This week’s early and special episode of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast brings you a double bill of festival and awards analysis. First, host Ryan Lattanzio is joined by IndieWire’s own Kate Erbland and Marcus Jones for a live recording that took place January 20 on the ground at the Sundance Film Festival. The event took place at the 1497 South Asian Lodge at The Shop, 1167 Woodside Avenue, Park City, Utah.
As we were only halfway through Sundance by that Saturday, we could only share our wildly divergent opinions on what we’d seen so far. We debated Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s “Freaky Tales,” the Oakland-in-the-’80s anthology midnight movie homage that premiered on the festival’s opening night to all-over-the-map reactions. (Ryan is decidedly not a fan. See his review here.)
Breakouts of the fest we highlighted included Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s “Ghostlight,” which IFC Films just acquired out of the festival; Jane Schoenbrun’s ambient A24 horror film “I Saw the TV Glow”; India Donaldson’s extraordinary coming-of-age debut “Good One”; director Jazmin Jones’ cyber investigation documentary “Seeking Mavis Beacon”; and the immersive moth documentary “Nocturnes.”
Later in the podcast, regular co-host Anne Thompson joins virtually to catch up on this year’s Academy Awards nominations: key takeaways included the strength of “Anatomy of a Fall” at five nominations (and to the chagrin of France’s snubbed International Feature Film submission “The Taste of Things”), plenty of love for “Barbie” despite key missed spots for Best Director Greta Gerwig and Best Actress Margot Robbie, and more than a few surprises in the Best Documentary Feature category. (Anne’s deep dive analysis is here.)
Special thanks to 1497 for providing support in hosting the “Screen Talk event. 1497 is committed to supporting and uplifting talent of South Asian descent to challenge their historical exclusion from and underrepresentation in the American film and television industry. Also, check out photos from IndieWire’s annual Sundance Chili Party, also held at the 1497 South Asian Lodge, here.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
