Exit
HE SUNDANCE Film Festival is interesting because it’s
such a crapshoot. By the time
the Toronto International
Film Festival comes around, there’s a
pretty solid consensus about what’s going to be good (Argo and Silver Linings
Playbook were “must sees” before I even
boarded my flight last September). Sure,
there’s pre-festival buzz at Sundance,
but it’s not terribly reliable. It’s kind
of like watching a large group of minor
league baseball players vie for a shot at
the major leagues. We might know a bit
about how they performed in high school
T
FILM
HUFFINGTON
01.27.13
or college, and we can be pretty sure they
know how to hit and field, but chances
are only a few of them have what it takes
to make it in the pros.
Last year, the star prospect to come out
of Sundance was Oscar-nominated Beasts
of the Southern Wild, a movie that wasn’t
even on our radar at this time last year.
We picked up on the buzz following its
first Sundance screening and immediately
knew it was something special. Ahead are
seven films that piqued our interest at
Sundance — perhaps, like Beasts of the
Southern Wild, there’s a future
Oscar nominee on this list.
PREVIOUS PAGE: ARI PERILSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES; THIS PAGE; RACHEL MORRISON
FRUITVALE
Fruitvale is the name
of a station along
the Bay Area Rapid
Transit system.
It's also the place
where a police officer
shot and killed
an unarmed man
named Oscar Grant
(played by Michael
B. Jordan) early on
New Year's Day in
2009. Fruitvale,
which The Weinstein
Company picked up,
shows how Grant,
a troubled man of
just 22, was finally
getting his life
together on the day
it ended. The final
act, which we know
is coming (the reallife