CHASING SUMMER
Section: Premieres
Director: Josephine Decker
Screenwriter: Iliza Shlesinger
Logline: After losing both her job and boyfriend, Jamie (Iliza Shlesinger) retreats to her small Texas hometown where friends and flings from a fateful high school summer turn her life upside down.
Panelists: director Josephine Decker, writer-producer-star Iliza Shlesinger, actors Garrett Wareing, Tom Welling, Aimee Garcia and Cassidy Freeman
Sales Agents: UTA, Cinetic
Premiered: Monday, January 26, Eccles Theatre 
Key Quotes: On what making movies gives her in comparison to stand-up, comedian Shlesinger told us, “I get to be serious. I get to have stillness. My stand-up, you know, there’s always a message, and I think with a screenplay, I get to be all of the things that I wish I could be. I get to write the quiet parts, and I get to write the parts that are deep in your heart that don’t always necessarily have a punchline. And I get to take a minute to be introspective and to reflect against other actors. I mean, the biggest thing is hiring people who are better than you and letting them do the heavy lifting. My stand-up is very sketch-based: I create vignettes in my stand-up. There’s a lot of characters; I get to play against characters; I get to create characters and give them what I want them to say, and I get to create these moments in every scene. And I get to hear dialogue out loud, and I really love doing that. I love the magic of sculpting a scene and writing the words that I feel people should be saying. And I get to take my time. The best part is, in an industry where you feel so powerless most of the time, every time I open my Final Draft, I get to feel so powerful. I get to be the master of this universe, and that is really a panacea on days where you do not feel at your best. You get to be everything in your document.”

On her next projects for the screen, she said, “Well, I’m a firm believer in, ‘Stay ready ain’t gotta get ready.’ So we have a couple of scripts that are already written. And obviously in selling this movie, I would like to see those come to fruition. So I have two other scripts. And we have, as always, a TV idea; we never stop pitching those. But what I would like to see from this is getting to work with more people who are better than I am at things that I don’t do. I think that’s what every actor and creator hopes for.”

Deadline’s Sundance Studio ran from January 23-26 at Trove Gallery, where the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup sat down to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Park City.

The 2026 Sundance Film Festival is taking place from January 22 to February 1. Follow Deadline’s complete coverage of the deals and doings in Park City here.

Deadline Studio at Sundance presented by Casamigos