PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 21: (L–R) Actors Kęstutis Cicėnas and Greta Grinevičiūtė, Director Marija Kavtaradze and Producer Marija Razgute attend the 2023 Sundance Film Festival “Slow” Premiere at The Ray Theatre on January 21, 2023 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

By Aliese Muhonen

One day, the tall, handsome sign language interpreter Dovydas walks into the pretty, free-spirited modern dancer Elena’s studio. He’s there to work as a translator for a dance class she’s teaching to deaf students, but he immediately finds additional motivation to show up: From the moment guy meets girl, they click. But not in a syrupy, rom-com kind of way. This is a real-feeling slow burn, driven by mutual curiosity.

Their conversations are easy, their chemistry undeniable. They linger after the classes to walk together, talking about everything and nothing. Both suspect they have something special.

While Elena’s dance colleagues are skeptical of her new paramour’s significance — her flings tend to last a month at the most — she rebuffs them. “I have a weird feeling,” she says, “that I’ve known him for ages.” And every time he leaves, she misses it. 

As their attraction grows, the time comes for a define-the-relationship talk. That’s when Dovydas drops a figurative bomb (at least to Elena): He’s asexual, and doesn’t experience physical attraction to anyone. 

A touching romantic drama exploring intimacy (and not just the kind you’re thinking of), Slow is a thoughtful, sensuous meditation on learning to connect in an atypical relationship. The Lithuanian film premiered January 21 in the World Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

Historically, asexuality has been as misunderstood in the film world as it is in real life. There’s a lack of representation in creative media, and the limited portrayals available are often negative or inaccurate; too many stories feature tropes that the condition isn’t permanent and can be “fixed.” 

Director Marija Kavtaradze hopes to change that. “I had so many questions of my own about their relationship, so I knew that I [could] write it because it was interesting for me to go into that process,” she says at the post-premiere Q&A. “I had to read a lot, and had [conversations] with asexual people who answered questions. … I thought if we overexplained it, maybe it wouldn’t be believable for their story.”

Slow is indeed believable, with naturalistic, compelling performances from the two leads and an artful production. With a minimalist storyline — the couples’ defining (and redefining) their relationship forms the majority of the film’s plot and conflict — there’s additional pressure on the actors to form characters that are intriguing and authentic. And Greta Grinevičiūtė (Elena) and Kęstutis Cicėnas (Dovydas) deliver. 

Elena is the embodiment of sensuality as an intuitive modern dancer. Freewheeling in her movements and love life, she’s doubtful at first that she can be with someone who’s not sexually attracted to her, and Dovydas is unsure he can meet her physical needs. But they&r

PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 18: Jane Schoenbrun introduces the 2024 Sundance Film Festival “I Saw the TV Glow” premiere at the Library Center Theatre in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Chad Salvador/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)

By Annie Lyons

Time blurs at the edges in I Saw the TV Glow, washed away by the neon pink gleam of a television screen, the green tint of a fish tank, and fluorescents casting a chilly light on the produce aisle. Starting in 1996 and spanning decades, the visually striking Midnight film chronicles Owen’s (Justice Smith) shifting connection to Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and The Pink Opaque, the late-night television show about two demon-fighting teenagers that they mutually obsess over. The years seem to move all too fast. 

“When you’re trans, your perception of time is specific,” writer-director Jane Schoenbrun shares before the film’s January 18 premiere at the Library Center Theatre in Park City, Utah. “I remember when I wrote this film, I had been on hormones, I think for three months, and was dealing with the overwhelming calamity of blowing up your life in such a way that you have to when you come out. [I was] reappraising what reality is, what home is, what family is, and really wanting to put something on the page that could really articulate what I was experiencing in that moment. 

“But by the time we got to production like a year later, I was just walking on sunshine,” they say with a smile. “I was really good in my body and surrounded by amazing people and getting this opportunity to make something, and I remember feeling like I need to honor who I was when I wrote the script but I also need to honor who I am now. A year-plus later, being here in this room with all of you is incredibly moving. This too is part of that journey and change, and the film now will exist.” Schoenbrun’s emotion is met with resounding applause. 

During the film’s post-premiere discussion, Schoenbrun expands on their creative process and how they muse over why something obsesses them for years and then they uncover a new project very fast. “This time, it was something about the TV shows of my youth and growing up in the suburbs, and loving those shows so much, maybe to the detriment of reality,” the writer-director says. “And the way that my understanding of this random place where I had been dropped into existence was so intertwined with what the TV shows were selling me about what youth was supposed to be.” 

That personal inspiration resounds deeply with Owen and Maddy’s own bond with The Pink Opaque. Owen feels increasingly at odds with himself, but finds solace in his near-ritualistic viewings of the VHS tapes that Maddy makes him. One day, Maddy, struggling with an abusive homelife, abruptly disappears. When the pair reconnect years later, there’s something troubling about Owen’s memories. 

Schoenbrun’s directorial debut, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, premiered at the 2021 Festival in th

Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) develop an eerie connection to a supernatural TV show in Jane Schoebrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow.” 

By Lucy Spicer

There’s a special kind of excitement in the air at Sundance Institute in the lead-up to summertime. Lab season has officially kicked off with this year’s Native Lab (check out the announcement of the 2024 fellows for the Native Lab as well as the Directors and Screenwriters Labs here), and we can’t wait to see the unique stories being developed by these emerging independent artists. But, in the meantime, we’re celebrating the projects at international events like Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 and the upcoming edition of Sundance Film Festival: London. And, of course, we’re heading to theaters (or to fire up streaming services from the couch) to check out the newest batch of Sundance-supported releases.

This month’s theater offerings include two creative takes on the horror genre, an atypical love story, and a comedy noir from Richard Linklater based on the unbelievable true tale of a fake hit man. Documentary fans can enjoy three new releases from the comfort of home: an innovative meditation on hearing and sound, a visual essay on the history of policing in the U.S., and a three-part series about the history and impact of the legendary Lollapalooza music festival.

I Saw the TV Glow — Were you obsessed with a certain TV show as a kid? We joke about pieces of media “becoming our whole personality” during our youth, but how often do we consider the identity-shaping consequences of immersing ourselves in a fictional world? The unsettling power of fandom and nostalgia drives writer-director Jane Schoebrun’s new decade-spanning horror film, which premiered in the Midnight section of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Owen (portrayed by Ian Foreman and Justice Smith) is trudging through childhood in suburbia when older classmate Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) introduces him to a late-night supernatural TV show that changes his life. In the years that follow, Owen’s and Maddy’s memories of the show bring up questions about what was real and what was fiction. Arriving in theaters May 3.

Slow — When sign language interpreter Dovydas (Kęstutis Cicėnas) meets dancer Elena (Greta Grinevičiūtė), their connection is instant. The pair’s chemistry only grows as they get to know one another. When their relationship approaches new territory, Dovydas reveals that he is asexual, throwing free-spirited Elena for a loop. Unwilling to relinquish their newfound connection, Dovydas and Elena explore what emotional intimacy means for them. Writer-director Marija Kavtaradzė’s poetic and insightful story Read more

Even though we’ve been doing this for over 40 years, a spark of excitement rushes through us whenever we reveal the fellows for this year’s labs. It might be because these fresh fellows are joining the ranks of Paul Thomas Anderson, Lulu Wang, Sterlin Harjo, the Daniels, Ryan Coogler, Taika Watiti, A.V. Rockwell, Quentin Tarantino, Ira Sachs, and so many more iconic storytellers. The rush this year also might be due to the fact that these profound and indescribable forays into the world of the purely creative are happening right now.

The 2024 spring/summer labs season is kicking off this morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with the start of the Native Lab. This is directly followed by the Directors Lab at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, and then the Screenwriters Lab in early June online.

Below get a brief introduction to each of the 2024 fellows, click here for more information about this year’s labs including the creative advisors for each, and stay tuned for more stories from the labs this spring and summer.

The 2024 Native Lab fellows

Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Writer-Director) with Hum (Philippines, U.S.A.): Haunted by the six-year absence of her missing husband, Esther, a single mother who works as a tour guide for mountaineers, embarks on her own treacherous journey of searching for him in the jungle where he had retreated to live with the beasts.

Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan is a filmmaker from the Philippines. Eblahan’s works explore  themes of trauma, spirituality, and nature, told through the cosmic lens of post-colonial spaces and Indigenous identities. His film The Headhunter’s Daughter was awarded the Short Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Ryland Walker Knight (Writer-Director) with The Lip of the World (U.S.A.): When Cassandra discovers a young Indigenous woman washed ashore with no memory, the pair journey into the violent underworld of the Northern California psychedelic culture to uncover her true identity.

Ryland Walker Knight is a Cherokee writer and a filmmaker, and once upon a time he was called a film critic. An avid basketball and audiobook enthusiast, Knight lives and works in Oakland and Los Angeles, California.

Charine Pilar Gonzales (Writer-Director) with NDN Time (U.S.A.): A Tewa college student must master her new dimension-bending abilities to expose the nuclear secrets threatening her Pueblo.

Charine Pilar Gonzales wrote and directed the short films River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh) and Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez. She co-produced the 2024 Sundance Film Festival short doc Winding Path. A Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico, she aims to intertwine memories, dreams, and truths through story.

Lindsay McIntyre (Writer-Director) with The Words We Can’t Speak (Canada): A terrible Arctic accident leaves an Inuk interpreter unwelcome in her community. She is forced to weather impossible conditions and hateful prejudices, yet still care for her daughter, when she embarks on a dangerous 1,000-mile journey by dog sled with an inexperienced RCMP constable who fancies her for his wife.

Lindsay McIntyre (Inuit/settler) is a filmmaker whose works explores themes of portraiture, place, and personal histories. After 40+ experimental/documentary films and many festival awards, her recent

PARK CITY, UTAH, April 29, 2024 — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the fellows selected for the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs. The Native Lab in New Mexico will support four fellows and two artists in residence, and the Directors Lab in Colorado will support the development of eight projects with nine fellows, with an additional three fellows also joining for the online Screenwriters Lab held immediately after. 

For over four decades, Sundance Institute’s signature labs have provided burgeoning filmmakers a nurturing, immersive environment to develop their projects and refine their artistic voice under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors. 

The 2024 Native Lab, taking place in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 29–May 4, is designed for participants of Native and Indigenous backgrounds and focuses on centering Indigeneity in their storytelling. Fellows will build community and refine their feature film and episodic scripts through one-on-one feedback sections and roundtable discussions with advisors. Four fellows were selected: three who are U.S.-based, and another from Canada. Also attending will be two artists in residence, Fox Maxy (Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and Payómkawish) and Shea Vassar (Cherokee), experiencing the lab while in script development. This year’s Native Lab creative advisors are Patrick Brice, Tai Leclaire (Mohawk and Mi’kmaq), Kishori Rajan, and Jon Raymond.

“Our Indigenous Program team looks forward to returning to Santa Fe to spend a week supporting some of the best and brightest Indigenous artists working today,” said Adam Piron, Director of Indigenous Program. “This group is diverse in the work they are bringing to develop and in how their Indigeneity shapes it — their differences are their strengths. We can’t wait to see what those combined strengths help them add to each other’s projects as they collaborate with each other and with our creative advisors.”

The 2024 Directors Lab will take place May 7–22 in person at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, which is hosting a Sundance Institute program for the very first time with support from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). During the Directors Lab, filmmakers will rehearse, shoot, and edit selected scenes from their work-in-progress original screenplays in a workshop environment with support from experienced creative advisors. Directors focus on core elements of filmmaking, including directing actors, workshopping their scripts, and defining their visual language. Led by Artistic Director Gyula Gazdag, the Directors Lab advisor cohort includes Miguel Arteta, Joan Darling, Rick Famuyiwa, Stephen Goldblatt, Keith Gordon, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Andrew Haigh, Randa Haines, Ed Harris, Siân Heder, André Holland, Karyn Kusama, Pam Martin, Estes Tarver, and Dylan Tichenor.

The 2024 Screenwriters Lab will be held online from June 4–7, where fellows will refine their scripts through individual story sessions with screenwriter advisors and group sessions on the art and craft of screenwriting. Led by Artistic Director Howard Rodman, the Screenwriters Lab advisor cohort includes John August, Scott Z. Burns, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Scott Frank, Susannah Grant, Tamara Jenkins, Meg LeFauve, Jenny Lumet, Josh Marston