film

Hailing from Tennessee, forty year-old writer-director Dee Rees received one of the festival’s warmest receptions this year with Mudbound. The film is a tale of love, heartbreak and friendship set against the Jim Crow South, in the aftermath of the Second World War (when indignities against returning African Americans began to really underscore the injustice of segregation).

Shortly after the premiere of Mudbound word spread in Park City that the film includes one of Carey Mulligan’s best performances. The Golden Globe nominated actress plays Laura, the wife of a man who buys a country property in the segregated South.

Nobody can bring a spark of humor and a healthy helping of down-to-earth like Salma Hayek. Whether at glitzy awards shows or glamorous film festivals, you can count on the jet setting Mexican actress to take the proceedings in stride and with the signature cheekiness which makes her hands down the dinner party guest you most want to sit next to.

Just ahead of the blizzard, which blanketed Park City with three feet of snow (testing even the most veteran festivalgoers) a welcome touch of cinematic class blew in from Europe in the form of Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. The Italian director is no stranger to Park City having shown his I Am Love here five years ago.

For all its well-earned reputation as a showcase for edgy indie fare, Sundance has been known to screen some great comedies through the years. This year The Big Sick filled that bill and then some.

Before hitting the Hollywood big time with her roles in Godzilla and her turns as Scarlett Witch in Marvel’s Captain America franchise, Elizabeth Olsen was a Sundance darling. In movies like Silent House, Liberal Arts and especially her tour-de-force main role in Martha, Marcy, Mae Marlene, the young actress was practically mentored in Park City.

With over 12,000 submissions from 32 countries (8,000 shorts alone!), programming the biggest independent festival in the world is no small task. At the helm of that enterprise is John Cooper who oversees hundreds of screenings in dozens of venues in a small town, which swells with 40,000 movie fans aided by more than 1,300 volunteers.

A snowstorm arrived, as predicted. Temperatures dipped into the 20s.

There is no question that director Garry Marshall, 81, who brought us Pretty Woman (four Golden Globe nominations in 1990, and a Globe for Best Comedy actress Julia Roberts), Runaway Bride (1999), The Princess Diaries franchise (2001-2004), Valentine's Day (2010), New Year's Eve (2011), and now Mother's Day, loves to celebrate women. He is in fact unabashed in his praise: “Women are more interesting than men,” he says.

A book by Alice Munro, Runaway, appeared in the hands of Elena Anaya in a scene from Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I live In (2011). That same book, and specifically three of its stories, have inspired the script of Julieta, the latest film from the Spanish filmmaker.