Park City’s Last Dance

After the passing of Robert Redford and recent seismic shifts in the film industry, everyone’s feeling the vibe shift looming over Sundance — and there’s also the physical shift looming over Sundance to Boulder, Colorado, for 2027. But before the historic film festival takes on the Rockier Mountains, Vulture’s back in Park City for one last hurrah in the Beehive State.

We’ll be spending this week catching all the buzziest movies, parties, and stars as they descend on the ski town for the 45th and final time. All the while, we’ll be inviting the talent to step into our studio on Main Street for portraits with Sinna Nasseri, fireside chats with Vulture writers Fran Hoepfner, Jason P. Frank, and Angelica Jade Bastién, and a Ketel One espresso martini (or three) from our friends behind the bar. Follow along here and on social for our favorite moments and latest news live from the festival.

thursday

Day One

We decided what movies we’d brave the cold for

Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

A slew of record-breaking Oscar nominations hit our feeds as we touched down on the tarmac at Salt Lake City International Airport. After making sense of all the spoils (and the damage), we turned our attention to the program for the days ahead and selected the 16 movies (and one TV pilot) we’re most excited to check out this week, including Charli XCX’s mockumentary about brat summer, Gregg Araki’s return to moviemaking, the odd world of Maria Bamford, and not one but two movies about controversial school musicals.

It got nostalgic on Main Street

View this post on Instagram

We had an Opening Night Cap at the Chase Sapphire Reserve Experience

Affogatos still taste good inside a brand activation.

Click here to preview your posts with PRO themes ››

friday

Day Two

The Cinematrix team fired up the iPads with some special edition grids

➼ The (Easy) Merch Grid
➼ The (Medium) Auteur Grid
➼ The (Hard) R-Rated Grid
➼ The (Cinemasochist) Sundance Grid

John Wilson made a supersized return

Photo: Sundance Institute

“It’s more of a movie about trying to make a movie about concrete than it is one about what you get when you mix cement, water, and additives. But concrete is something it’s able to return to when it’s in danger of losing the thread — if there even is a thread to lose. Wilson’s whole deal might best be summed up as an ongoing riff on the absurdity of living and trying to make art in capitalism.” — Alison Willmore’s review of The History of Concrete.

Alexander Skarsgård acted really normal with the cast of The Moment

View this post on Instagram

Judd Apatow tried to explain Maria Bamford

“The peculiar charm of the film lies in the way it’s driven by genuine curiosity about its subject. Apatow doesn’t seem to have come to this film with a thesis and a story and an outline already in hand.” — Bilge Ebiri in his review of Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story

The Shitheads’ Nicholas Braun and Kiernan Shipka stepped into the Paramount+ photo booth

Photo: Robin Marchant/Getty Images

A movie about death taught us about life

Photo: Sundance Institute

“As the world’s oldest people appear on our screen, with the filmmaker visiting them in their homes, we see Sam get weaker while his son gets older. The project thus expands conceptually in unexpected, even disturbing directions — it feels like it may never cohere into a finished work. In addition, we learn more about the 2009 suicide of Green’s brother, a trauma that the director still has difficulty talking about. We realize we’re watching a movie about time — not the time these elderly people have lived, but about our own brief, unpredictable measure of time on this planet.” — Bilge Ebiri on The Oldest Person in the World