James Mangold misses the era when movies weren’t embarrassed to make audiences feel something. The director of the Bob Dylan musical biopic “A Complete Unknown” and comic book adaptation “Logan” believes there’s a growing hostility to films that wear “their hearts on their sleeve.”
“Most of my generation, my peers, have been generally fascinated by irony or detachment. I never felt completely at home in that idiom because I felt those [films] were cool and clever, but not necessarily moving,” the newly minted Oscar nominee said at Sundance’s annual gala on Friday night, where he was feted with the second-ever Trailblazer Award (the first was bestowed to Christoper Nolan in 2024). “Movies that put their feelings on the line, the way we talk about them and use words like melodramatic or chewing the scenery or too much, we kill some of the fearlessness [of directors].”
Mangold expressed his excitement in returning to Sundance, where the filmmaker got his start in 1994 when he attended the Sundance Lab to develop the script for “Cop Land.” He was back the following year with his first feature, “Heavy,” which won the directing prize. He’s since made films that span genres and styles, from unsettling dramas (“Girl, Interrupted”) and superhero sequels (“Logan” and “The Wolverine”) to big-budget blockbusters (“Ford v Ferrari” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”) and portrayals of musical greats (“Walk the Line” and “A Complete Unknown”). His latest film earned him Academy Award nominations for best director, adapted screenplay and best picture.
“[Filmmakers] don’t make anesthesia,” he said while accepting his award at the annual fundraiser, held at Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Park City. “We don’t need to make things that help people pass idle time.”
At this point in his remarks, someone in the back of the room shouted, “That’s what TikTok is for!”
A flustered Mangold wasn’t sure if the heckler was agreeing with him. “Did you like that or didn’t like it?” he asked, to which the bold audience member replied: “I loved it!”
After collecting his thoughts, Mangold concluded, “In this time of irony and snark and internet nightmares, we need sincerity and earnestness more than ever. That doesn’t mean every film needs to be a history lesson or depressing or weepy. It just means we shouldn’t be embarrassed to feel shit and show it.”
The importance of arts in the culture was a recurring theme of the night. “Never before in the history of mankind has the voice of the artists been more vital — to speak truth to power, to keep us connected to our humanity,” Glenn Close said while introducing Sundance Institute’s founding director Michelle Satter. In an emotional speech, Satter, who was embraced with a standing ovation, tearfully told the audience that her Palisades home burned down in the Los Angeles wildfires. “Leading with love and building community is our essential way forward,” Satter, who was one of Sundance founder Robert Redford’s first ever hires, said.
Other guests, adhering to the “mountain chic” dress code, included Jon Hamm, Joel Edgerton, Olivia Colman, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” director Marielle Heller, “Sorry to Bother You” filmmaker Boots Riley and “Survivor” svengali Mark Burnett, president Donald Trump’s recently appointed special envoy to the United Kingdom. Sara Bareilles closed the evening with a two-song set, first performing a ballad she wrote for the new Sundance film “Come See Me in the Good Light,” as well as the “She Used to Be Mine” from her Broadway hit “Waitress.”
Colman presented the night’s Visionary Award to Cynthia Erivo, who just received her third Oscar nomination, this time for playing Elphaba in “Wicked.” Colman, wearing a “Wicked”-esque tiara, recounted her first time seeing Erivo on screen, in Steve McQueen’s 2018 heist thriller “Widows.”
“I thought, now there’s a bright, young American woman who is going places,” Colman recalled, only to discover that Erivo is, indeed, English and has a British accent.
While accepting the trophy, Erivo picked up the bedazzled crown that Colman left on the podium and adjusted it to her head. “It must be worn,” she said. “That’s the point of it.”
Erivo, who is only an Academy Award away from EGOT status, having won a Grammy and Emmy for her performance as Celie in the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple,” said she had to look up the definition of visionary upon hearing she’d be receiving this honor.
“Yes, I know what it means. But what does it mean,” she said. “A visionary is someone who can see into the future. I’ve never considered myself as a person who can see what’s to come. I’ve been blindly following what I think might be my path. I put one foot in front of the other and keep chipping away at the road until I can reach my destination.”
