Sundance 2023 features a documentary about Michael J. Fox and the Cat Person drama

What is the next “CODA”?

That’s the big question for the Sundance Film Festival, which announced its 2023 program of 99 films on Wednesday.

Director Sian Heder’s heartwarming indie about a hearing girl with deaf parents and a deaf brother won the Best Picture Oscar back in March – a first for the Festival of 44-Year-Olds in Park City, Utah. Apple was smart to buy the film in 2021 for a cool $25 million.

The glamorous mountain gathering will return to in-person premieres for the first time since January 2020; However, it will retain its popular streaming platform. During the second week of the festival, many of the films will be available to view online from across the US.

The January list is short on big-name directors and big projects expected. But at Sundance, it’s the discovery of new gems like “CODA” that gets everyone talking.

A real hit is “Cat Person” in the premiere program. Based on the New Yorker’s viral 2017 story about the dangers of modern dating, the film, directed by Susanna Fogel, will star CODA’s Emilia Jones and Succession’s Nicholas Braun.

Other notable premieres include director William Oldroyd’s Eileen, starring Anne Hathaway, set in a Massachusetts prison; Sophie Barthes’ The Pod Generation, a sci-fi rom-com starring Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor; and Nicole Holofcener’s You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies.

Over in the US Dramatic Competition category, Ben Platt and Noah Galvin are leading “Theater Camp,” a comedy about a summer vacation hitting hard times, and “Magazine Dreams,” starring Jonathan Majors as the amateur bodybuilder, which is hot is Good Past Sundance drama “Jockey.”

The festival has released some great documentaries in recent years, including Boys State and Three Identical Strangers. Expect “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” an in-depth look into the life of the Back to the Future actor, to be a topic of conversation. The same applies to “Little Richard: I Am Everything” about the singer who died in 2020.

The Sundance Film Festival will take place on January 19-29, 2023 in Park City, Utah.