Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival has always had a penchant for showcasing intimate dramas; bittersweet romances and a few peculiar narratives that can lead to quite heated cinematic discussions. But every so often a film bursts through the screen that engages the Park City audiences with nothing but pure joy and exuberance.

After a ferocious bidding war that burned through the night, Fox Searchlight acquired worldwide distribution rights to Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation for a record-setting $17. 5 million.

Nate Parker’s harrowing, moving and ultimately stirring The Birth of a Nation brought audiences to their feet at the Sundance premiere with the tale of Nat Turner’s doomed slave rebellion of 1831, an American Spartacus story that resonates loudly with current events. The significance of showing a movie titled The Birth of a Nation 100 years after D.

The Birth of a Nation. Directed by Nate Parker.

Love & Friendship. Whit Stillman, director.

Kerry Washington flew into Park City for just a few hours on Saturday night for an exclusive HBO dinner at new restaurant Tupelo on Main Street to promote her upcoming HBO film Confirmation. The actress stars as attorney and law professor Anita Hill, the former assistant of Clarence Thomas, who testified against him for sexual harassment at his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Actors talking about their craft can be either completely self-indulgent or wildly entertaining. This Sundance panel was luckily more the latter than the former thanks to the cast of characters participating in it: Viggo Mortensen, Thomas Middleditch, Diane Ladd, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rebecca Hall and John Krasinski.

“James Foley was an extraordinary, brave man. I think the film is a wonderful antidote to all the nonsense we hear in the world from ISIS, Donald Trump and the like.

Coming off his Golden Globe win (and an Academy Award nomination) for The Martian, the actor/ writer/ producer hit Sundance for a day, not to promote a new film but to create awareness for his charity project Water. org.

The normal routine at the 32nd edition of Sundance includes lines, music, more lines, films, some more lines and a big dip into virtual reality. All photos by Luca Celada/HFPA.