what to watchlist from Park City this year • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Some New Year’s traditions never get old. In between catching up on 2024 releases and rewatching cozy faves, we’ve been dusting off our watchlists in preparation for a whole new year of cinema loving.

To help kick us off, the Sundance Film Festival runs from January 23–February 2, promising to unveil the indie films that will illuminate our screens all year long. Case in point: buzzy pictures heating up the current awards conversation, like A Different Man and A Real Pain, premiered in chilly Park City just twelve months ago—not to mention fourteen other Sundance 2024 titles which featured in our equally prestigious Year in Review. (See if you can spot them all!)

The mic will hit the slopes, eager to hear your takes on everything from a sinister pop star to a marriage frayed by cabbages—and meeting those who made them. We’ll be online, too, thanks to Sundance continuing to offer on-demand access (for those geographically in the US). So as we lace up our snow boots and perfect our home viewing setups, we’ve assembled a list of our most anticipated titles at this year’s fest. Watchlists at the ready.

Contributions from: Adesola Thomas, Annie Lyons, Katie Rife, Leo Koziol, Rafa Sales Ross and Zachary Lee.