Festivals

Women left their mark on the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, taking the Grand Jury Prize - The Miseducation of Cameron Post, directed by Desiree Akhavan- and all directing awards on each category: U. S.

A champion of independent cinema, Golden Globe nominee Ethan Hawke is a regular at Sundance, but this year was special for him. He was in Park City with Juliet, Naked, Jesse Peretz's romantic comedy about a woman (Rose Byrne) who breaks up her long relationship with an obsessed fan of retired rocker Tucker Crowe, only to start a romance with the idol himself (played by Hawke).

With his salt and pepper beard and some lines of time on his still handsome face, British actor Rupert Everett, 58, still possesses a matinee idol look.   He's one of the first Hollywood stars to come out as a gay man and enjoying a sizable and durable career.

In an alternate universe, all filmmakers would happily dwell in a world like Sundance, removed from market pressures, a place where art precedes commerce. Visiting the Festival again after many years, I didn’t know what to expect.

Marc Turtletaub is a veteran producer who's no stranger to Sundance having been here with films like Sunshine Cleaning, Our Idiot Brother, Safety Not Guaranteed and of course Little Miss Sunshine. (Big Beach, the production company he heads, also has the animated version of Jack London’s White Fang and The Miseducation of Cameron Post showing in Park City this year).

In 1987, the alternative band REM released the song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It. ” That title could well encapsulate cinema’s enduring fascination with our own demise.

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.