(AP) — Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck remember the feeling of being the new kids at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2004, they’d come to Park City, Utah, armed with a short film “Gowanus, Brooklyn,” some homemade promotional postcards and dreams of breaking through. Their short not only won a prize that year but also enough support to make the feature version, “Half Nelson,” which would later earn Ryan Gosling his first Oscar nomination.
“I remember being like, oh my God, this festival has been around 20 years, it’s such an old festival,” Boden said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Now it’s 20 years later and we’re the old people.”
Of course, “old” is relative when it comes to a discovery festival like Sundance, where directors fresh out of film school can get a shot at a breakthrough. Remember, Kevin Smith was just 23 when he brought “Clerks” to Park City. Like many of their contemporaries who started at Sundance — including Steven Soderbergh, who is also coming with a new film, “Presence” — Boden and Fleck have gone on to bigger projects, including “Captain Marvel.”
But the Sundance romance hasn’t dulled.
Their new film debuts Thursday, the opening night of the 40th edition of the festival, at the storied Eccles Theater. “Freaky Tales” is a love letter to Fleck’s hometown, Oakland, in the 1980s — its sports, music, history and the movies of the time — featuring Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, Dominique Thorne and Ben Mendelsohn.
“It’s a movie lover’s movie,” Boden teased. “It has one foot in reality and then one foot just launches off into fantasy.”
The first day also boasts the world premieres of several high-profile documentaries, including Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine’s “Girls State,” Yance Ford’s “Power” and “Frida,” directed by Emmy-nominated editor Carla Gutiérrez, and playing in the U.S. documentary competition.
As an immigrant and a former art student, Gutiérrez has long admired Frida Kahlo. In “Frida,” she uses Kahlo’s words from her diary, letters and essays to let the artist tell her own story.
“Uncovering her own words and her own voice, I think what we’re presenting is a new way of getting into her world and in her mind and her heart and really understanding the art in a more intimate, raw way,” Gutiérrez said.
Other anticipated documentaries playing across various sections include “Daughters,” about four young girls reuniting with their incarcerated fathers at a dance, “Gaucho Gaucho,” from “The Truffle Hunters” filmmakers, “Sue Bird: In the Clutch,” “DEVO,” “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” “Seeking Mavis Beacon,” and “The Greatest Night in Pop,” featuring never-before-seen footage about the making of “We Are The World.” The programmers are also predicting that “Will & Harper,” about a road trip Will Ferrell takes with his friend of 30 years who has come out as a trans woman, will be a big crowd pleaser.
As always, an army of celebrities are expected to descend on Park City, including Kristen Stewart, with two buzzy films ("Love Me" and “Love Lies Bleeding”), Saoirse Ronan, Kieran Culkin, Sebastian Stan, Glen Powell, Woody Harrelson, Steven Yeun, Lucy Liu, Danielle Deadwyler, Aubrey Plaza, Melissa Barrera and Laura Linney.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is also bringing his sophomore feature, “Rob Peace,” a biographical drama about the tragically short life of a brilliant kid from East Orange, New Jersey, which he wrote, directed and co-stars in alongside Jay Will, Mary J. Blige and Camila Cabello.
“I’ve been fortunate to be there many times as an actor and a director as well,” Ejiofor said. “It’s a dream to take this film there as well. It’s an American story, it’s an independent film and it wants to sit in that world.”