The Sundance Film Festival starts this week. That’s where I’ll be From January 20th to the 28th. I’ve spent the last few weeks finalizing my movie-watching schedule. It’s going to be madness.
As of right now, I have 34 films scheduled that I’m planning to see. With three years of Sundance already behind me, I know that plans always change and I’m never able to see as many films as I intend. Before the festival starts, I see a huge list of movies and I get a little overzealous. The first few days are fine, but after the third five-movie day in a row, the grind begins to wear me down. Still, I always go into the festival expecting to see every film that I’ve scheduled for myself.
Like last year, I’ll try to get to as many public screenings as possible. The public screenings are always the best since the filmmakers and actors give Q&A sessions after each film is finished. Press screenings are much different. We’re herded into a small tent, formed into lines, and filed in and out of the theater. It’s like a movie-watching assembly line. That’s why I like to get to as many public screenings as I can. That way, I can watch the films with actual movie-going audiences and see how they react.
Below is my tentative schedule at this point. Things will change, that I’m sure of, but this is the schedule I have planned as of Day 1:
Jan. 20
1:30 PM – ‘This Must Be the Place‘
4:30 PM – ‘The Queen of Versailles‘
8:30 PM – ‘Your Sister’s Sister‘ (Public screening)
Jan. 21
9:00 AM – ‘Celeste and Jesse Forever‘ (Public screening)
1:00 PM – ‘The Pact‘
4:00 PM – ‘The Raid‘
7:00 PM – ‘Filly Brown‘
Jan. 22
10:00 AM – ‘The End of Love‘
12:00 PM – ‘The First Time‘
4:00 PM – ‘Red Lights‘
7:00 PM – ‘Lay the Favorite‘
9:30 PM – ‘Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap‘ (Public screening)
Jan. 23
9:00 AM – ‘Liberal Arts‘ (Public screening)
1:00 PM – ‘Save the Date‘
3:30 PM – ‘Nobody Walks‘
7:00 PM – ‘Black Rock‘
10:00 PM – ‘Young and Wild‘ (Public screening)
Jan. 24
8:30 AM – ‘Bachelorette‘ (Public screening)
12:00 PM – ‘For a Good Time, Call…‘
4:30 PM – ‘Safety Not Guaranteed‘
7:00 PM – ‘The Surrogate‘
10:00 PM – ‘John Dies at the End‘
Jan. 25
9:00 AM – ‘Goats‘ (Public screening)
12:30 PM – ‘Grabbers‘
3:30 PM – ‘Mosquita y Mari‘
5:30 PM – ‘Wish You Were Here‘ (Public screening)
9:00 PM – ‘VHS‘
Jan. 26
9:00 AM – ‘Price Check‘ (Public screening)
12:00 PM – ‘Shadow Dancer‘
3:00 PM – ‘The Comedy‘ (Public screening)
Jan. 27
9:00 AM – ‘Hello I Must Be Going‘ (Public screening)
12:15 PM – ‘Big Boys Gone Bananas‘ (Public screening)
Jan. 28
9:00 AM – ‘The Words‘ (Public screening)
11:30 AM – ‘Predisposed‘ (Public screening)
12:15 PM – ‘Indie Game: The Movie‘ (Public screening)
(I’m still undecided with these last two films. I’ll have to make up my mind at some point since they’re at the same time.)
If you haven’t yet, follow me on Twitter at @aaronpeck. I’ll be tweeting my entire festival experience, along with posting any pictures of famous people I can snap before their security detail violently shoves me out of the way.
JM
The Raid!!
Are you going to be reviewing all 34 films for The Bonus View, or will we be going to The Reel Place to read those?
Is Luke going too?
Of these 34 films, which are you anticipating could possible make it onto your list of The 10 Best Films Of 2012?
Aaron Peck
AuthorI will be reviewing, most if not all for The Bonus View. They are likely to be capsule reviews though. Not large reviews. We’ll see how it goes. I have a very limited writing time allotted to me, so I’ll have to budget it wisely.
Along with that I’ll be posting detailed daily journals on the mainpage over at HDD to give everyone a better feel of what it’s like to dash around a film festival for a week and a half.
Out of the 34 I wouldn’t begin to think what could make my best of list, but it always seems that one or two from Sundance always stick by the time of the end of the year rolls around.
If ‘The Raid’ is as good as I’m hoping, I think it could be up there. I have really high hopes for Stephen Frears’ ‘Lay the Favorite.’ I also am really looking forward to the docs that I picked out: ‘Something from Nothing’ and ‘The Queen of Versailles.’ We’ll see what happens, but yes, prepare for a deluge of Sundance reviews to be coming in the next few days.
JM
My body is ready.
Aaron Peck
AuthorI don’t know if mine is. I’ve got a week supply of 5 Hour Energy and Cliff Bars. Hopefully it can get me through the week.
Aaron Peck
AuthorAnd yes, Luke will be up there too, although I know he has a lot of his time that is going to be taken up by interviews, but we’ll probably see our fair share of films together.
Aaron Peck
AuthorI’ll also have a few full-length reviews appearing over at Film.com.