Besides Jennifer Lopez, who attended the festival premiere of her film Kiss of the Spider Woman, the A-listers were notably absent, and this brought the temperature down on the red carpet, along with freezing conditions and heavy snowfall on opening weekend. But that didn’t stop the huge crowds of movie lovers from lining up in the snow for sold-out screenings, parties and pop-up lounges from corporate sponsors like Audible, Chase, Acura and United.
MiNDFOOD was based at the Music Lodge lounge, celebrating its 20th year at the top of Park City’s Main Street with live music, Wellness sponsors and a fireside VIP lounge where we greeted stars from this year’s most buzzed-about projects; including John Lithgow (Jimpa), Jon Hamm (Audible series The Big Fix), Alison Brie & Dave Franco (Together), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You) and Marlee Matlin (Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore). Matlin’s film Coda was the 2018 hit of the festival before winning the Best Picture Academy Award a year later. But the actress paused when asked if that film had created more opportunities for deaf actors and filmmakers. “That was four years ago,” she said through her interpreter, “and can you think of any other movie since then we’ve all seen?” She made her point.
A healthy crop of Australians, both veterans and first-timers, showed up at the festival to support their films. Aussies Rose Byrne and Danielle MacDonald both have long histories with Sundance and co-star in the dark comedy If I Had legs, I’d Kick You. “It was so thrilling to come back here,” Byrne said, pointing out that her first Sundance visit was in 1999, when her small Aussie film Two Hands premiered there with co-star Heath Ledger. “This is my fourth time in Sundance, and I feel like this movie is not necessarily a typical Sundance movie because it’s a very immersive, experiential kind of thing. But I love the movie and I’m proud of it, so it feels magical flying in through the mountains and snow to be here.”
Rose had just come from another event where she’d had a chance meeting with former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern (featured in the Sundance documentary Prime Minister). “I was in a holding suite looking at this woman who looked like Jacinda Ardern and then she turned around and I was freaking out because it was really her,” she says. “I was like, ‘what are you doing here’ but seeing her reminded me of everything she brought to that role while having a baby in office and raising a child. It’s those women that I want to engage with and find out more about their experience because I feel like I’m still learning, both as a mother and a woman.”
Danielle Macdonald also has a special connection with Sundance, starting with one of her first films, The East, premiering there in 2013. “Every time I come back to Sundance it’s kind of like coming home. I’ve also been a part of the Sundance labs twice and this is my fourth movie here as part of the festival,” she adds. “In 2017, I had a film called Patty Cakes come out here after I workshopped it during the Sundance labs and that was really my breakout, so Sundance is very special to me.”
Other Australians promoting films included Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams), Geraldine Viswanathan (Oh, Hi!), first-time director Michael Shanks (Together, starring husband-and-wife actors Dave Franco and Alison Brie in the film which was shot in Melbourne) and filmmaker Sophie Hyde and her non-binary teenager, Aud Morgan-Hyde, starring in Jimpa (shot in Australia and three other countries), with John Lithgow and Olivia Coleman. Sophie Hyde, who directed the acclaimed 2022 film, Good Luck To You Leo Grande, starring Emma Thompson, described this film as her most personal. “I started writing the film in 2020 and it was a response to my dad passing away and Aud was growing into their LGBT queer identity and wanting to talk about that more, so I wanted to put them in a room together (Jimpa was a term of endearment for grandfather Jim) and write a film about that idea,” Sophie says. “As soon as Olivia Coleman came on board, it became this huge mission to get it made and we haven’t stopped until we arrived here and screened it for the first time.”
Another popular attraction for festivalgoers at Sundance is the proliferation of pop-up lounges full of swag. The Music Lodge curated a ‘Wellness’ theme, with complimentary biohacks including anti-ageing body contouring, IV drips and a portable hyperbaric oxygen chamber especially perfect for L.A. natives looking to clear out their smoky lungs. Danielle Macdonald first opted to visit the folks at the REclinic to get a NAD+ shot and check out information on CellSound Aesthetics, a medical device company which says it uses ultrasound waves and a patented electro-stimulation field to deliver results without pain or downtime. She also listened intently to OxyHealth owner Hans Holborn talk about new scientific studies showing the hyperbaric chamber’s remarkable healing qualities after surgery, and how Jim Carrey was an early adapter, regularly climbing into the chamber to use the oxygen flow to his brain to learn lines faster.
Aussie director Michael Shanks was so intrigued, he was encouraged by his leading actor, Dave Franco, to climb right into the chamber after their joint interview for a thirty-minute session. “This will cure your altitude sickness,” Franco assured him, “just do it.” Thirty minutes later, a refreshed Shanks leapt out of the chamber and was ready to face the rest of his snowy press day.
