Written and directed by Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney, the film “is set in the not-too-distant future, in a world where dreams are recorded and taxed by the government. Audley stars as an unassuming dream auditor who gets swept up in a cosmic journey through the life and dreams of an older eccentric (Penny Fuller).” Out of Sundance, IndieWire’s own Eric Kohn wrote that the film is a “visually entrancing and innovative fantasy” that was “shot on video and transferred to 16mm, [and] looks like some kind of lost ‘80s vision buried in the dustbin of the rental store....

But don’t let the relative lack of A-list names suggest that sales activity will be sluggish. Amid a dearth of production, streaming arms race, and the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel coming into view, buyers are hungry for new product. The result is an environment where theatrical distributors are bracing for competition from streamers for titles that are usually their bread and butter, while buyers of all breeds are expecting to consider films that in other years they might have passed on....

For one thing, one of the films booked for last year’s canceled festival is in the 2021 selection, as TFF co-director Julie Huntsinger welcomed rookie filmmaker Max Lowe back with “Torn,” the true story of a family hit hard by the loss of his father, legendary mountaineer Alex Lowe, killed in a Tibet avalanche in 1999. Much like Bing Liu’s Oscar-winning “Minding the Gap,” “Torn” explores untapped emotions as Lowe seeks answers to complex and uncharted family dynamics, helped by his younger brothers, his mother, and her second husband, his father’s mountain partner, Conrad Anker, who returned from Tibet wracked with survivor guilt....

When John reveals the racist origins of his nickname for his blonde wife (whom he thinks is white), without the faintest hint of shame, Irene cannot stop herself from bursting out in a fit of nervous laughter. The spell goes on slightly too long for comfort, and the tension of the moment recedes only briefly before rebuilding with each cackling crescendo. Will her outburst raise flags, or further her own cover?...

It set me up for a lifetime of appreciating high drama, grand spectacle — and the unlikely comedic potential of cannibalism. As last year’s Zoom-ified 90th birthday celebration for Sondheim proved, performing his songs is no small task. Numbers like “Send in The Clowns,” “Ladies Who Lunch,” and “Being Alive” are five-act plays in and of themselves, and as such have been interpreted and re-interpreted by every musical theater performer worth the price of a Broadway ticket....

[Editor’s note: This list has been updated with new additions on May 4, 2022. It was last updated on March 6, 2020.] “One more time: Animation is a medium, not a genre — Animation is film,” Guillermo del Toro said earlier this year. IndieWire couldn’t agree more, and yet animation, an art form that requires the most precise control of the cinematic medium, is continually disrespected. Following a presentation at the Oscars this year that, in the words of animation wizards Phil Lord and Chris Miller, framed “the five Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Feature as a corporate product for kids that parents must begrudgingly endure,” the directing duo called upon the Academy to do better by animation....

BEN TRAVERS: On Thursday, the Gotham Film and Media Institute announced its annual awards show, the Gotham Awards, would be eliminating the Best Actor and Best Actress categories in favor of gender-neutral groupings that highlight Lead and Supporting performers. In addition, it tweaked the title of its Breakthrough Actor honor to Breakthrough Performer (even though, as we’re reminded every year during the SAG Awards, “actor” is already a gender-neutral term) and added two additional TV categories: Outstanding Performance in a New Series (the Gotham’s first acting honor for television) and Breakthrough Nonfiction Series, both of which will join the pre-existing categories for Long-Form (60-minute episodes) and Short-Form (30 min) Breakthrough Series....