A scene from The Mask You Live In, which is competing in the Sundance 2015 documentary category.
A scene from The Mask You Live In, which is competing in the Sundance 2015 documentary category.

Sundance festival reveals list of documentaries and dramas



Based on the movies set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival, the coming year of cinema is about comedians and coming of age.

On Monday, festival organisers announced their selections of dramas and documentaries to debut at the independent film showcase, which runs from January 22-31.

“It really does feel like we kick off the year in film,” said Trevor Groth, the festival’s director of programming. “We’re launching all these films out there into the cinematic universe and then watching them trickle out throughout the year.”

Movies that debut at the Sundance festival often secure distribution deals that will bring them to cinemas, TV screens or web-streams near you.

Lily Tomlin and Blythe Danner each play women coming of age later in life in the dramas Grandma and I'll See You in My Dreams. Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie inspire each other to grow up a decade after college graduation in Sleeping With Other People. Ethan Hawke heads a whole family coming of age in Ten Thousand Saints; Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez play grieving mothers in Lila & Eve; while Ryan Reynolds is a poker player who learns from his protégé in Mississippi Grind.

Notable documentaries making their debut at the festival include The Hunting Ground by Kirby Dick, whose 2012 documentary about sexual assault in the military, The Invisible War, won the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Oscar. Jennifer Siebel Newsom, whose first documentary screened at the festival in 2011, returns with an exploration of masculinity in The Mask You Live In.

Another documentary, Tig, explores how the comedian Tig Notaro used stand-up to cope with the death of her mother, her own cancer diagnosis and the challenges of love.

Sarah Silverman takes a dramatic turn as a drug-using mother on the edge in I Smile Back, while Jack Black is a man struggling to shed his high-school insecurities in time for his 20th reunion in The D Train.

artslife@thenational.ae

No.6 Collaborations Project

Ed Sheeran (Atlantic)

TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

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Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

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Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

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● No of employees: Nine

Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

Three ways to limit your social media use

Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

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The specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
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Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

2016 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)

2015 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)

2014 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)

2013 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

2012 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)

2011 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

2010 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

2009 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

 

Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar

Director: Neeraj Pandey

Rating: 2.5/5

Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape

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Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder

Power: 220 and 280 horsepower

Torque: 350 and 360Nm

Transmission: eight-speed automatic

Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT 

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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

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Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

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The Buckingham Murders

Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu

Director: Hansal Mehta

Rating: 4 / 5