In an episodic memoir capturing the breadth of Willie Nelson’s personal and professional life, director Thom Zimny’s (BFA 1990 Film and Video) Willie Nelson & Family draws upon close friends, family and Nelson himself to tell the story of the American country music icon. The short film Take Me Home, produced and with cinematography by Minos Papas (BFA 2004 Film and Video), follows a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister as they learn to communicate following their mother’s death.

At Slamdance, Bill Plympton (1969 Cartooning) created the title animation for Downwind, a documentary about the 1951 – 1992 nuclear testing in Mercury, Nevada and the people affected by the radioactive fallout—with a particular focus on the Shoshone Nation.

The episodic series Who's Annie?, directed and co-written by Sophia Peer (MFA 2006 Photography, Video and Related Media), follows Annie, an ex-convict in her mid-fifties looking to begin her acting career with the help of a young director she met at a Burger King in Queens.

While an in-person return has been highly anticipated by audiences and filmmakers alike, online streaming at Sundance is available for select screenings beginning Tuesday, January 24, expanding reach and accessibility to those who will not be able to attend the physical festival. As Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente recently told Variety, “We have the potential to reach emerging filmmakers and students all over the U.S. and other countries. Our challenge is to build out our programs and find a way to continue making them more accessible.”

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival runs from Thursday, January 19, to Sunday, January 29, with tickets available at festival.sundance.org. Several free public talks are also available on Sundance’s platform. This year’s Slamdance Film Festival runs from Friday, January 20, to Sunday, January 29, with festival passes available via slamdance.com/festival.

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