Sundance 2019 Lineup: Lots of Promising Topics and Great Actresses

The Sundance Film Festival runs January 24th through February 3rd next year. Let's look at the five of the key program lineups in brief. Which films are you most excited about. TFE might be going this year, we're not yet sure.

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Alfred Woodard stars in "Clemency"

16 World Premieres will be competing for the Sundance crown (won last year by The Miseducation of Cameron Post). The new crop is all writer/directors (except where noted) and Sundance has been very careful about diversity, noting in their press release that the US dramatic competition section is 53% female directors, 41% directors of color and 18% LGBTQ directors. But they had a ton to choose from which helps with diversity. There was a record number of submissions for the 2019 festival with 4,018 features hoping to be selected, 1767 if those made from within the US...

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Soundtracking: "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

by Chris Feil

To some degree, The Nightmare Before Christmas feels like the bastard child of Disney’s animated musicals. Granted the film was originally released under the Touchstone label due to concerns of frightened children and timid brand alignment. But in the years since, it’s grown beyond its cult following into full Mouse House acceptance, certainly one of the most merchandised of its era and most revisited thanks to inherent traditions in its duel holiday premise. So why does its music not get discussed alongside its peers?

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Blueprints: "Halloween (1978)"

This week Jorge goes back to Haddonfield in 1978 for the 40th anniversary of a horror classic to look at how the original film establishes its point of view.

Every script has a point of view. Even movies with multiple protagonists, or whose perspectives change from scene to scene, we are experiencing the events through someone’s lens at any given moment; even if that person is not a character, but someone behind the camera guiding us to what we’re supposed to perceive.

But there are movies with a more literal point of view, where what we are seeing is exactly what one of the characters is. A literal POV is used sparingly in movies, but it’s a great tool to get the audience in the mindset and subjective state of a film. The opening of the original Halloween is told entirely through a POV shot, and though it is abandoned quickly, this sets up the dangerous mood and tone of a franchise that's continued for generations...

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Best Supporting Horror Performances?

BOO! Happy ongoing October. So last night we tossed out fav leading performance in horror movies list... and are now realizing it's just not complete without supporting performance. So herewith two more impromptu lists (mostly off the top of my head again) for discussion fun. 

10 Best Supporting Actresses in a Horror Film

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Soundtracking: "The Omen"

by Chris Feil

Remember that time worshipping the devil got an Oscar nomination? And in Best Original Song no less? No, I’m not talking about The Greatest Showman last year, I’m talking about when The Omen made hell on musical earth with “Ave Satani”. In its Latin lyrics, the song hails the risen body of Satan, the coming Antichrist, and drinking blood. Yeah, this bonkers nomination totally happened.

I mean, how often does a musical composition meet the Venn diagram of approval from Anton LaVey (one assumes) and the Academy? Unsurprisingly, it's kind of rare. Unless the notorious founder of the Church of Satan is secretly super into Diane Warren.

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