<p>It’s not even December, and the <a href="https://variety.com/t/sundance-film-festival/">Sundance Film Festival</a> has announced more or less its entire feature film lineup, unveiling 112 films to be screened in Park City, Utah, over the course of the event, which runs from Jan. 23 – Feb. 2, 2019.</p>

<p>Last year, the Venice Film Festival invited just one woman director to screen her film in competition. Cannes carved out room for three. Sundance once again puts these male-dominated showcases to shame, unveiling a competition slate that is 53% female — nine of the 17 directors eligible for the festival’s top prize are women.</p>

<p>Examining the lineup as a whole, 45 of the 112 features accepted to Sundance were directed by one or more women, 40 were directed by a filmmaker of color, and 15 by people who identify as LGBTQIA. That’s just one of the many ways in which North America’s leading independent film festival continues to lead the charge when it comes to the inclusion and encouragement of underrepresented voices.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>“We’re always going for parity, but because of the way we program, we’re looking for the films before we are who made them, so that kind of comes in the fine-tuning of the program, and it’s always amazing when it comes out that way,” said <a href="https://variety.com/t/kim-yutani/">Kim Yutani</a>, who was promoted to director of programming for this edition (following Trevor Groth’s exit). “This year, it was completely organic. Different people are telling stories, and I think that is indicative of the time we are living in right now.”</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h3>Related</h3>

<h3><a href="https://variety.com/video/eighth-grade-elsie-fisher-sundance-interview/">Gucci! How 'Eighth Grade' Got Their Catch Phrase</a></h3>

<h3><a href="https://variety.com/2018/film/news/arrow-nabs-lords-of-chaos-for-u-k-black-metal-movie-set-for-early-2019-u-s-release-exclusive-1202976818/">Arrow Nabs 'Lords of Chaos' for U.K., Black Metal Movie Set for Early 2019 U.S. Release (EXCLUSIVE)</a></h3>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>When asked why Sundance fares so much better than Venice in this regard, festival director <a href="https://variety.com/t/john-cooper/">John Cooper</a> jokes, “You would have to ask Venice,” explaining that auteur-driven festivals (those who program films by more established directorial voices) reflect the historic barriers to entry for women. “At Sundance, we are all about discovery. The Venice competition rarely [includes] first-time filmmakers, so with that alone, you’re getting into different percentages as you go back in years.”</p>

<p>Worth noting: The lone woman director in Venice’s competition was Australian helmer <a href="https://variety.com/t/jennifer-kent/">Jennifer Kent</a>, whose debut feature, “The Babadook,” premiered at Sundance in 2014. Her new movie, “The Nightingale,” will have its North American premiere in Sundance’s Spotlight section. More significant still, 45 of the features screening in Park City were made by first-time directors. “There’s more new faces,” Cooper said, predicting, “I think it’s going to be vital to the culture and more exhilarating in the discovery.”</p>

<p>In order to make sense of those figures, Sundance also shares the statistics behind the films that were submitted (whereas Toronto, which boasted 35% women directors in 2018, does not divulge information on the films it rejects). Sundance received a record high number of submissions this year: 4,018 feature-length films, among an overall pool of 14,259, which includes shorts, episodic, and less-traditional work. Among the features received, the majority (2,251) were international, 35% were directed by one or more women, 45% directed by filmmakers of color, and 13% by people who identify as LGBTQIA — indicating that the selections reflect the distribution of filmmakers submitting fairly closely, with a slightly higher percentage of women accepted.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>One thing the numbers don’t tell — and which audiences, critics and the industry will have to discover for themselves when they see the lineup in January — is the more nuanced sense of how this year’s stories differ from those Sundance has spotlighted before. According to Yutani, that’s the direct result of changes to the programming team, with the goal being to assemble “a team of people who have different perspectives,” she said. “We all have different things that we gravitate to or look for in films, and that’s what brings our program to a really interesting place. If you go down each of the sections, there are so many different kinds of voices, and that reflects who is choosing the films.”</p>

<p>In the U.S. dramatic competition, audiences will find women directors telling men’s stories — as in Alma Har’el’s “Honey Boy,” being <a href="https://variety.com/t/shia-labeouf/">Shia LaBeouf</a>’s unclear-how-autobiographical tale of a child actor’s strained relationship with his father (a role Shia plays himself) — and male directors telling female stories, such as body image dramedy “Brittany Runs a Marathon” or “Gook” director Justin Chon’s second feature, “Ms. Purple.”</p>

<p>Many of the competition stories feature non-white protagonists, from modern-day Richard Wright adaptation “Native Son” to Julius Onah’s “Luce,” about a white couple who adopt a former African child soldier. “Blockers” scene-stealer Geraldine Viswanathan stars in Minhal Baig’s Muslim-American coming-of-ager “Hala,” while mixed-race newcomer Rhianne Barreto carries Pippa Bianco’s topical “Share,” one of three A24 releases in competition, this one about a cheerleader troubled by a video that goes viral after a party where she blacked out.</p>

<p>According to Cooper, the common thread in this year’s lineup is “the whole notion of empowerment, of rising to the challenge, and the role truth plays in that.” Although most of this year’s selections aren’t overtly political — apart from such clear exceptions as Petra Costa’s untitled Brazilian impeachment doc, Matt Tyrnauer’s “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” and grassroots election doc “Knock Down the House” — Cooper identified a recurring theme of overcoming disenfranchisement and outsiders/immigrants finding their voices. “I think maybe that’s a reaction to the time we live in, a time when you feel a little powerless or overburdened by what going on in the world,” he said.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>One other trend that Yutani wanted to accentuate was the payoff to a slow-but-steady effort to attract strong international films for the festival’s global competition categories — something Yutani described as a personal goal since she started as a features programmer at Sundance 10 years ago. “We’ve really achieved something special this year,” she said. “It’s a combination of filmmakers who are known on the international film festival circuit, people like Joanna Hogg and Gabriel Mascaro and Johannes Nyholm, but also films that are pure discovery, like our Day One film, ‘The Last Tree.’”</p>

<p>So, while quality is any festival’s first concern, to some extent, inclusion is a deliberate initiative at Sundance. That’s especially true at the level of the nonprofit Sundance Institute, which operates the festival, and whose year-round programs — filmmaker labs, fellowships, and mentorship programs — are designed to encourage female, youth, and Native storytellers.</p>

<p>Still, when it comes to selecting films to screen in Park City, the festival has a different challenge from studios, producers, and the parties that greenlight movies in the first place: “We only show the films that were made,” Cooper said. “We’re not making films or telling people how to put together their teams.” And if there appear to be a disproportionate number of HBO- or Netflix-produced films in this year’s lineup — a by-now-standard criticism — Cooper explained that it’s essentially a testament to those companies’ policies of supporting visionary films from diverse voices. “We’re curators. We help films find audiences, but we’re only as good as what is submitted,” he said.</p>
