Past Lives, Promising Young Woman, Minari, Get Out, Whiplash, and Best Picture winner CODA all made their debuts at the Sundance Film Festival.
As the only major film festival that has taken place for this season’s crop of Oscar contenders, is there anything that debuted this year that you should expect to make waves?
It’s worth noting, by the way, that no film from last year’s Sundance Film Festival made the BP 10 with Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain just missing the cut. The 2022 festival also struck out, and typically no more than one film makes the cut for Best Picture in any given year.
With that in mind, it seems to me that it is down to two options for the Best Picture race, although my predictions last week didn’t have either of those films making the cut in the Top 10 as I just haven’t picked up the same buzz from these as I did in 2023 from Past Lives.
But if any two were going to have a shot, it would be Train Dreams and Sorry, Baby.
Train Dreams stars Joel Edgerton and is being hailed by most movie publications as the movie with the best shot at sneaking into the Best Picture race this year. That prediction is bolstered by Netflix acquiring the film, possibly as a major Oscar play from the studio. But remember, Netflix is also going to have Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein on its plate. I could easily see that stealing the studio’s attention. Call Train Dreams a backup plan.
Maybe Sorry, Baby is a backup plan for A24 as well. The studio has already dumped big bucks into Marty Supreme and The Smashing Machine and given them solid release dates. It’s entirely possible that Sorry, Baby written, directed by, and starring Eva Victor is not the kind of movie to make it into this race.
While critics have pushed Train Dreams harder, Sorry, Baby has the slight edge on Letterboxd with a 4.0 rating compared to Train Dreams’ 3.7. That might be pedantic, but it’s what we’re working with.