Guaranteed Sundance Scenario: Many if not most attending critics will over-rave about films they see (especially the Indiewire guys), and all but a fraction of these films will flatline or fizzle when they go out into the world.

From “#MeToo Issues Continue to Make an Impact on Sundance Films,” by Variety‘s Gregg Goldstein:

“Sundance fest director John Cooper and programming director Kim Yutani cite Janicza Bravo‘s Zola, Channing Godfrey Peoples’ beauty pageant chronicle Miss Juneteenth, Eliza Hittman’s teen pregnancy drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Eugene Ashe’s romance Sylvie’s Love as some of the U.S. Dramatic Competition films addressing #MeToo-related issues.

“Empowerment, as opposed to victim[hood], tends to be a driving force right now,” Cooper says.

“The movement has also affected what kinds of films are getting made, including Liz Garbus’s Premieres entry Lost Girls, a fact-based crime drama about missing sex workers.”