Katherine Marrone in Bitchmedia:
Sundance has a reputation for being more female-friendly than the Hollywood establishment: Each year, at least 25 percent of the films at Sundance are directed by women. And more female-directed and female-centered films win awards at the independent film festival than at the Oscars. But even when they’re a hit on the festival circuit, films directed by or about women often get overlooked for distribution by old-school production studios. This year though, the big-name studios like Sony may matter less at Sundance as streaming companies like Netflix and Amazon have been snapping up most of the films. “We’re interested in distinctive films by artists who have something new and interesting to say,” Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios, told the New York Times. Still, streaming companies and traditional studios alike have bought some exciting films by and about women this year at Sundance. Here are 10 films that are either directed by a woman or starring a female protagonist (or both) that are making a splash at Sundance. Keep an eye out for them.
Tallulah: Netflix purchased streaming rights to Sian Heder’s writing/directing debut for $5 million. The film stars Ellen Page as Lu, a free-spirited young woman who, distraught after being left by her boyfriend, wanders an upscale hotel looking for leftovers. When she’s mistaken for a maid by one of the hotel’s patrons, she decides to “rescue” the patron’s child from its mother. Lu takes the child to the house of her boyfriend’s mother, Margo (played by Allison Janney). What follows is a deep story of two women from different worlds trying to understand one another.
Under the Shadow: Netflix also bought the rights to this tense and haunting horror film set in Tehran during the 1980s. Directed by Babak Anvari, the Farsi film centers on an aspiring doctor named Shideh (Narges Rashidi) who wants to continue her medical studies but faces pushback because she’s done political activism. As the story develops, supernatural forces seem to mix with the real-world horrors of war.
More here.
