There’s always a celebratory feeling in the air when the slate of films preparing to screen at Sundance Film Festival includes those made by filmmakers of color. It’s not like there are a lot of films in comparison to films made by and for white audiences, but there are just enough to “keep hope alive.”
For 2023, 21 filmmakers identify as “Black,” showcasing their newest projects as directors and producers at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival: “The Stroll,” directed by Kristen Lovell; “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” directed by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster; “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” directed by Raven Jackson and produced by Barry Jenkins; “Magazine Dreams,” directed by Elijah Bynum; “Bravo, Burkina!,” directed by Wale Oyejide; “Kokomo City,” directed by D. Smith; “To Live and Die and Live,” directed by Qasim Basir; “Young. Wild. Free.,” directed by Thembi L. Banks and produced by Baron Davis; “Invisible Beauty,” directed by Bethann Hardison;” “Cassandro,” directed by Roger Ross Williams; “Rye Lane,” directed by Raine Allen-Miller; “Milisuthando,” directed by Milisuthando Bongela; “Girl,z’ directed by Adura Onashile; “Mami Wata,” directed by C.J. “Fiery” Obasi; “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” directed by Lisa Cortés; “A Thousand and One,” directed by A.V. Rockwell, with producer Lena Waithe; and “To Live and Die and Live & Fancy Dance,” produced by Forest Whitaker.
In the category of “Black Stories” are these films screening at Sundance 2023: “Magazine Dreams,” “A Thousand and One,” “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” “Rye Lane,”
“Mami Wata,” “Girl,” “The Stroll,” “Drift,” “Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Story,”
“Little Richard: I Am Everything,” “Milisuthando,” “Kokomo City,” “ To Live and Die and Live,” “Bravo, Burkina!,” “Young. Wild. Free.,” “ Invisible Beauty,” “SLAM” (From the Collection), “Talk to Me,” and “Landscape with Invisible Hand.”
The 2023 Festival will take place January 19–29, 2023, in person in Park City, Salt Lake City, Utah, and at the Sundance Resort, along with a selection of films available online across the country January 24–29, 2023. Festival-goers will once again return to theaters to discover this upcoming year’s most important independent stories. Single film tickets go on sale January 12 at 10 a.m. MT.
The full slate of works, along with the From the Collection films previously announced, includes 101 feature-length films representing 23 countries. The 2023 program is made up of 32 of 115 (28%) feature directors who are first-time feature filmmakers, and 17 of the feature films and projects announced today were supported by the Sundance Institute in development through direct grants or residency labs. World premieres make up 93, or 94%, of the festival’s 99 feature films; these films were selected from 15,855 submissions, including 4,061 feature-length films. Of those feature submissions, 1,662 were from the U.S. and 2,399 were international.