March 28, 2024

Sundance Gets Real, With a Lineup of Newsy Films for 2020

Now the executives tramping through Park City are likely to be looking for content to fill their streaming services. Amazon scored big in 2017 with a film it picked up at the festival, “The Big Sick,” a comedy co-written by and starring Kumail Nanjiani. It grossed more than $56 million at the box office and is now available on Amazon Prime Video.

Disney Plus, the streaming service unveiled last month by the Walt Disney Company, will have a presence, with “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.” Directed by Tom McCarthy, a filmmaker known for “Spotlight,” the best picture winner at the 2016 Academy Awards, the film will be included as part of the festival’s children’s slate.

Relative newcomers like Apple, Amazon and Netflix have kept Sundance vibrant. “It’s good news when people get the financial support to make interesting films,” Mr. Cooper, the festival director, said. “The streaming companies are certainly helping with this sector of the entertainment space.”

Films that made an impression at the most recent festival included Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” the documentary “Apollo 11” and “Late Night,” a film written by Mindy Kaling and starring Emma Thompson as an imperious talk show host.

Amazon paid $13 million for the domestic distribution rights to “Late Night” during its last Sundance visit, but it did not repeat the success it had with “The Big Sick.” “Late Night,” which received rave reviews at its premiere at the Eccles Center Theater in Park City, generated just $15 million in the United States during its theatrical run, despite a hefty marketing campaign, showing the difficulty of predicting which films will break out.

A contender from the 2020 lineup is “Downhill,” a remake of the acclaimed Swedish film “Force Majeure.” It stars Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a married couple rattled in the aftermath of an avalanche that takes place during a ski vacation.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/business/media/2020-sundance-film-festival.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

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