dakota fanning stars as Wendy in Joe Swanberg’s The Sun Never Sets, which premiered to a sold-out crowd at the Zach Theater during SXSW. The film — shot on 35mm in Anchorage and described by its director as “my favorite film I’ve ever made” — put the cast into an unusual production environment where daylight and local culture shaped both performance and routine.
Dakota Fanning On The Alaska Shoot
dakota fanning said she “really liked it” and “thought it was neat” when reflecting on filming in Alaska, where production encountered extended daylight that made nights feel like daytime. She described small, everyday scenes she found striking, noting it was “sweet” to “see kids playing on a playground at 9: 45” in the evening. Her co-stars had mixed reactions: Jake Johnson “didn’t like it, ” and Cory Michael Smith agreed it felt “bizarre. ” Smith warned, “It’s a bit like, Walking Dead, though. You see drunk people walking the streets at midnight. “
Swanberg’s Maturing Style And The Film’s SXSW Premiere
The Sun Never Sets marks filmmaker Joe Swanberg’s 10th indie to premiere at SXSW and his first showing at the festival since 2017. Shot on 35mm in Anchorage, the movie follows a 30-ish woman, Wendy (Dakota Fanning), who must choose between rekindling a romance with an old flame played by Cory Michael Smith or continuing her relationship with a settled, divorced father of two played by Jake Johnson.
Swanberg introduced the film at its world premiere to a sold-out crowd at the Zach Theater and called the project “my favorite film I’ve ever made. ” The production expands Swanberg’s visual range beyond the familiar interiors of couches, bars and apartments, taking advantage of Alaska’s landscapes while still keeping intimate scenes that echo his earlier work.
The cast assembled for the film includes Jake Johnson, Cory Michael Smith, Debby Ryan, Anna Konkle, Lamorne Morris and Karley Sciortino. The project also represents Swanberg’s continued collaboration with Johnson; the director’s fourth film with the actor traces back to a previous project in 2013. Johnson helped finance the new film alongside his brother, a detail that played into the film’s independent production model.
On-Set Oddities, Flights And Cultural Notes
Cast members described both logistical and cultural oddities encountered during production. Smith said he “got to take flights around Alaska” while preparing for a role that includes a pilot, though he clarified he did not legally fly the plane seen on screen. Swanberg lightened the point by reminding that Smith was a “professional actor… not a pilot. “
Johnson and Smith discussed how the extremes of Alaska’s light cycle shape daily life. Johnson observed that locals experience long periods of darkness in winter, saying, “They get, like, 23 hours of darkness. So it just, culturally, is very different. It is different at midnight, to see kids at a playground, while also watching three people at a gas station doing drugs. But it’s as light as this. So you’re like, ‘This is just wild. We mostly hide in darkness. ‘” Smith called the polar-night conditions “rough” to contemplate for a shoot, and the cast said they were grateful the production avoided that particular window.
The Sun Never Sets is part of this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival lineup, which features a range of new films. For Swanberg, the movie represents a more mature phase of his career: after earlier rapid-fire work that helped define a certain indie sensibility, he has slowed his output, produced other filmmakers’ projects, acted and even opened a small video store. The Anchorage shoot and the film’s festival reception underscore a director and cast navigating fresh creative terrain while grappling with the practical oddities of location filmmaking.
Festival audiences have responded with strong interest at the premiere, and the film’s Alaska production — at once “special” for some and “problematic” for others — is likely to be central to further coverage as it reaches wider viewers.
