PARK CITY,Watch Ava Online Utah -- "Most-anticipated Sundance movies" lists are like New Year's resolutions: Everybody makes one, and they all come to pieces by the end of January.
Figuring out which films to see at the largest U.S. film festival really is a big turkey-shoot in a snowstorm: Sure, you can look for clues -- directors you admire, actors you've kinda-sorta heard of, loglines that pique the imagination -- and none of it is a reliable guide.
SEE ALSO: Chelsea Handler to lead 'Women's March' at the Sundance Film FestivalUnless, that is, someone seeks a broad consensus. Fellow Sundancers, we are that someone.
For a third year in a row, Mashablehas surveyed a broad swath of top movie writers' annual "most-anticipated" lists to give you an idea what to look out for as the annual indie fest kicks off Thursday. We found a dozen publications that put lists together and aggregated the results by total number of mentions.
(Thanks to the following sites for participating this year: Film School Rejects, Slashfilm, Uproxx, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Travelers Today, Daily Herald, The Film Stage, FirstShowing, Vulture, IndieWire and Variety.)
The results were ... well, pretty spooky this year:
The undisputed winner: Casey Affleck in a white sheet
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable A Ghost Story"Most Anticipated" mentions: 10Starring:Casey Affleck, Rooney MaraDirector:David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Pete's Dragon)Premieres:Sunday at the Library Center Theatre, 12:15 p.m.Logline:Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara reunite with Ain't Them Bodies Saintsdirector David Lowery for this story of a man who dies too young and returns to his home -- which he's destined to haunt forever. Covered in a white sheet, he watches his former lover roil in grief as years go by. And if that doesn't send a shiver up your spine, the brutal winter storm headed for Park City in the coming days surely will.
A 3-way tie for runner-up
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Call Me By Your Name"Most Anticipated" mentions:8Starring:Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du BoisDirector:Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love)Premieres:Sunday at the Eccles Theatre, 6:15 p.m. Logline: Set in Italy in the early 1980s, a teenager (Timothée Chalamet) is whiling away the days at his family's 17th Century villa, flirting with his friend Marzia -- until along comes a twentysomething scholar (Hammer) to throw his teen libido into an unforeseen tailspin.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable The Big Sick"Most Anticipated" mentions:8 Starring:Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam KherDirector:Michael Showalter (episodes of Netflix shows Grace and Frankieand Love)Premieres:Friday at the Eccles Theatre, 6:15 p.m. Logline: The Big Sickis based on a true story written by it stars, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, a real-life couple who faced their families' compunctions about inter-cultural dating. Showalter, a veteran of many a Sundance past as an actor, returns for this comedy produced by Judd Apatow.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Mudbound"Most Anticipated" mentions:8 Starring:Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, Jason Mitchell, Garrett HedlundDirector:Dee Rees (Pariah)Premieres:Saturday at the Eccles Theatre, 6:15 p.m. Logline: With one of the starrier ensemble casts at this year's festival, Mudbound is described as an "epic pioneer story" based on the novel by Hillary Jordan. Two families struggle against social norms as they struggle to build their dreams in the post-WWII South.
Top 'most anticipated' docs
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and the Trials of a Free Press"Most Anticipated" mentions:6 Director:Brian Knappenberger (The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz)Premieres:Tuesday at the Library Cener Theatre, 3 p.m. Logline: Allthe cool journalism kids will be in line to see the story of how a washed-up professional wrestler took down online tabloid Gawkerafter it posted a sex tape, sparking off a First Amendment battle heard 'round the newsroom. Hogan won the case, Gawkerfounder Nick Denton lost his empire and we all scored a documentary that you'd better show up early to get a seat for, brother.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable An Inconvenient Sequel"Most Anticipated" mentions: 5 Directors:Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk (Audrie & Daisy)Premieres:Thursday at the Eccles Theatre, 5:30 p.m. Logline: The climate-change-as-entertainment movement started 10 years ago with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and now global warming is its own section at Sundance, the New Climate program. An Inconvenient Sequel will kick off the entire festival on Thursday night, with Gore once again traveling around the world for his favorite cause. And get this: Gore thinks there's still time to turn things around.
Other feature films with multiple 'most anticipated' mentions
Seven each:Wind RiverThe DiscoveryLandline
Six each:Marjorie PrimeXXThe Polka KingThe Yellow Birds
Five each:ManifestoBeach RatsWilson
Four each:Band AidIngrid Goes WestCrown HeightsGolden ExitsBeatriz at Dinner78/52Icarus
Also receiving multiple mentions: Casting JonBenet, The Incredible Jessica James, The Little Hours, Columbus, Roxanne Roxanne, Kuso, Come Swim, The Hero, Novitiate, To the Bone, City of Ghosts, Rebel in the Rye, I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore, Berlin Syndrome, Sidney Hall, Burning Sands, Killing Ground, Tokyo Idols, Where is Kyra?, Walking Out, Brigsby Bear.
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