Get ready to scream, because the Blair Witch is returning to the Sundance Film Festival.
Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute announced Thursday some last-minute additions to the program for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival — including a 20th-anniversary showing of the 1999 horror thriller “The Blair Witch Project.”
The movie, depicting three college students making a documentary and becoming lost and hunted in the woods, was directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. Its use of handheld video camera launched a generation of “found-footage” imitators.
“The Blair Witch Project” will screen as part of the festival’s From the Collection program, selected by the Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA.
Also in the From the Collection program is Christopher Munch’s 1992 film “The Hours and Times.” The film imagines what might have happened when a young John Lennon (Ian Hart) and the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein (David Angus), took a trip to Spain in spring 1963, as the band was on the brink of stardom.
(Photo courtesy Sundance Institute) Ian Hart, left, plays John Lennon and David Angus plays Beatles manager Brian Epstein in Christopher Munch's 1992 film "The Hours and Times," an official selection in the From the Collection program of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Festival organizers also announced the movie that will screen at the festival’s Salt Lake City Opening Night: “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” in the Premieres section, which tells of a 13-year-old Malawi boy who decides to build a wind turbine in order to save his village. The movie — written by, directed by and co-starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”) — has been named the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, given to a Sundance movie with a science theme.
“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” will have its premiere screening Friday, Jan. 25, at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City.
The festival is also announcing the six movies that will play on Day One, the festival’s opening night in Park City on Jan. 24: the moon-shot documentary “Apollo 11”; the documentary “The Edge of Democracy,” about the impeachment fight in Brazil; the immigrant comedy-drama “Give Me Liberty”; the documentary “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” the exposé of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes; the British coming-of-age drama “The Last Tree”; and the behind-the-scenes documentary “Memory: The Origin of ‘Alien.’” A shorts program will also screen on Day One.
The 2019 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 24-Feb. 3 in Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance resort.
Three more movies — one in the Premieres program, two in the Midnight program — have been added to the Sundance lineup, along with a show in the Special Events category. They are:
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Premieres
(Photo courtesy Sundance Institute) Mark Duplass, left, and Ray Romano star in writer-director Alex Lehmann's comedy-drama "Paddleton," an official selection in the Premieres program of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
“Paddleton” • In writer-director Alex Lehmann’s comedy-drama, Mark Duplass and Ray Romano play misfit neighbors who become unlikely friends when the younger man is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Also starring Ravi Patel and Christine Woods.
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Midnight
(Photo courtesy Sundance Institute) Demi Moore plays an egotistical CEO whose corporate team-building retreat goes horribly wrong in Patrick Brice's horror-comedy "Corporate Animals," an official selection in the Midnight program of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
“Corporate Animals” • A team-building trip in New Mexico turns into an underground test of survival for an egotistical CEO (Demi Moore), her long-suffering assistants (Jessica Williams and Karan Soni), their clueless guide (Ed Helms) and others. The horror-comedy is directed by Patrick Brice (“The Overnight,” SFF ’15) and written by Sam Bain.
(Michele K Short | courtesy Sundance Institute) Dakota Johnson, left, and Armie Hammer star in Babak Anvari's horror thriller "Wounds," an official selection in the Midnight program of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
“Wounds” • A bartender (Armie Hammer) in New Orleans picks up a phone left behind at his bar, and then disturbing and mysterious things start to happen. Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Karl Glusman and Brad William Henke co-star in this horror thriller written and directed by Babak Anvari (“Under the Shadow,” SFF ’16).
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Special Events
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