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.