The Sundance Institute has unveiled a dozen independent television series for the upcoming festival in the second year of its Indie Episodics section, including works by Nick Hornby and Kyra Sedgwick.
Sundance also announced on Monday that its Special Events section will include the new season of IFC’s documentary parody series “Documentary Now!” and Gregg Araki’s upcoming Starz show “Now Apocalypse,” executive produced by Steven Soderbergh. The shorts section will include 73 short films from 33 countries chosen from 9,443 submissions — 4,720 from the U.S. and 4,723 international.
Of the projects announced on Monday, 53% were directed or created by one or more women, 51% were directed or created by one or more filmmaker of color, and 26% by one or more people who identify as LGBTQIA. And 12 were supported by Sundance Institute in development.
Kim Yutani, the festival’s director of programming, said, “Our newly-expanded programming team took in a full spectrum of human experience across genres and formats in creating this year’s Festival program. Following the success of last year’s inaugural Indie Episodic section, we’re immensely proud to showcase these stories told across installments, alongside several provocative, conversation-starting Special Events.”
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Horby’s “State of the Union,” directed by Stephen Frears, stars Rosamund Pike and Chris O’Dowd, portraying an estranged couple who meets at a pub to try and get their story straight for a therapy session. Sedgwick directed “Girls Weekend” — created by Ali Liebegott — which chronicles a girls’ trip to Las Vegas and stars Liebegott, Linda Lavin, Amy Landecker, and Ken Jenkens.
Other shows in the lineup include “Bootstrapped,” created by Danielle Uhlarik and directed by Stephanie Laing; “Delhi Crime Story” from director and screenwriter Richie Mehta; “Delivery Girl” from Kate Krieger; “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” from Becky Sloan, Joseph Pelling, and Baker Terry; and “The Dress Up Gang” from Robb Boardman, Cory Loykasek, and Donny Divanian.