Sundance Hot List: A Jennifer Lopez Musical and a Dev Patel Horror Top Sales Titles at Sundance

There’s a feeling that this year’s Sundance Film Fest will be business as usual, whatever “usual” may mean in this post-pandemic, post-strikes and post-M&A moment — and now the L.A. wildfires.

The tech giants, which long have pared back their festival buying sprees, are starting to differentiate themselves among sellers as either being theatrically friendly (Amazon) and not-so-much (Apple, Netflix). As for what’s on sale heading into this year’s Sundance, there are decidedly fewer commercial offerings compared to last year’s action comedy Thelma, the ghost story Presence and the coming-of-age title My Old Ass. Nonetheless, there are a few splashy titles at this year’s market, including the latest musical from Bill Condon (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Justin Lin’s return to indie filmmaking (Last Days) and plenty (like, a lot) of potential breakouts from first-time feature filmmakers.

THR looks at 10 titles likely to entice buyers on the mountain.

IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY

DIRECTOR Amy Berg

BUZZ While the music bio-doc is well-tread doc territory (that has been very trodden over the past five years), Berg’s doc offers insight into the beloved Buckley through the women in his life, including his mother. The use of unreleased personal voicemails further sets it apart from a standard non-fiction portrait.

REP Submarine

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN

DIRECTOR Bill Condon

STARS Diego Luna, Jennifer Lopez

BUZZ Musicals are rare at Sundance, but even rarer is one from the director of studio hits like Chicago and Dreamgirls. An adaptation of the Broadway show (which is based on the Manuel Puig novel), the film, arguably the most high-profile sales title at the fest, follows two cellmates in a South American prison who form an unlikely bond. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity is producing.

SALES CAA, WME

LAST DAYS

DIRECTOR Justin Lin

STARS Sky Yang, Radhika Apte

BUZZ Lin is back in Park City for the first time since his breakout film, Better Luck Tomorrow, bowed at Sundance in 2002. After years working on the Fast & Furious franchise, Lin shifts gears with this drama based on the true story of John Allen Chau, a Christian missionary who travels to the isolated North Sentinel Island. Naveen Andrews and Ken Leung also star.

SALES CAA

MIDDLETOWN

DIRECTORS Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine

BUZZ The duo behind the 2020 Sundance favorite Boys State are back at the fest with a doc that sounds like it’s equal parts Scooby-Doo and Erin Brockovich: The film tells the story of a group of teens in the ’90s who make a student film for their journalism class and end up uncovering a conspiracy involving toxic waste in their community.

SALES Submarine

OH, HI

DIRECTOR Sophie Brooks

STARS Logan Lerman, Molly Gordon

BUZZ This deconstructed rom-com about the strange rituals of millennial romance could be the indie answer to all of those binge-able Netflix offerings. Lerman, the internet’s favorite boyfriend, stars alongside The Bear breakout Gordon as a new couple on the obligatory weekend getaway when things take an unexpected turn. Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds co-star.

SALES UTA, WME

PETER HUJAR’S DAY

DIRECTOR Ira Sachs

STARS Ben Whishaw, Rebecca Hall

BUZZ After his 2023 Sundance title Passages became one of the year’s critical darlings, Sachs’ follow-up should interest buyers, coming in at a brisk 75 minutes. In a true two-hander, Whishaw (who starred in Passages) plays famed New York photographer Hujar, with Hall playing his friend, author Linda Rosenkrantz. The film is based on a recently discovered 1974 conversation between the two.

SALES WME, SBS

RABBIT TRAP

DIRECTOR Bryn Chainey

STARS Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen

BUZZ In recent years, international Midnight section offerings like Talk to Me have proved to be among the most popular titles at the fest. This year could be no different thanks to this supernatural horror about two musicians who move to a remote house in Wales (never a great idea) only to awaken an ancient supernatural force while recording an album.

SALES CAA, Bankside

REBUILDING

DIRECTOR Max Walker-Silverman

STARS Josh O’Connor

BUZZ Challengers star O’Connor leads the latest from the director behind the superb 2022 relationship drama A Love Song, playing a rancher who needs to rebuild after a wildfire (the L.A. fires could make the title especially timely). Rebuilding offers a chance to grab an O’Connor title — he has a Steven Spielberg project and a Knives Out movie on the way — before he joins the blockbuster world (think Paul Mescal, pre-Gladiator II).

SALES CAA

RICKY

DIRECTOR Rashad Frett

STARS Stephan James, Sheryl Lee Ralph

BUZZ Frett has turned his 2023 Sundance short film into a feature, with James starring as a 30-year-old adjusting to his release from prison, where he has been held since he was a teen. Films examining lives in and around the carceral system, like Sing Sing and the doc Daughters, are current awards hopefuls.

SALES WME

SORRY BABY

DIRECTOR Eva Victor

STARS Victor, Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges

BUZZ Victor, who is best known for her online comedy videos from the late 2010s, pulls off the writer-director-star gambit with this drama-comedy set in New England academia. Barry Jenkins is among the film producers, along with Aftersun outfit Tango.

SALES UTA, Charades

THE THING WITH FEATHERS

DIRECTOR Dylan Southern

STARS Benedict Cumberbatch

BUZZ Based on Max Porter’s 2015 novella Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, this drama stars awards season perennial Cumberbatch as a recently widowed father of two young sons who, while still processing the sudden death of his wife, begins to feel stalked by a malevolent presence.

SALES UTA, MK2

TOGETHER

DIRECTOR Michael Shanks

STARS Alison Brie, Dave Franco

BUZZ Starring real-life couple Brie and Franco, this Midnight selection examines codependency through the lens of a thriller. The film follows a couple who, after moving to the countryside, have a supernatural encounter that tests their relationship. Damon Herriman also stars.

SALES WME

TRAIN DREAMS

DIRECTOR Clint Bentley

STARS Joel Edgerton, Kerry Condon, Felicity Jones

BUZZ The filmmaking team behind current awards contender Sing Sing is back with their biggest swing to date, a Dennis Johnson adaptation that follows a railroad laborer in Washington state as he navigates life and loss. It’s a decades-spanning epic with an auteur bend.

SALES WME

This story appeared in the Jan. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.