The Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City after a two-year virtual hiatus and that means the in-person awards ceremony returned as well. Well, sorta.
21.01.2023 - 12:03 / deadline.com
Written and directed by Nida Manzoor, Polite Society stars Priya Kansara (Bridgerton), Ritu Arya (Umbrella Academy) and Nimra Bucha (Disney+ Ms. Marvel). The Focus Features movie had its world premiere Friday in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival.
The movie begins with Ria (Kansara), a Pakistani teenager in a karate class. She’s a purple belt who is serious about honing her skills to become a stunt woman. She records YouTube videos of her home training and recites the line “I am the fury.” Her older sister Lena (Ayra) is an art school dropout who mopes around her parents’ house and often helps Ria record her videos. Ria is obsessed with professional stunt woman Eunice Huthart, who she frequently emails but never receives a response.
Ria and her two friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) attend a private all-girls school where they are constantly picked on by a girl name Kovacs (Shona Babayemi). The bullying reaches fever pitch until both Ria and Kovacs begin wire-fu fighting on school property. Ria’s parents Fatima (Shobu Kapoor) and Rafe (Jeff Mirza) are working folks who expect their daughters to become doctors, lawyers or anything but an artist or stunt woman. After the family attends an Eid Mubarak celebration at the home of Raheela (Bucha), a wealthy member of the Pakistani community, Ria rich discovers her sister is in the running to wed Raheela’s rich, geneticist son Salim (Akshay Khanna). The teenager senses something more sinister is at play, but with no evidence, what can she do? Anything in her power to make sure this marriage doesn’t happen.
Polite Society is a fun story about what happens when families are split between tradition and modernism, and how to find the balance
The Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City after a two-year virtual hiatus and that means the in-person awards ceremony returned as well. Well, sorta.
The Sundance Film Festival has begun unveiling its Jury and Audience Award winners for 2023.
Chief Productions Sets Kashmiri Beekeeping Doc ‘Pot of Gold’Chief Productions, the UK-based indie, today announced the production of a new documentary titled Pot of Gold in partnership with global humanitarian relief and development charity Human Appeal. The film marks the first fully foreign film to be shot in the mountainous region of Azad Kashmir in Pakistan. The film follows beekeeper Shakeel Khan who has committed his life to learn about the nature of bees and their delicate work. However, his story takes a turn following the impact of the most destructive earthquake the region has ever seen. The film is produced by Billy Offland and directed by Olivier Richomme. Colin Offland is Exec Producer, and Alan Hamilton is the writer. Colin Offland, CEO and executive producer at Chief Productions described the story as “poignant and distinctive.” He said: “It has been an eye-opening and fulfilling experience to be welcomed as the first fully foreign production team in Kashmir, and we’re grateful for the team at Human Appeal for allowing us to bring this story to the screen.”
Winter runway! Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and more stars took over Sundance Film Festival 2023 — and made the event all about their stylish ensembles.
Ria Khan (Priya Kansara, sparkling in her feature debut) likes to believe that she’s no ordinary British-Pakistani teenager. Her dreams, for instance, always seem outsized — she doesn’t just want to learn martial arts but rather perfect it so well that she can become a world-class professional stunt woman.
There is so much to appreciate about A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One. The film chronicles the lives of native New Yorkers from 1994-2005, which was a period of transition in NYC. The atmosphere began to change, as stop and frisk was over-utilized, gentrification was displacing the people of Harlem at rapid speed, and the culture of the city gave way to sterilization. Now there are even fewer resources available, the wage gap is beyond repair and it’s unaffordable. Rockwell drew inspiration from this and created a coming-of-age story about finding an identity and chosen family.
Theater Camp is a hilarious film by first time directors Molly Gordon (Booksmart), and Nick Lieberman. This was a collaborative effort between friends as it’s written by Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Nick Lieberman, and Noah Galvin. You can tell this is a labor of love because while it’s kooky, it’s full of vulnerability and earnestness.
The Persian Version, directed and written by Maryam Keshvarz stars Layla Mohammadi, and Niousha Noor as a mother and daughter at odds with one another.
EXCLUSIVE: Nielsen, the audience measurement, data and analytics organization unveiled today the findings of their case studies on Native content at a panel discussion in the Indigenous House at Sundance Film Festival, presented by , the Native woman-led social justice organization dedicated to building visibility and representation for Native peoples.
Magazine Dreams is a drama and second feature directed by Elijah Bynum, which stars Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett, Taylor Paige, and Harrison Page
So far nearly all the films I have been seeing for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival are based on true stories, from a teacher in Radical to a gay single father in San Francisco circa 70’s and 80’s to Michael J. Fox as himself, and now yet another iconic character gets his story told on the big screen. World Premiering at Sundance tonight is Cassandro, a wild story of the first openly gay wrestler in the ultra macho sport of Mexico’s Lucha Libre.
Emilia Jones earned a lot of attention as the star of 2021’s big Sundance winner and eventual Best Picture Oscar winner CODA, and the praise should be continuing this year as she not only stars in Cat People, but also Fairyland, which had its world premiere in Park City today.