Sundance 2024 critics picks

Source: Sundance

[Clockwise from top left:] ‘Kneecap’, ‘Girls Will Be Girls’, ‘A Real Pain’

Screen International has thus far reviewed the vast majority of Sundance 2024 titles, from audience hits to prize winners and high-profile pick-ups.

Our critics have their favourites, however, and the best reviewed titles out of Sundance (excepting documentaries, which you can find here) are below.

Compiled by Fionnuala Halligan, Screen’s executive editor, reviews and new talent.

A Real Pain
Dir. Jesse Eisenberg
Eisenberg’s second feature as director co-stars him and Kieran Culkin as two semi-estranged Jewish cousins who embark on a Holocaust tour of Poland at their late grandmother’s behest. Searchlight acquired out of Sundance. Winner of Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic.
Read the review

Kneecap
Dir. Rich Peppiatt
Irreverent Irish-language rappers star in their own origins movie - any offence intended. Michael Fassbender takes a cameo in this SPC pick-up. Winner of Audience Award: NEXT.
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Brief History Of A Family
Dir. Lin Jianjie
Remarkably assured debut from China centres around the country’s one-child policy and is set for Berlin.
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Girls Will Be Girls
Dir. Shuchi Talati
Big audience hit set in India about a boarding school prefect whose first crush precipitates her hurtling into a rivalry with her mother. Winner of Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic.
Read the review

Presence
Dir. Steven Soderbergh
Soderbergh gets playful in this haunted house film from the entity’s POV. Neon has acquired worldwide rights.
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Sasquatch Sunset
Dir. David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Jesse Eisenberg again, this time unrecognisable with Riley Keough as members of a Bigfoot community in the latest from the Zellner Brothers.
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Freaky Tales
Dir. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Grungy quartet of loosely interlinked stories from 1987 Oakland stars Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn.
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My Old Ass
Dir. Megan Park
Crowd-pleaser sees an older Aubrey Plaza dispensing advice to her teenage self. Amazon MGM Studios in final negotiations to acquire worldwide rights.
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Winner
Dir. Susanna Fogel
Not the first show on whistleblower Reality Winner, but thanks to Emilia Jones’s performance, the most audience friendly.
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Handling The Undead
Dir. Thea Hvistendahl
A hot Oslo summer sees the dead return to life. Winner of World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Original Music.
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