Partying in the snow is back! So are the long lines in the freezing cold. And for the couch potatoes among us, there’s always online watching. All of this is good because it signals a return to normal after the past two years.

Sundance 2023 has a lot to offer in its year of return. Having never suffered from a lack of diversity, the festival starts today with a variety of genres in different sections: a documentary about the Indigo Girls, It’s Only Life After All, and one about Little Richard, the features Radical by Christopher Zalla, starring Eugenio Derbez and Jennifer Trejo, and Sometimes I Think About About Dying with Daisy Ridley, the world cinema documentary The Longest Goodbye and The Pod Generation, screening in the Premieres section, which has been named the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. (This is an annual award given to an artist with the most outstanding depiction of science and technology in a feature film.)

In addition, director Ryan Coogler will be presented with the inaugural Sundance Institute Variety Visionary Award, and Luca Guadagnino will receive the Sundance Institute International Icon Award. Vanguard award honorees include W. Kamau Bell for nonfiction and the Indigo Girls will perform live. 

Sundance 2023 runs from January 19 to 29 and over the ten days, 12 feature films are having their world premieres. The Dramatic Competition offers audiences a first look at groundbreaking new voices in American independent film. The largely absent A-list talent has been noted by several publications, mostly in a positive way since major stars (mostly starring in studio productions) have often diverted all the attention away from worthy newcomers in indie films, exactly the kind the festival was originally founded to help launch. As Sundance Festival president Robert Redford said “maintaining an essential place for artists to express themselves, take risks, and for visionary stories to endure and entertain is distinctly Sundance. The festival continues to foster these values and connections through independent storytelling. We are honored to share the compelling selection of work at this year’s Festival from distinct perspectives and unique voices.”

The dark psychological thriller Eileen stars  Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie. Booksmart co-writer Susanna Fogel’s big screen version of Cat Person has CODA’s Emilia Jones and Succession’s Nicholas Braun in the leads. Writer-director Nicole Holofcener returns with her first film at this festival since 2010 with the marriage comedy You Hurt My Feelings starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a writer whose husband does not appreciate her craft. Greta Lee, who as a supporting character stole the scene in Girls and Russian Doll gets to be the lead in the romantic drama Past Lives. Jonathan Majors of recent Devotion fame plays a temperamental bodybuilder in Magazine Dreams. And Jennifer Connelly leads the cast in the dark comedy Bad Behaviour, the directing debut of Alice Englert, who is the daughter of multiple award-winning director and past Sundance jury president Jane Campion.

In the documentary section, we look forward to films about two iconic women, Brooke Shields (Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields) and trailblazing model, agent and activist Bethann Hardison (Invisible Beauty) for which Gucci is sponsoring the party.

Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming spoke of the importance of artists being able to come together to tell impactful stories.

“In so many ways this year’s slate reflects the voices of communities around the world who are speaking out with urgency and finally being heard. Across our program, impactful storytelling by fearless artists continues to provide space for the community to come together to be entertained, challenged, and inspired,” she said.

Aside from films there also will be a slew of panels, the female-led Native social justice organization IllumiNative is debuting its Indigenous House on Main Street and parties at Tao featuring Diplo, DJ sets by Mel Debarge and Rachel Winters, and a Chase Sound Check performance by DJ Pee .Wee, aka Anderson .Paak.  

This year’s jury consists of Jeremy O. Harris, Eliza Hittman, and Marlee Matlin for U.S. Dramatic Competition; W. Kamau Bell, Ramona Diaz, and Carla Gutierrez for U.S. Documentary Competition; Shozo Ichiyama, Annemarie Jacir, and Funa Maduka for World Cinema Dramatic Competition; and Karim Amer, Petra Costa, and Alexander Nanau for World Cinema Documentary Competition; Madeleine Olnek for the NEXT competition section; Destin Daniel Cretton, Marie-Louise Khondji, and Deborah Stratman for the Short Film Program Competition.