Sundance: Apple Acquires CODA, Netflix Snags PASSING

Sundance: Apple Acquires CODA, Netflix Snags PASSING

03 Feb, 2021

The 2021 Sundance Film Festival (January 28 – February 3, 2021) wraps its first virtual and hybrid event with a number of movie sales. We caught various award-winning film screenings from the comfort of our living room couch with last night’s awards ceremony revealing winners such as “CODA” (2021), written and directed by Sian Heder (“Orange is the New Black,” “Little America”), which won awards in four categories, U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic , the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic, the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast, as well as the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, Presented by Acura.

For the full list of winners, visit Sundance.org.

CODA (2021) | Winner of U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

CODA (2021) | Winner of U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

“CODA,” which featured a talented and entertaining ensemble cast consisting of just one hearing actor, Emelia Jones (“Brimstone,” “High-Rise”), and the rest deaf actors, is a charming, humorous, witty, smart and heartwarming feature that was recently acquired by Apple for a $25M+ deal. The film follows a family of fishermen who are surviving, but barely making ends meet as they face prejudice and discrimination as a result of their disability. However, their home and family life is filled with of love and affection for one another, coupled with feelings of anger and frustration due to being stuck in their situation. With academic and career aspirations of becoming a singer and attending music school, Ruby (Jones) faces the challenge of being torn between helping her family’s business succeed and striving for her own goals as a young girl with the desire to leave her small hometown to become more.

“Passing” (2021), which was snagged by Netflix for a $15M+ deal, is Rebecca Hall’s (“Teen Spirit,” “Holmes & Watson”) directorial debut (based on the novella by Nella Larsen) and featured outstanding and moving performances led by Tessa Thompson (“Creed,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Dear White People”) and Ruth Negga (“Loving,” “Agents of Shield”), as well as Andre Holland (“Moonlight,” Selma,” “42”) and Alexander Skarsgard (“The Legend of Tarzan,” “Big Little Lies,” “True Blood”).

The film, about two women who both can pass as white, but choose to live on opposite sides of the color divide, one in white society, the other in the heart of Harlem, confronts controversial social, racial, class and gender issues at a crucial time in history. Hall brings to the surface insights and conversations on these themes in the midst of today’s sociopolitical climate in a way that has not been addressed in a film before.

Passing director Rebecca Hall

“Passing” director Rebecca Hall

The director exclaimed that she “remains in complete awe of [the] slim 95 page puzzle box of a novel that the brilliant Nella Larsen wrote in 1929. Is it about race? Is it about gender? Is it about class…marriage or is it about sexuality?”

Listen to the full “Passing” 2021 Sundance Film Festival Q&A on Scooped Podcast presented by Dig IN Magazine

Hall does an amazing job with her choice of using black and white film, the cinematography and having her character’s express emotions such as frustration, confusion, happiness and the contrasting feelings of freedom and confinement in highly effective ways that make the audience feel what the the actors are conveying.

Jockey’s (2021) Clinton Collins, Jr. was honored with the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Actor

“Jockey’s” (2021) Clinton Collins, Jr. was honored with the
US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Actor

“Jockey’s” (2021) Clinton Collins, Jr. (“Star Trek,” “Capote”) was honored with the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Actor. The film directed by first-time director Clint Bentley and co-written by Bentley and Greg Kwedar, also staring Moises Arias (“Ender’s Game,” “The Kings of Summer”) and Molly Parker (“Pieces of a Woman,” “Deadwood”), is about an aging award-winning jockey who gets his final chance to win a race with a promising thoroughbred. Jackson (Collins) doesn’t want to give up his life-long passion of horse racing and does all he can to “stay in the saddle” against all odds.

One for the Road won the World Cinema Dramatic special Jury Award for Creative Vision

“One for the Road” was awarded the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision

And “One for the Road,” (2021) directed by Baz Poonpiriya (“Bad Genius”) and produced by Kar-Wai Wong (“The Grandmaster”), won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. This film was full of adventure and youthful excitement as it takes us on a road trip with two friends, more like brothers, where one friend asks his buddy to help him check off his bucket list before he dies and visit everyone of his ex-girlfriends to make amends. Truths are revealed as certain relationships are either ended or mended.

As the reimagined 2021 Sundance Film Festival has come to an end, we are so grateful to all those involved that put in their time, energy and efforts to make this year’s festival enjoyable (as always) to all who attended and participated. Congrats to all the winners and thanks to the Sundance staff and all the filmmakers!

The Sundance Film Festival®
The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Clemency, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Zola, On The Record, Boys State, The Farewell, Honeyland, One Child Nation, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Precious, The Cove, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Napoleon Dynamite, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Reservoir Dogs and sex, lies, and videotape. The Festival is a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute. 2021 Festival sponsors to date include: Presenting Sponsors – Acura, SundanceTV, Chase Sapphire, Adobe; Leadership Sponsors – Amazon Studios, AT&T, DoorDash, Dropbox, Netflix, Omnicom Group, Southwest Airlines® , WarnerMedia; Sustaining Sponsors – AMC, Audible, Canada Goose, Canon U.S.A., Inc., Dell Technologies, Documentary Plus, GEICO, IMDbPro, Stella Artois®, Unity Technologies, University of Utah Health, White Claw Hard Seltzer, Zoom; Media Sponsors – The Atlantic, IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New York Times, Variety, Vulture, The Wall Street Journal. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival’s costs and sustain the Institute’s year-round programs for independent artists. sundance.org/festival

Sundance Institute
As a champion and curator of independent stories for the stage and screen, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, film composing, and digital media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature Labs, granting, and mentorship programs which are dedicated to developing new work and take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally, are supported largely through contributed revenue. Sundance Co//ab, a digital community platform, brings artists together to learn from each other and Sundance Advisors and connect in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as Clemency, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Zola, On The Record, Boys State, The Farewell, Honeyland, One Child Nation, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Fruitvale Station, City So Real, Top of the Lake, Between the World & Me, Wild Goose Dreams and Fun Home. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

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About the author

Cindy Maram

Cindy Maram is a Dancer, Public Speaker and our Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the entertainment, fashion and arts publication, Dig IN Magazine. She is an accredited film critic for Cannes Film Festival in the South of France, Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, SFFilm Festival and CAAMFest, as well as a runway fashion photographer and editor for London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. She also serves as a professional sports photographer and writer. She is a prolific art critic providing media coverage for Art Basel Miami Beach and surrounding Miami Art Week fairs. As a creator, Cindy is a writer, vlogger, podcaster, social media strategist and manager possessing a Bachelor's Degree from UC Davis and Master's Degree completing graduate work in Mass Communications + Popular Culture Studies with an emphasis in Film/Marketing/Writing from Cal State Fullerton. Further, she is producer of independent feature length and short films, and is committed to supporting the visibility of underrepresented groups in the media and film industry.

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