2021 Sundance Film Festival

THU JAN 28, 7 PM

After his grandmother’s death, a Mexican biologist living in New York returns to his hometown, nestled in the majestic monarch butterfly forests of Michoacán. The journey forces him to confront past traumas and reflect on his hybrid identity, sparking a personal and spiritual metamorphosis.
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FRI JAN 29, 7 PM

SOLD OUT! No additional tickets will be available. We will not have a standby line at the venue.

A mysterious and deadly pink cloud appears across the globe, forcing everyone to stay home. Strangers at the outset, Giovana and Yago try to invent themselves as a couple as years of shared lockdown pass. While Yago is living in his own utopia, Giovana feels trapped deep inside.

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SAT JAN 30, 6 PM

SOLD OUT! No additional tickets will be available. We will not have a standby line at the venue.

On the last day on Earth, one woman goes on a journey through LA to make it to her last party before the world ends, running into an eclectic cast of characters along the way. Alum writer/directors Daryl Wein (White Rabbit) and Zoe Lister-Jones (Band Aid) assemble an impressive all-star cast—including Helen Hunt, Olivia Wilde, Fred Armisen, Lamorne Morris, and Nick Kroll—for this uproarious and charming pre-apocalyptic comedy.

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SAT JAN 30, 8:30 PM

SOLD OUT! No additional tickets will be available. We will not have a standby line at the venue.

When film censor Enid discovers an eerie horror story that speaks directly to her sister’s mysterious disappearance, she resolves to unravel the puzzle behind the film and its enigmatic director—a quest blurring the lines between fiction and reality in terrifying ways.

SUN JAN 31, 6 PM

Home to one of the region’s largest law enforcement education program, students at Horizon High School in El Paso train to become police officers and Border Patrol agents as they discover the realities of their dream jobs may be at odds with the truths and people they hold most dear.

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SUN JAN 31, 8:30 PM

SOLD OUT! No additional tickets will be available. We will not have a standby line at the venue.

Ever since Margaret (Carlson Young) was six years old, she has been haunted by the memory of watching her sister drown during an explosive fight between her parents. As a young woman, she slides further into her twisted inner life, ultimately finding herself on the brink of suicide. Through an epic journey down the smokiest and scariest corridors of her imagination, she tries to exorcise the demons pushing her closer and closer to the edge.

MON FEB 1, 6 PM

Acclaimed filmmaker Natalia Almada captures the ruthless locomotion of technology. Her camera flies with ferocious speed alongside jet streams, trains, trucks, and underwater cables that carry data at the speed of light. But just as her lens documents the power of frenetic human invention, so does it dive into technology’s greatest existential competitor: rising oceans, crackling fires, scorched mountain tops—a planet at war with so-called societal progress. In the center of this storm, Almada’s young son stares unquestioningly into his computer screen and is rocked to sleep by a seamlessly paced electronic crib. He’s soothed by forces outside of Almada’s—or, for that matter, any parent’s—influence.

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MON FEB 1, 8:30 PM

SOLD OUT! No additional tickets will be available. We will not have a standby line at the venue.

FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther party when J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) fears charismatic leader Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) will emerge as a Black Messiah. O’Neal lives in fear of discovery and cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his betrayal.

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Join us for a conversation between two Texas filmmakers: the 5-time Academy Award nominated writer/director Richard Linklater and writer/director Channing Godfrey Peoples, whose breakout debut feature MISS JUNETEENTH was recently nominated for two Gotham Awards.

Presented in partnership with Black Public Media and Houston Cinema Arts Society.

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Three acclaimed female producers, each with a new film premiering at Sundance 2021, discuss how they built and are sustaining their careers outside of the industry poles of New York and Los Angeles. Featuring: Elizabeth Avellan, veteran producer of the blockbuster SPY KIDS franchise as well as PREDATORS and SIN CITY, who is premiering her new independent film, THE BLAZING WORLD in Sundance NEXT; Liz Lodge Stepp, producer of Sundance Documentary Competition title USERS and the previous Sundance award winner MONSTERS AND MEN; and Hillary Pierce, producer of Sundance Documentary Competition title AT THE READY, who previously produced SXSW award-winner THE RIVER AND THE WALL. Moderated by producer Monique Walton (BULL, PAHOKEE).

Presented in partnership with Women in Film & Television Austin.

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Join us for a conversation with regional filmmakers who are creating stories about the Texas/Mexico border communities that bring complexity and nuance missing from the national dialogue. The discussion includes: director Maisie Crow of the Sundance US Documentary Competition selection AT THE READY; AFS Grant supported filmmakers Alejandra Aragón and Robie Flores; Sundance Episodic Lab fellow Aitch Alberto; and Angie Reza Tures, Executive Director of Femme Frontera, an organization supporting women filmmakers in the west Texas/ Mexico border region. AT THE READY was supported by Austin Film Society’s artist development programs, including the AFS Grant and Doc Intensive.

Presented in partnership with Femme Frontera.

TUE FEB 2, 10 AM

The 2nd Black Media Story Summit-Texas, following the inaugural summit held during the 2019 Houston Cinema Arts Festival, will be a virtual affair, and part of the Sundance Film Festival’s “Beyond Film” Sundance Satellite programming. This free virtual conference will bring together 100 guests, including filmmakers/content creators of color, foundations, tech, distributors, and social justice leaders on the Eventive virtual platform for a day of collaboration and discussion about new strategies designed to support diverse black stories. This is co-presented with Black Public Media and Austin Film Society.

The summit will include a workshop with Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster, (directors of 2021 Sundance Film Festival New Frontier Virtual Reality project, The Changing Same: Episode 1), a workshop with Channing Godfrey Peoples and Neil Williams (director and producer of Miss Juneteenth, respectively), and a Happy Hour Mixer.

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Director Clint Bentley and writer/producer Greg Kwedar of US Narrative Competition selection JOCKEY (and previously of the SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner TRANSPECOS) sit down with Sailor Bear’s Toby Halbrooks (A GHOST STORY, PETE’S DRAGON) to talk about making independent work from the growing film community of North Texas. JOCKEY was the 2020 recipient of the AFS Grant Pioneer Film Fund Award, in partnership with Sailor Bear Entertainment and the Oak Cliff Film Festival. Moderated by Dallas International Film Festival Artistic Director, James Faust.

Presented in partnership with Oak Cliff Film Festival and Texas Theatre.