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You might think that given his long and varied career, Golden Globe winner Nicolas Cage would be a festival veteran from the early days of Sundance. But when we sat down with the actor at the Mustang Restaurant to talk about Mandy, a violent revenge film playing here in the Midnight section, we learned the surprising news that he is, in fact, a newcomer to the country’s foremost film festival.

Golden Globe winner Idris Elba, steps off the van accompanying him to our interview  wearing a long mouton coat to protect himself from the Park City cold. The 45-year-old British actor is at the Sundance Film Festival with his directorial debut, Yardie, in competition in the World Cinema section.

Andrew Heckler’s directorial debut, Burden, was twenty years in the making but, as the writer-director said, it seems more relevant now than it was in the nineties, when the actual story of Klansman repudiating a life of hate took place in South Carolina. It's not by the film’s linear though compact structure or straightforward photography by Jeremy Rouse that provokes interest,  but the fact that racism is examined through the eyes of a Ku Klux Klansman, who finds himself in a classic dilemma, torn between the woman he falls in love with and the community that raised him.

“There are two kinds of pity,” said Babis Makridis the Greek director returning to Sundance for the second time. “The pity we feel towards someone else that makes us feel like we are good people, and the pity we receive, which also makes us feel good.

It would have been topical enough to make a movie about child molestation involving a sports coach, given, among other things, the recent revelations of the abuse suffered by dozens of young gymnasts which have roiled the US Olympic team. But Jennifer Fox’s The Tale (US Dramatic Competition) is also an amazingly layered, nuanced and powerful film on a difficult and painful subject.

This weekend Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle brushed off new comers 12 Strong and Den of Thieves, taking the domestic top spot one more time with $20. 4 million.

In 2012 British filmmaker Bart Layton presented his documentary The Imposter at Sundance. It ended up winning a BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut later that year.

Gus Van Sant, director of Golden Globe winning films Good Will Hunting (screenplay for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) and To Die For (best actress for Nicole Kidman) and Milk.

Festival goers packed the Sundance TV lounge on Main Street as the HFPA hosted the Women Breaking Barriers panel in association with Sundance Institute and Sundance TV Saturday. HFPA journalist Elisabeth Sereda moderated the discussion and opened the proceedings announcing a $50.

As part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will continue to host special events, this time at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The HFPA will host a special “Women Breaking Barriers” panel featuring accomplished women from various fields in the film industry, moderated by HFPA member Elisabeth Sereda.