Jennifer Connelly to Jonathan Majors, 10 to watch at Sundance 2023

Paik, who was born in Japanese-occupied Korea, not only became a member of the experimental art movement Fluxus but was something of a prophet when it came to the internet, even coining the term “electronic superhighway”.

The executive producer of Kim’s film is Minari star Steven Yeun, who also voices Paik’s words throughout the film.

Randall Park, the American actor of Korean descent famed for his role as Jimmy Woo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, returns with his debut feature as a director, Shortcomings.

Based on a graphic novel by Adrian Tomine, it is set in San Francisco’s Bay Area and follows a cynical cinema manager, played by Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy), and traces his faltering relationship with his girlfriend (Ally Maki).

Given Park’s experience in television comedy – notably Fresh Off the Boat, which ran for six seasons – the hope is that he has brought this skill set to a film that’s been described as “a hilariously irreverent examination of racial politics, sexual mores, and pop culture”.

Like mother, like daughter. Jane Campion brought her sibling tale Sweetie to Sundance in 1990, and now it’s the turn of her offspring Alice Englert.

Known for her performances in Ginger & Rosa and her mother’s TV mystery Top of the Lake, Englert makes her directorial debut with Bad Behaviour, from a script she wrote.

Part of the World Dramatic selection, the film stars Jennifer Connelly in her first major role since Top Gun: Maverick. She plays Lucy, a former child actor who, in the search for enlightenment, heads to a retreat run by Ben Whishaw’s guru. Englert also co- stars in this delicious-sounding dark comedy.

While his father, David, made a belated return to filmmaking last year with Crimes of the Future, Brandon Cronenberg’s own career is going from strength to strength.

After Antiviral and Possessor, his third feature is another high-concept sci-fi/horror. Playing in the Midnights section, the film stars Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth as a couple holidaying at a luxury island resort with something weird going on close by.

A gorier version of The White Lotus? Maybe. Certainly, it’ll be grisly. When the film was originally submitted for classification in America, it picked up an NC-17 certificate, recalling the furore that his father’s film Crash found itself in.

Infinity Pool has been recut to get a more palatable R rating, but still, it looks tasty.

Filipino writer-director Kenneth Dagatan’s second feature is the only non-English-language film showing in the festival’s Midnight section. It comes with a warning that it contains “extreme violence and gore” and “may not be suitable for all audiences”.

Set in the Philippines in 1945, this fantasy piece weaves Catholicism and Filipino folklore into a story based around an affluent family living in an isolated country mansion. Already tormented by Japanese soldiers, their plight worsens when the young daughter of the family puts her trust in a flesh-eating fairy.

Actor-turned-director Justin Chon made a real impression with his last film Blue Bayou, which dug into the story of Korean adoptees forced to leave America.

His new film, Jamojaya – another showing in the Premieres category – tells of James, an Indonesian rapper, and the strain inflicted on his relationship with his father, his former manager, as he arrives in Hawaii to cut his first album for a US label.

Sing J. Lee, a first-generation British-born Chinese filmmaker, has already crafted himself an exciting reputation in music videos, working with Muse, The Killers and Alicia Keys among others. Now he makes his feature debut with The Accidental Getaway Driver, showing in the festival’s US Dramatic Competition strand.

Inspired by a true story, it stars veteran actor Hiep Tran Nghia as Long, a Vietnamese cab driver in southern California who reluctantly takes a late-night fare, only to be held up by three escaped convicts.

Speaking to the immigrant experience, and feelings of dislocation and isolation, it looks set to show a more sensitive, nuanced side to Lee’s work.

Nicole Holofcener is a Sundance veteran, having made her festival debut in 1996 with Walking and Talking.

Her latest film, You Hurt My Feelings, showing in this year’s Premieres strand, is her fourth to be featured in Park City, and sees her reunite with actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who starred in the director’s well-liked 2013 film Enough Said.

That was a knotty divorcee drama, and this film also centres on marriage, with Louis-Dreyfus playing Beth, a New York novelist whose world falls apart when she overhears her husband, Don (Tobias Menzies), admit that he doesn’t like her latest book. Another sophisticated treat awaits.

Jonathan Majors is arguably one of the hottest actors around. He appears in two major Hollywood movies, Rocky spin-off Creed III and Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, in which he plays the villainous Kang the Conqueror.

In Elijah Bynum’s character study Magazine Dreams, which features in the festival’s US Dramatic section, he will be seen as Killian Maddox, a young man who spends all his spare time working out, with dreams of bodybuilding superstardom.

For Majors, who is also credited as an executive producer, this is another showcase for his immense talent.

The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19 to January 30.

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