By Matt Neglia & Cody Dericks 

​The 2021 Sundance Film Festival officially kicks off tomorrow evening. One of the year's biggest festivals, it has been the un-official start of the movie year as many films make their premieres at the festival which will then get released throughout the next 12 months (and sometimes even into the following year). A celebration of independent film and new voices, you never know what you're going to get at the festival when you sit down to watch something and this year, despite not being up in the mountains of Utah due to the pandemic, is no different. Cody Dericks and I will be covering the festival this year for Next Best Picture and we have listed below in alphabetical order, the ten films we are most looking forward to at this year's festival.

​Click below to check it out.

By Matt Neglia 

​The lineup for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival has been officially announced. Cody Dericks, Sara Clements, Danilo Castro and I will be attending this year's festival as press on behalf of Next Best Picture. This year's festival runs from January 28th - February 3rd.

​Click below to take a look at this year's lineup.

By Casey Lee Clark 

This past June, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) announced that the 93rd Academy Awards would be held on April 25th, 2021, with an eligibility window going until February 28th, 2021, due to the pandemic’s effect on the film industry. AMPAS had previously announced adjustments to film eligibility to allow films that premiered on streaming services as long as they had a previously planned and announced theatrical release that was stalled or canceled due to lockdown restrictions. This extended awards season (by far the longest we have seen in our lifetime and the latest date since the first Oscar ceremony held on May 16, 1929) has caused a ripple effect across other awards shows, pushing back the dates of nomination announcements and ceremonies like the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs to be closer to this new Oscars date. While this extends this movie year into part of 2021, many are wondering how this will affect the typical rollout of Oscar contenders at fall film festivals. However, something even more interesting to look into is how this extended awards season will affect Sundance, a film festival held in January that typically marks the beginning of a new film year. How will the 2020 Sundance come into play when the 2021 festival is happening right before the Oscars and within eligibility?

By Matt Neglia 
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The Sundance Film Festival is the unofficial start of any new film year. It's not just a celebration of independent films but it can also serve as a launching pad for new filmmakers and voices within the cinematic landscape. Sometimes, a film emerges that leaves such a lasting impression that it is able to withstand the rest of the year and make it all the way to awards season. We've seen "Manchester By The Sea," "Boyhood," "Whiplash," and "Precious" all go on to receive Best Picture nominations in the last few years. With the Academy's taste expanding and the profile for Sundance rising, the potential for Oscar contenders to emerge from the film festival has become greater over the last decade. What are the contenders this year? Click below to find out.

By Matt Neglia 

The Next Best Picture Team is back from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and we're here to give you our recap of our experiences and our Top 10 favorite films from the festival. Here to join me in discussing this are Casey Lee Clark (who attended this year for the first time ever) and guest Valerie Complex. The film year for 2020 is looking bright. Here's what you have to look forward to.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Casey Lee Clark 

Starting today, I will be attending my first-ever Sundance Film Festival (on behalf of Next Best Picture, of course). Since the full program of films was announced, I’ve been reading and looking over every film that will be shown at this year’s festival. Rather than simply looking into what the biggest premieres or films by and/or featuring impressive talent are, I focus on what films have interesting premises, with the hopes of finding a hidden gem or a smaller documentary that wouldn’t necessarily have been on my radar. I also wanted to focus on up-and-coming or female filmmakers, as a way of showing early support for these artists and their work. In doing so, I’ve come up with a list of ten films that I’m anticipating and will hopefully check out at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Some honorable mentions include “Blast Beat,” “Charm City Kings,” “Giving Voice,” “Jumbo,” “Kajillionaire,” “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “Relic,” “Time,” “Wander Darkly,” and “Worth.”

By Matt Neglia 

​The lineup for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival has been officially announced. Will Mavity, Casey Lee Clark, Danielle Del Plato and I will be attending this year's festival as press on behalf of Next Best Picture.

​Click below to take a look at this year's lineup.

By Will Mavity

Sundance 2019 was the “slowest movie festival ever” for sales according to Variety. This year, something different was in the air. Perhaps it was the success of Sundance sales from last year like “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and “Three Identical Strangers.” Perhaps it was the fact that Amazon got out of the gate quickly and everyone felt compelled to catch up.

Whatever the reason, studios threw money around liberally this year. Whereas the 2019 Sundance audience award winner still remains without a distributor, the majority of this year’s hits, narrative and documentary alike went home with a distributor.​

By Matt Neglia 

For this special podcast recording Will Mavity and guests Jorge Birnam from SplashReport.com, Robert Daniels from 812filmReviews & Lisa Gullickson from In The Mouth of Dorkness join myself and together we give you a thorough overview of all of the major titles we saw at this year's Sundance Film Festival from the documentaries, to the world cinema selections, to the midnight section, U.S. dramatic competition and more! There's a lot to unpack here with many films to discuss but if you want to know about what's to come for 2019, click below to listen.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

​By Matt Neglia 

​This year's Sundance Film Festival was a significant improvement from last year (my first time) for me. I nearly doubled my movie count from 25 to 41. I met so many friends and colleagues who I have been dying to meet for years. I knew my way around better and I knew what to do and what not to do to ensure that I was nowhere near as stressed as I was last year. Now, make no mistake about it...if your plan is to see loads of movies every day including midnight screenings, your sleep is certainly going to take a hit. Despite the lack of sleep and getting sick on the last day of the festival, I have absolutely zero regrets and can honestly say I saw some very tremendous films that I cannot wait for you all to see. It's a very special film festival that celebrates cinema from all walks of life in its purest form: independent filmmaking. Some of the year's best films get their start at Sundance and this year was probably no different. I am happy to share some of those with you all today.

Here are my Top 10 films from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

By DeAnn Knighton 

One week from today, the NBP Team will be taking a break from the 2018 Awards Season and looking ahead, as we travel to Park City Utah for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. On November 28th the Sundance Film Institute released the 2019 list of 112 Features that will play at the Park City-based Festival in January. Matt Neglia, Will Mavity and I will be covering the festival as press and providing regular updates and reviews from these never before seen films.

By Matt Neglia 

​The lineup for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival has been officially announced. Myself, Will Mavity and DeAnn Knighton will be attending this year's festival as press after attending last year for the first time ever where we saw films such as "Eighth Grade," "Hereditary," Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and more!

According to the press release...

For the 2019 Festival, 112 feature-length films have been selected, representing 33 countries and 45 first-time filmmakers. 53% of the directors in this year’s U.S. Dramatic Competition are women; 41% are people of color; 18% identify as LGBTQIA+. 44% of the directors in this year’s U.S. Documentary Competition are women; 22% are people of color; 5% identify as LGBTQIA+. Of the 61 directors in all four competition categories, comprising 56 films, 42% are women, 39% are people of color, and 23% identify as LGBTQIA. 24 films announced today were supported by Sundance Institute in development, whether through direct granting or residency Labs. 102 of the Festival’s feature films, or 91% of the lineup announced today, will be world premieres.
40%, or 45, of all films announced today were directed by one or more women; 36%, or 40, were directed by one or more filmmaker of color; 13% or 15 by one or more people who identify as LGBTQIA. 

These films were selected from a record high of 14,259 submissions including 4,018 feature-length films. Of the feature film submissions, 1,767 were from the U.S. and 2,251 were international; 31% were directed by one or more women; 38% were directed by one or more filmmaker of color; 11% by one or more people who identify as LGBTQIA.
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In 2018, the Festival drew 124,900 attendees from 49 U.S. states and 26 other countries, generated $191.6 million in economic activity for the state of Utah and supported 3,323 local jobs. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival will take place January 23 - February 2, 2020. 
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More lineup announcements, including Shorts, Indie Episodic and New Frontier, are forthcoming; watch sundance.org/festival for more.

​Click below to see this year's lineup.

By Matt Neglia

​I literally just got off the plane from Sundance a little while ago and now, as we speak, the awards are being announced for this year's crop of films which played at the festival over in both Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. We already have a few film reviews posted on the site (Which you can find here) and we have a lot more to come in the next couple of days as Deann, Will and myself try to bring you everything from our experience at the world renowned festival. 

​Click below to see the winners of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

​By Deann Chiazzese

Yesterday, in Part 1, we covered what would be new at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Now, on Part 2, we here at Next Best Picture are previewing our most anticipated films of Sundance 2018. Watch for our reviews of these films (From myself, Matt & Will) as well as many other titles showing during the film festival January 18-28th. 

We focused on feature-length US films that are either premiering or competing in the US Dramatic category. Although we look forward to catching some selections out of the World Premiere, Spotlight and Documentary categories, we are focusing on films with the potential to be strong players in the 2018 Oscar race. Films like “Death of Stalin," “You Were Never Really Here," “Foxtrot," and “The Rider” that have premiered at other festivals, may be part of our watches and reviews but are not part of this list. Lastly, releases such as “A Futile and Stupid Gesture” that already have January/February wide release dates scheduled, are not part of this list.

The administration of Sundance takes a great deal of effort to minimize preliminary buzz as much as possible. What makes Sundance unique is that it is about the discovery of film and the titles that come out of nowhere and blow us away, like "The Big Sick," “Mudbound” and “Call Me By Your Name” in 2017. As a result, you stand the chance of seeing movies at Sundance that never even get a wide release and that is part of the adventure.

Click below to see our Top 7 most anticipated films of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in no specific order. 

​By Deann Chiazzese

The first major film festival of 2018 is upon us...

Beginning January 18th, the streets of the small-town Park City, UT will fill with media, stars and cinephiles alike. Matt Neglia, Will Mavity and myself look forward to bringing you as much content as possible live from the events. In the meantime, here is a quick rundown of current happenings related to the festival including some new things to look forward to.