flora and Son is charming, uplifting, and musically dazzling. A high-energy performance from Eve Hewson and her oceans-crossing chemistry with her online guitar teacher (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) bring sweeping romance with an Irish punch to this buoyant piece. A story of how music can re-energize a life and resurrect long-dormant dreams, as well as a testament to the new connective tissues we grow in isolation, Flora and Son is an all-around revelry in the beauty of relationship.

Available in person.