The 2020 Sundance Film Festival opens on January 23! To preview the festival, we’ve put together a “cheat sheet” to the key feature films screening in Park City—a survey of titles (and some trailers) to provide a look at what’s on offer at this year’s edition.

Don’t miss our special Sundance episodes of The Film Comment Podcast starting with a preview episode available on Wednesday, and check back over the next week and a half for informed discussions of festival highlights and ahead-of-the-curve coverage from Utah from our correspondents.

 

 

U.S. Dramatic Competition

 

Radha Blank, The 40-Year-Old Version

Cast: Radha Blank, Peter Y. Kim, Oswin Benjamin

 

Esteban Arango, Blast Beat

Cast: Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderrama, Daniel Dae Kim

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Wn4fEScDM

Angel Manuel Soto, Charm City Kings

Cast: Teyonah Parris, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, William Catlett

 

Adam Rehmeier, Dinner in America

Cast: Kyle Gallner, Emily Skeggs, Lea Thompson

 

Braden King, The Evening Hour

Cast: Philip Ettinger, Stacy Martin, Cosmo Jarvis, Lili Taylor

 

Ekwa Msangi, Farewell Amor

Cast: Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, Jayme Lawson

 

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Cast: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Youn Yuh-jung

 

Channing Godfrey Peoples, Miss Juneteenth

Cast: Nicole Beharie, Alexis Chikaeze, Lori Hayes

 

Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Cast: Ryan Eggold, Théodore Pellerin, Sharon Van Etten

 

Edson Oda, Nine Days

Cast: Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale

 

Max Barbakow, Palm Springs

Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons

 

Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson, Save Yourselves!

Cast: Sunita Mani, John Reynolds, Ben Sinclair

 

Josephine Decker, Shirley

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Logan Lerman, Michael Stuhlbarg

 

Eugene Ashe, Sylvie’s Love

Cast: Tessa Thompson, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Eva Longoria

 

Tara Miele, Wander Darkly

Cast: Sienna Miller, Diego Luna, Vanessa Bayer

 

Janicza Bravo, Zola

Cast: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun

 

 

 

U.S. Documentary Competition

 

Ramona S. Diaz, A Thousand Cuts

 

Bao Nguyen, Be Water

 

Bill Ross & Turner Ross, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

 

Jesse Moss & Amanda McBaine, Boys State

 

Shalini Kantayya, Coded Bias

 

Mark Manning, The Cost of Silence

 

Nicole Newnham & Jim LeBrecht, Crip Camp

 

Kirsten Johnson, Dick Johnson Is Dead

 

Arthur Jones, Feels Good Man

 

Elyse Steinberg & Josh Kriegman & Eli Despres, The Fight

 

Cristina Costantini & Kareem Tabsch, Mucho Mucho Amor

 

Matt Wolf, Spaceship Earth

 

Garrett Bradley, Time

 

Kim A. Snyder, Us Kids

 

David France, Welcome to Chechnya

 

Matt Yoka, Whirlybird

 

 

 

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

 

Amanda Kernell, Charter

Cast: Ane Dahl Torp, Troy Lundkvist, Tintin Poggats Sarri

 

Maïmouna Doucouré, Cuties

Cast: Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Maïmouna Gueye

 

Visar Morina, Exil

Cast: Mišel Matičević, Sandra Hüller

 

Verónica Chen, High Tide

Cast: Gloria Carrá, Jorge Sesán, Cristian Salguero

 

Fernanda Valadez, Identifying Features 

Cast: Mercedes Hernández, David Illescas

 

Zoé Wittock, Jumbo

Cast: Noémie Merlant, Emmanuelle Bercot, Sam Louwyck

 

Zeina Durra, Luxor

Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Karim Saleh, Michael Landes

 

Brandon Cronenberg, Possessor

Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Tuppence Middleton, Jennifer Jason Leigh

 

Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson, Summer White

Cast: Adrián Rossi, Sophie Alexander-Katz, Fabián Corres

 

Aneil Karia, Surge

Cast: Ben Whishaw, Ellie Haddington, Ian Gelder, Jasmine Jobson

 

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection

Cast: Jerry Mofokeng Wa Makheta, Makhaola Ndebele, Tseko Monaheng, Siphiwe Nzima

 

Massoud Bakhshi, Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness

Cast: Sadaf Asgari, Behnaz Jafari, Babak Karimi

 

 

 

World Cinema Documentary Competition

 

https://www.facebook.com/acasathefilm/videos/2441391242655172/

Radu Ciorniciuc, Acasa, My Home

 

Iryna Tsilyk, The Earth Is Blue as an Orange

 

Hubert Sauper, Epicentro

 

Diana Neille & Richard Poplak, Influence

 

Emma Sullivan, Into the Deep

 

Maite Alberdi, The Mole Agent

 

Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, Once Upon a Time in Venezuela

 

Benjamin Ree, The Painter and the Thief

 

Jerry Rothwell, The Reason I Jump

 

Susanne Regina Meures, Saudi Runaway

 

Sam Soko, Softie

 

Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw, The Truffle Hunters

 

 

 

NEXT

 

Danny Madden, Beast Beast

Cast: Shirley Chen, Will Madden, Jose Angeles

 

Lawrence Michael Levine, Black Bear

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, Sarah Gadon

 

Heidi Ewing, I Carry You With Me

Cast: Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez, Michelle Rodríguez

 

Robert Machoian, The Killing of Two Lovers

Cast: Clayne Crawford, Sepideh Moafi, Chris Coy

 

Patricia Vidal Delgado, La Leyenda Negra

Cast: Monica Betancourt, Kailei Lopez, Irlanda Moreno

 

Cedric Cheung-Lau, The Mountains Are a Dream That Call to Me

Cast: Sanjaya Lama, Alice Cummins

 

Daniels & Hannah Fidell & Alexa Lim Haas & Lucas Leyva & Olivia Lloyd & Jillian Mayer & The Meza Brothers & Terence Nance &  Brett Potter & Dylan Redford & Xander Robin & Julian Yuri Rodriguez & Celia Rowlson-Hall, Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia

Cast: Mel Rodriguez, Finn Wolfhard, Casey Wilson

 

Lance Oppenheim, Some Kind of Heaven

Cast: David Shayne, Loulwa Khoury

 

Eugene Kotlyarenko, Spree

Cast: Joe Keery, Sasheer Zamata, David Arquette

 

Carlos López Estrada, Summertime

Cast: 25 Get Lit Poets

 

 

 

Premieres (Fiction)

 

Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, Downhill

Cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Will Ferrell

 

Euros Lyn, Dream Horse

Cast: Toni Collette, Damian Lewis

 

Viggo Mortensen, Falling

Cast: Lance Henriksen, Viggo Mortensen, Hannah Gross, Laura Linney

 

Florian Zeller, The Father

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss

 

Rodrigo Garcia, Four Good Days

Cast: Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Stephen Root, Joshua Leonard

 

Julie Taymor, The Glorias

Cast: Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Bette Midler, Janelle Monáe

 

Phyllida Lloyd, Herself

Cast: Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill

 

Jeff Baena, Horse Girl

Cast: Alison Brie, Debby Ryan, John Reynolds

 

Dominic Cooke, Ironbark

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley

 

Miranda July, Kajillionaire

Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger

 

Andrew Cohn, The Last Shift

Cast: Richard Jenkins, Shane Paul McGhie, Da’Vine Joy Randolph

 

Dee Rees, The Last Thing He Wanted

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, Rosie Perez

 

Liz Garbus, Lost Girls

Cast: Amy Ryan, Thomasin McKenzie, Lola Kirke

 

Sean Durkin, The Nest

Cast: Jude Law, Carrie Coon, Charlie Shotwell, Oona Roche

 

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Laverne Cox

 

Greg Barker, Sergio

Cast: Wagner Moura, Ana de Armas, Garret Dillahunt

 

Michael Almereyda, Tesla

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Eve Hewson, Hannah Gross

 

Alan Ball, Uncle Frank

Cast: Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi

 

Benh Zeitlin, Wendy

Cast: Devin France, Yashua Mack, Tommie Lynn Milazzo, Shay Walker

 

Sara Colangelo, Worth

Cast: Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Amy Ryan

 

 

 

Premieres (Documentary)

 

Catherine Gund, Aggie

 

Ryan White, Assassins

 

Sam Feder, Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen

 

Bryan Fogel, The Dissident

 

James D. Stern & Fernando Villena, Giving Voice

 

Alison Ellwood, The Go-Go’s

 

Ron Cicero & Kimo Easterwood, Happy Happy Joy Joy – The Ren & Stimpy Story

 

Lana Wilson, Miss Americana

 

Laurent Bouzereau, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind

 

Jeff Orlowski, The Social Dilemma

 

https://www.facebook.com/TheLastLions/videos/773901313048013/

Dereck Joubert & Beverly Joubert & Ivo Filatsch, Okavango: River of Dreams (Director’s Cut)

 

Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering, On the Record

 

Ron Howard, Rebuilding Paradise

 

Ai Weiwei, Vivos

 

 

 

Midnight

 

Romola Garai, Amulet

Cast: Carla Juri, Alex Secareanu, Imelda Staunton, Angeliki Papoulia

 

Justin Simien, Bad Hair

Cast: Elle Lorraine, Vanessa Williams, Jay Pharoah

 

Remi Weekes, His House

Cast: Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, Matt Smith

 

Joko Anwar, Impetigore

Cast: Tara Basro, Marissa Anita, Christine Hakim

 

David Bruckner, The Night House

Cast: Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Stacy Martin

 

Bill Benz, The Nowhere Inn

Cast: Annie Clark, Carrie Brownstein

 

Natalie Erika James, Relic

Cast: Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, Bella Heathcote

 

Shana Feste, Run Sweetheart Run

Cast: Ella Balinska, Pilou Asbæk, Clark Gregg

 

Josh Ruben, Scare Me

Cast: Aya Cash, Josh Ruben, Chris Redd, Rebecca Drysdale

 

 

 

Spotlight

 

Levan Akin, And Then We Danced

Cast: Levan Gelbakhiani, Bachi Valishvili, Ana Javakhishvili

 

Kitty Green, The Assistant

Cast: Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh

 

Michael Angelo Covino, The Climb

Cast: Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo Covino, Gayle Rankin

 

Alexander Nanau, Collective

Cast: Catalin Tolontan, Mirela Neag, Razvan Lutac

 

Pablo Larraín, Ema

Cast: Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael García Bernal, Santiago Cabrera

 

Jayro Bustamante, La Llorona

Cast: María Mercedes Coroy, Margarita Kénefic, Sabrina De La Hoz, Julio Diaz

 

Haifaa Al Mansour, The Perfect Candidate

Cast: Mila Alzahrani, Dhay, Khalid Abdulraheem, Shafi Alharthy

 

 

Kids

 

Frederike Migom, Binti

Cast: Bebel Tshiani Baloji, Mo Bakker, Joke Devynck, Baloji

 

Brenda Chapman, Come Away

Cast: Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Jordan Nash, Keira Chansa

 

Tom McCarthy, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

Cast: Winslow Fegley, Ophelia Lovibond, Wallace Shawn

 

 

 

From the Collection

 

Zana Briski & Ross Kauffman,  Born into Brothels

 

Lisa Cholodenko, High Art

Cast: Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell, Gabriel Mann