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There’s something invigorating about the start of a new year. After unplugging, unwinding, and engaging in a bit of reflection during the holidays, you wake up January 1 feeling capable of becoming your best possible self. That marathon you’ve always dreamed of training for suddenly doesn’t seem like such a stretch (even if you did spend most of December on the couch catching up on 2019’s must-watch independent films).

Chinonye Chukwu’s second film, Clemency, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. And at the end of this month, it arrives in theaters, bringing her long journey with the film to a close.
Chukwu began working on the death-row drama after the 2011 execution of Troy Davis, an inmate who had long declared his innocence.

Turbulent family dynamics are at the heart of November’s slate of 2019 Sundance Film Festival releases—including Minhal Baig’s Hala, centered around a 17-year-old Muslim Pakistani American as she and her family navigate unstable ground.
“When I was growing up, I didn’t really see this character, and I really wanted to see her; it would have made me feel less alone,” explained director Minhal Baig about her titular character. Hala is a coming-of-age drama about a young woman learning to pave a path different from that of her parents, but it’s also the story of a tender mother-daughter relationship and their resilience in the face of the unraveling of their world.

From the creepy to the bizarre, October’s slate of Sundance-supported releases makes for prime Halloweentime movie watching.Check out the absurdist genre comedy Little Monsters, starring Lupita Nyong’o as a kindergarten teacher thrust into the role of fierce protector as she shields her class from a zombie invasion—or the chiller Sweetheart, starring Kiersey Clemons as a woman stranded on a desert island where she is hunted by an otherworldly creature each night. And while documentaries about classic films might not normally be at the top of your scary movie list, Alexandre O.

Round out your summer movie watching with the latest Sundance Film Festival selections to hit theaters and streaming platforms this month.
With Ms. Purple, director Justin Chon has written another powerful love letter to Los Angeles (after 2017’s Gook)—this time taking place in a Koreatown karaoke room, where hostess Kasie caters to rich businessmen while struggling to provide for her bedridden father on her own, until she begrudgingly seeks help from her estranged brother.

If you’re keeping up with all the new releases from the Sundance Film Festival, you’ve got your work cut out for you in August. With 17 films coming to theaters and streaming platforms (including a host of award winners), you could watch one every other day for the entire month, and then some. Better get started!
In the mood for a theater trip? Then check out Brittany Runs a Marathon, which won the Festival’s U.

After the record-breaking sales of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Festival films are steadily rolling out for the summer. This month, escape the heat—in theaters or on the couch—and catch four brand-new Festival releases.If you’re looking for a multi-award-winner, look no further than Pippa Bianco’s Share; it came out of the Festival with both a U.

As a popular slogan on shirts and signs at Pride parades around the world says, “The first Pride was a riot.” This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and though the United States has legalized marriage for same-sex couples and a number of other countries (most recently Taiwan) are progressively passing their own legislation ensuring marriage equality, Pride is still revolutionary.
Even in film, celebratory and proud stories still feel rare.

Whether you’re into postapocalyptic sci-fi thrillers or documentaries about the first all-female sailing crew, June’s Festival- and lab-supported releases are sure to have something to pique your interest.
One particularly irresistible post-Fest release is A24’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Directed by Joe Talbot and starring Jimmie Fails, it took home both a U.

May is a big month for catching the 2019 Festival films you may have missed, with two of the Festival’s top prize winners and a wealth of other films and series making their post-Festival premieres. Coming to Netflix today is 2019 Festival Favorite Award winner Knock Down the House. The documentary, directed by Rachel Lears, tracks the primary campaigns of four hopeful progressive Democratic women—Cori Bush (Missouri), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Paula Jean Swearengin (West Virginia), and Amy Vilela (Nevada)—vying to displace moderate incumbent Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.

In the opening minutes of Native Son, Big, a young man played by Ashton Sanders, rests a gun on his worn copy of Invisible Man. This image sets the tone for the catastrophic direction of the modern adaptation of Richard Wright’s seminal work—directed by Rashid Johnson and written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks—that shocked audiences throughout the 2019 Festival. The film premieres on HBO early this month.

March loads up with a twofer of 100% Certified Fresh films out of the 2019 Festival.Not since Senna have we seen such a dexterous handling of exclusively archive material as we do in Apollo 11, director Todd Miller’s immersive journey through the first moon landing. NASA opened its vaults to reveal never-before-seen 70 mm footage of the spacecraft’s launch, landing, and return home, making for an indelible new portrait of a pivotal moment in American history.