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Film

Jason Segel co-stars in sci-fi film The Discovery by Charlie McDowell.

Sequel to Al Gore's enviro-doc and film portraying a bloodbath in America's hipster mecca could turn heads outside of festival

Each year, the Sundance Film Festival offers the cynical critic an opportunity to play a fun, if cruel, game: Which movies will survive their trips up the mountain?

Robert Redford's Park City, Utah, festival has, since its inception almost 40 years ago, shone a much-needed spotlight on independent cinema. This is the fest that launched the careers of Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and Paul Thomas Anderson. (And, also, Kevin Smith.) And it's at Sundance where one of this year's hottest Oscar prospects first found its legs (Manchester by the Sea).

But as the ever-shifting film landscape endures some seismic pressures– how will Hollywood appease China's growing market? What to do about the rise of streaming services? Who is going to pay attention to quirky dramadies when there's a dozen spandex-clad superhero crotches rubbing against your face? – a good chunk of Sundance programming can find itself completely forgotten once outside the cozy festival ecosphere.

As the 2017 Sundance Film Festival kicks off this week, here's a best-guess preview of which 10 Park City titles might end up capturing attention outside of the hot-house festival environment.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Late last year, I wrote that this year's Sundance lineup reads like an accidental syllabus for Anti-Trump 101, and Al Gore's follow-up to his 2006 enviro-doc is a perfect example of the fest's liberal leanings. Like the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, this new film is directed by Davis Guggenheim, but instead of just following another Gore slide-show presentation on how truly doomed the Earth is, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power tracks the former U.S. vice-president across the globe as he witnesses the effects of climate change first-hand. Expect it to capture the zeitgeist in a particular way, especially as its world premiere was to hit the day before Donald Trump's inauguration.

The Big Sick: Director Michael Showalter may still be best known for his stellar work in the alt-comedy sphere (Stella, Wet Hot American Summer), but he's also been building a solid reputation with his more dramatic work, including last year's sleeper hit, Hello, My Name Is Doris, and TBS's thrilling mystery series, Search Party. Showalter dips his toes into both the comedy and drama worlds with this new film, written by the husband-and-wife team of Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon and exploring their real-life courtship.

The film doesn't yet have a distributor, but with Showalter's bona fides and Nanjiani's rising profile (he's the highlight of everything from Silicon Valley to Portlandia), the film has the potential of being an easily marketable crowd pleaser.

A second U.S. civil war starts in the streets of America’s hipster mecca in Bushwick.

Bushwick: This might sound like another low-key ode to the whimsical wonders of Brooklyn, N.Y., but Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott's latest collaboration promises what so many borough haters have secretly longed for: a bloodbath on the streets of America's hipster mecca. On her way to visit family in the Bushwick neighbourhood, Lucy (Brittany Snow) runs up against the start of a second U.S. civil war, with militia forces from Texas invading New York.

Her only saviour? A no-nonsense war vet ( Guardians of the Galaxy's deadpan Dave Bautista). Expect Murnion and Milott's follow-up to Cooties to darkly mirror the culture war looming in Sundance's background.

City of Ghosts: The shadow of Trump looms once more here, with the incoming president's Syria policy given a stark counterpoint in this documentary from Matthew Heineman (of Oscar-nominated Cartel Land fame).

Here, Heineman tracks the citizen journalists who banded together after Raqqa was ravaged by the Islamic State. In what's already looking like an especially strong Sundance doc lineup, expect this film to stand out and echo throughout the headlines the rest of the year.

A smart, socially conscious distributor should snap it up quickly – or, more likely, Netflix, as it looks to further build its doc roster.

Rooney Mara could help launch existential sci-fi drama The Discovery to a wider market after it screens at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

The Discovery: Charlie McDowell's 2014 sci-fi romance, The One I Love, is a perfect example of middling Sundance success: After it debuted at the festival to great acclaim, it was released by the Weinstein Company to only a half-muted response, earning just more than $500,000 (U.S.) theatrically. But still, a theatrical release is a success in itself – at least it didn't disappear into the video-on-demand void.

Here's hoping for bigger and better things with McDowell's follow-up, which boasts Sundance's own Robert Redford as a man who proves that the afterlife definitively exists. Marquee co-stars Jason Segel and Rooney Mara should help propel the existential sci-fi drama to a wider market.

Sam Elliott plays an aging western movie icon who re-evaluates his life after a cancer diagnosis in The Hero.

The Hero: Director Brett Haley found himself with a secret success with 2015's I'll See You in My Dreams, a senior-centric romance that featured memorable turns from Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott. Now, Haley reteams with Elliott for this character study about an aging western-movie icon who re-evaluates his life after a cancer diagnosis. If spun right, Elliot could be looking at the kind of late-career showcase that awards campaigns are built on. But honestly, any chance to hear Elliott's baritone-deep voice is a treat not to be taken for granted.

Marjorie Prime: Here, we have an "if only" type of situation. If only this film was from director Michael Almereyda (Hamlet), it would be enough. If only this film featured a lead role for the screen legend Lois Smith, it would be enough. If only it was scored by Mica Levi (Under the Skin, Jackie), it would be enough.

And if only Jon Hamm was along for the ride, too, it would be enough. But lucky for everyone, this Black Mirror-sounding drama about a widow (Smith) who uses a hologram to digitally resurrect her dead husband (Hamm) employs all those wonderful, disparate elements. Expect Smith's lead performance to ensure the film avoids the fate of Almereyda's previous film, the sadly underrated Experimenter.

Mudbound: Dee Rees may not yet be a household name, but for anyone fortunate enough to catch her 2011 indie, Pariah, or her stellar HBO biopic, Bessie, it's clear Rees is a bold, ferocious talent just waiting for a spotlight. Here, Rees and co-writer Virgil Williams adapt Hillary Jordan's Hatfield/McCoy-like novel following two warring families in the 1940s American South. Starring Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Carey Mulligan and Breaking Bad's Jonathan Banks, Mudbound might be the film to finally break Rees into the cultural consciousness.

Brian Knappenberger’s doc Nobody Speak follows the rise and fall of Gawker.

Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press: Just how would have last year's U.S. presidential election gone down if Gawker had been a going concern? That's the question audiences will likely be asking themselves after watching Brian Knappenberger's doc on the rise and fall of Nick Denton's gossip empire – a behemoth taken down, wildly enough, by the human behemoth known as Hulk Hogan.

Wind River: Taylor Sheridan has had quite the rise these past two years. Although some might remember him best for his brief turn on Sons of Anarchy (okay, maybe it's just me), Sheridan cemented his name as the go-to writer for neo-westerns, having penned the scripts for Sicario and last summer's breakout hit, Hell or High Water.

Now, he's making his directorial debut with this intense-looking thriller set on a Native American reservation, starring Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen and Sicario villain Jon Bernthal.

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival runs until Jan. 29 (sundance.org).