The filmmakers behind Park City hits Amreeka and The Maid are back with new work as festival organisers unveiled the US and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary competition slate and the NEXT selections on Wednesday [28].

Dabis’ Jordan-set family drama May In The Summer plays in the US Dramatic Competition strand and is one of four Day One Films on Jan 17 alongside Silva’s Chilean psychedelic road movie Crystal Fairy [pictured] representing World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

The opening day shows include Morgan Neville’s US Documentary Competition entry Twenty Feet From Stardom, Marc Silver’s UK film Who Is Dayani Cristal? in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and a shorts programme to be announced. The festival runs until Jan 27.

The dramatic line-up includes new work from festival favourite Lynn Shelton as well as Shane Carruth, whose acclaimed time travel tale Primer scooped the Grand Jury Prize in 2004. The documentary selections offer a typically diverse array of contemporary analysis, from covert war and global health to the Mexican Drug cartels and evangelism.

Festival director John Cooper and director of programming Trevor Groth also announced the out of competition NEXT <=> films and have expanded the section this year to incorporate 10 features. The roster includes Blue Caprice, Alexandre Moors’ examination of events that led to the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, and Shaka King’s dark coming-of-age comedy Newlyweeds.

“What we noticed first and foremost is there’s a particular immediacy and fearlessness [about the slate],” Cooper told Screendaily. “[There is] a head-on push to deliver stories that are personal and brave. There’s a great potential for the films across all the programmes to reach an audience.”

Cooper continued: “From our ‘rarified’ perch of looking at these films, in general I would say independent film is thriving… We’re seeing returning filmmakers who are sustaining themselves and continuing to work in the independent film vein, actors who continue to support independent film by being in these films and taking risks.”

“We’re happy with how the individual sections shaped up this year,” said Groth. “It’s been on ongoing process of fine-tuning which film works in each section. This year I feel completely satisfied with how each piece fell into place.”

Cooper, Groth and the programming team selected 115 features representing 32 countries and 51 first-time filmmakers, including 27 in competition. The team received 4,044 feature submissions comprising 2,070 US and 1,974 international entries. Including shorts, the team sifted through approximately 12,000 submissions this year. Ninety-eight films are world premieres.

Festival top brass will announce the Spotlight, Park City At Midnight and New Frontier strands on Thursday Nov 29 and the Premieres and Documentary Premieres on Monday Dec 3, followed by the short film programmes.

Festival highlights will go on to screen at the second Sundance London film and music festival set to run from Apr 25-28 at The O2. This year the touring Sundance Film festival USA will take place after the festival on Jan 31. Films and locations will be announced shortly.

“The festival continues to reflect the spirit of innovation and creativity in independent cinema, not only in the stories themselves but also in how the films are produced and making their way to audiences,” said executive director Keri Putnam.

All films listed below are world premieres unless stated otherwise. The festival provided all synopses.

US DRAMATIC COMPETITION
The world premieres of 16 American narrative feature films.

Afternoon Delight
Director: Jill Soloway
In this sexy, dark comedy, a lost L.A. housewife puts her idyllic hipster life in jeopardy when she tries to rescue a stripper by taking her in as a live-in nanny.
Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jane Lynch.

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
Director: David Lowery
The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met.
Cast: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, Keith Carradine.

Austenland (US-UK)
Director: Jerusha Hess
Thirtysomething, single Jane is obsessed with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in Pride And Prejudice. On a trip to an English resort, her fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman become more real than she ever imagined.
Cast: Keri Russell, JJ Feild, Bret McKenzie, Jennifer Coolidge, Georgia King, James Callis.

C.O.G.
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
In the first ever film adaptation of David Sedaris’ work, a cocky young man travels to Oregon to work on an apple farm. Out of his element, he finds his lifestyle and notions being picked apart by everyone who crosses his path.
Cast: Jonathan Groff, Denis O’Hare, Corey Stoll, Dean Stockwell, Casey Wilson, Troian Bellisario.

Concussion
Director: Stacie Passon
After a blow to the head, Abby decides she can’t do it anymore. Her life just can’t be only about the house, the kids and the wife. She needs more: she needs to be Eleanor.
Cast: Robin Weigert, Maggie Siff, Johnathan Tchaikovsky, Julie Fain Lawrence, Emily Kinney, Laila Robins.

Emanuel And The Truth About Fishes
Director: Francesca Gregorini
Emanuel, a troubled girl, becomes preoccupied with her mysterious, new neighbour, who bears a striking resemblance to her dead mother. In offering to babysit her newborn, Emanuel unwittingly enters a fragile, fictional world, of which she becomes the gatekeeper.
Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Jessica Biel, Alfred Molina, Frances O’Connor, Jimmi Simpson, Aneurin Barnard.

Fruitvale
Director: Ryan Coogler
The true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family and strangers on the last day of 2008.
Cast: Michael B Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melonie Diaz, Ahna O’Reilly, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray.

In A World…
Director: Lake Bell
An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation.
Cast: Lake Bell, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Fred Melamed.

Kill Your Darlings
Director: John Krokidas
An untold story of murder that brought together a young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs at Columbia University in 1944, providing the spark that led to the birth of an entire generation – their Beat revolution.
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHann, Ben Foster, Michael C Hall, Jack Huston, Elizabeth Olsen.

The Lifeguard
Director: Liz W Garcia
A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager.
Cast: Kristen Bell, Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, Alex Shaffer, Amy Madigan, David Lambert.

Mother Of George
Director: Andrew Dosunmu
A story about a woman willing to do anything and risk everything for her marriage.
Cast: Isaach De Bankolé, Danai Gurira, Anthony Okungbowa, Yaya Alafia, Bukky Ajayi.

May In The Summer (US-Qatar-Jordan)
Director: Cherien Dabis
A bride-to-be is forced to reevaluate her life when she reunites with her family in Jordan and finds herself confronted with the aftermath of her parents’ divorce.
Cast: Cherien Dabis, Hiam Abbass, Bill Pullman, Alia Shawkat, Nadine Malouf, Alexander Siddig.
DAY ONE FILM

The Spectacular Now
Director: James PonsoldtWeber
Sutter is a high school senior who lives for the moment; Aimee is the introvert he attempts to “save.” As their relationship deepens, the lines between right and wrong, friendship and love, and “saving” and corrupting become inextricably blurred.
Cast: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kyle Chandler.

Touchy Feely
Director: Lynn Shelton
A massage therapist is unable to do her job when stricken with a mysterious and sudden aversion to bodily contact. Meanwhile, her uptight brother’s foundering dental practice receives new life when clients seek out his “healing touch.”
Cast: Rosemarie DeWitt, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, Scoot McNairy, Ellen Page, Josh Pais.

Toy’s House
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Three unhappy teenage boys flee to the wilderness where they build a makeshift house and live off the land as masters of their own destiny. Or at least that’s the plan.
Cast: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie.

Upstream Color
Director: Shane Carruth
A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
Cast: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Thiago Martins.

 

US DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
The world premieres of 16 American documentary films.

99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film
Directors: Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Lucian Read, Nina Kristic
The Occupy movement erupted in September 2011, propelling economic inequality into the spotlight. In an unprecedented collaboration, filmmakers across America tell its story, digging into big picture issues as organisers, analysts, participants and critics reveal how it happened and why.

After Tiller
Directors: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson
Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country provide late-term abortions. With unprecedented access, After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the centre of the storm.

American Promise
Directors: Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson
This intimate documentary follows the 12-year journey of two African-American families pursuing the promise of opportunity through the education of their sons.

Blackfish
Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

Blood Brother
Director: Steve Hoover
Rocky went to India as a disillusioned tourist. When he met a group of children with HIV, he decided to stay. He never could have imagined the obstacles he would face, or the love he would find.

Citizen Koch
Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
Wisconsin – birthplace of the Republican Party, government unions, “cheeseheads” and Paul Ryan – becomes a test market in the campaign to buy Democracy, and ground zero in the battle for the future of the GOP.

Cutie And The Boxer
Director: Zachary Heinzerling
This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role as her overbearing husband’s assistant, Noriko finds an identity of her own.

Dirty Wars
Director: Richard Rowley
Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill chases down the truth behind America’s covert wars.

Gideon’s Army
Director: Dawn Porter
Gideon’s Army follows three young, committed Public Defenders who are dedicated to working for the people society would rather forget. Long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads are so common that even the most committed often give up.

God Loves Uganda
Director: Roger Ross Williams
A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting “sexual immorality” and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law.

The Good Life
Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine
Dr Leslie Gordon and Dr Scott Berns fight to save their only son from Progeria, a rare and fatal disease for which there is no treatment or cure. In less than a decade, their work has led to significant advances.

Inequality For All
Director: Jacob Kornbluth
In this timely and entertaining documentary, noted economic-policy expert Robert Reich distills the topic of widening income inequality, and addresses the question of what effects this increasing gap has on our economy and our democracy.

Manhunt (US-UK)
Director: Greg Barker
This espionage tale goes inside the CIA’s long conflict against Al Qaeda, as revealed by the remarkable women and men whose secret war against Osama bin Laden started nearly a decade before most of us even knew his name.

Narco Cultura
Director: Shaul Schwarz
An examination of Mexican drug cartels’ influence on pop culture on both sides of the border as experienced by an LA narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War.

Twenty Feet From Stardom
Director: Morgan Neville
Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight.  Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we’ve had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead – until now.
DAY ONE FILM

Valentine Road
Director: Marta Cunningham
In 2008, eighth-grader Brandon McInerney shot classmate Larry King at point blank range. Unraveling this tragedy from point of impact, the film reveals the heartbreaking circumstances that led to the shocking crime as well as its startling aftermath.

 

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Twelve films from emerging filmmaking talents offer fresh perspectives and inventive styles.

Circles (Serbia, Germany, France, Croatia, Slovenia)
Director: Srdan Golubovic
Five people are affected by a tragic heroic act. Twenty years later, all of them will confront the past through their own crises. Will they overcome guilt, frustration and their urge for revenge? Will they do the right thing, at all costs?
Cast: Aleksandar Bercek, Leon Lucev, Nebojsa Glogovac, Hristina Popovic, Nikola Rakocevic, Vuk Kostic.

Crystal Fairy (Chile)
Director: Sebastián Silva
Jamie invites a stranger to join a road trip to Chile. The woman’s free and esoteric nature clashes with Jamie’s acidic, self-absorbed personality as they head into the desert for a Mescaline-fueled psychedelic trip.
Cast: Michael Cera, Gabby Hoffmann, Juan Andrés Silva, José Miguel Silva, Agustín Silva.
DAY ONE FILM

The Future (Chile, Germany, Italy, Spain)
Director: Alicia Scherson
When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future.
Cast: Manuela Martelli, Rutger Hauer, Luigi Ciardo, Nicolas Vaporidis, Alessandro Giallocosta.

Houston (Germany)
Director: Bastian Günther
Clemens Trunschka is a corporate headhunter and alcoholic. Drinking increasingly isolates him from his life and leads him away from reality. On the hunt for a CEO in Houston, his addiction takes him on a journey into his own darkness.
Cast: Ulrich Tukur, Garret Dillahunt, Wolfram Koch, Jenny Schily, Jason Douglas, Jens Münchow.

Jiseul (South Korea)
Director: Muel O
In 1948, as the Korean government ordered the Communists’ eviction to Jeju Island, the military invaded a calm and peaceful village. Townsfolk took sanctuary in a cave and debated moving to a higher mountain.
Cast: Min-chul Sung, Jung-won Yang, Young-soon Oh, Soon-dong Park, Suk-bum Moon, Kyung-sub Jang.
International Premiere

Lasting (Poland, Spain)
Director: Jacek Borcuch
An emotional love story about two Polish students who fall in love with each other while working summer jobs in Spain. An unexpected nightmare interrupts their carefree time in the heavenly landscape and throws their lives into chaos.
Cast: Jakub Gierszal, Magdalena Berus, Angela Molina.

Metro Manila (UK, Philippines)
Director: Sean Ellis
Seeking a better life, Oscar and his family move from the poverty-stricken rice fields to the big city of Manila, where they fall victim to various inhabitants whose manipulative ways are a daily part of city survival.
Cast: Jake Macapagal, John Arcilla, Althea Vega.

Shopping (New Zealand)
Directors: Mark Albiston, Louis Sutherland
New Zealand, 1981: Seduced by a charismatic career criminal, teenager Willie must choose where his loyalty lies – with a family of shoplifters or his own blood.
Cast: Kevin Paulo, Julian Dennison, Jacek Koman, Alistair Browning.

Soldate Jeannette (Austria)
Director: Daniel Hoesl
Fanni has had enough of money and leaves to buy a tent. Anna has had enough of pigs and leaves a needle in the hay. Cars crash and money burns to shape their mutual journey toward a rising liberty.
Cast: Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg, Christina Reichsthaler, Josef Kleindienst, Aurelia Burckhardt, Julia Schranz, Ines Rössl.

There Will Come A Day (Italy, France)
Director: Giorgio Diritti
Painful issues push Augusta, a young Italian woman, to doubt the certainties on which she has built her existence. On a small boat in the immensity of the Amazon rain forest, she faces the adventure of searching for herself.
Cast: Jasmine Trinca, Anne Alvaro, Pia Engleberth.

Wajma (An Afghan Love Story) (Afghanistan)
Director: Barmak Akram
A young man in Kabul seduces a girl. When she tells him she’s pregnant, he questions having taken her virginity. Then her father arrives, and a timeless, archaic violence erupts – possibly leading to a crime, and even a sacrifice.
Cast: Wajma Bahar, Mustafa Abdulsatar, Haji Gul, Breshna Bahar.

What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love (Indonesia)
Director: Mouly Surya
Mouly Surya’s film explores the odds of love and deception among the blind, the deaf and the unlucky sighted people at a high school for the visually impaired.
Cast: Nicholas Saputra, Ayushita Nugraha, Karina Salim, Anggun Priambodo, Lupita Jennifer.

 

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Twelve documentaries by some of the most courageous and extraordinary filmmakers working today.

Fallen City (China)
Director: Qi Zhao
Fallen City spans four years to reveal how three families who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to embark on a journey searching for hope, purpose, identity, and to rebuild their lives in a new China torn between tradition and modernity.
North American Premiere


Fire In The Blood
(India)
Director: Dylan Mohan Gray
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Western governments and pharmaceutical companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS-stricken Africa, causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths. An improbable group of people decided to fight back.
North American Premiere

Google And The World Brain (Spain, UK)
Director: Ben Lewis
In the most ambitious project ever conceived on the Internet, Google has been scanning the world’s books for 10 years. They said the intention was to build a giant digital library, but that involved scanning millions of copyrighted works.

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear (Georgia, Germany)
Director: Tinatin Gurchiani
A film director casting a 15-23-year-old protagonist visits villages and cities to meet people who answer her call. She follows those who prove to be interesting enough through various dramatic and funny situations.
North American Premiere

The Moo Man (UK)
Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier
A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve’s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake.

Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer (Russian Federation-UK)
Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin
Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in?

A River Changes Course (Cambodia-US)
Director: Kalyanee Mam
Three young Cambodians struggle to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt in this devastatingly beautiful story of a country reeling from the tragedies of war and rushing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding world.

Salma (UK-India)
Director: Kim Longinotto
When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world.

The Square (El Midan)
Egypt-US
Director: Jehane Noujaim
What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation?

The Stuart Hall Project (UK)
Director: John Akomfrah
A portrait of Britain’s foremost radical intellectual. Antinuclear campaigner, new left activist and founding figure of Cultural Studies, the documentary interweaves seventy years of Stuart Hall’s film, radio, television and private archive to document a memorable life.

The Summit (Ireland-UK)
Director: Nick Ryan
Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers’ code, he might still be alive.
International Premiere

Who Is Dayani Cristal? (UK)
Director: Marc Silver
An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo.
DAY ONE FILM


NEXT <=>
Pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling. Digital technology paired with unfettered creativity proves the films selected in this section will inform a “greater” next wave in American cinema.

Blue Caprice
Director: Alexandre Moors
An abandoned boy is lured to America and drawn into the shadow of a dangerous father figure in this film inspired by the real life events that led to the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.
Cast: Isaiah Washington, Tequan Richmond, Joey Lauren Adams, Tim Blake Nelson, Cassandra Freeman, Leo Fitzpatrick.

Computer Chess
Director: Andrew Bujalski
An existential comedy about the brilliant men who taught machines to play chess – back when the machines seemed clumsy and we seemed smart.
Cast: Patrick Riester, Myles Paige, James Curry, Robin Schwartz, Gerald Peary, Wiley Wiggins.

Escape From Tomorrow
Director: Randy Moore
A postmodern, surreal voyage into the bowels of “family” entertainment; an epic battle begins when an unemployed, middle-aged father loses his sanity during a close encounter with two teenage girls on holiday.
Cast: Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Annet Mahendru, Danielle Safady, Alison Lees-Taylor.

I Used To Be Darker
Director: Matthew Porterfield
A runaway seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore, only to find their marriage ending and her cousin in crisis. In the days that follow, the family struggles to let go while searching for things to sustain them.
Cast: Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Kim Taylor, Ned Oldham, Geoff Grace, Nick Petr.

It Felt Like Love
Director: Eliza Hittman
On the outskirts of Brooklyn, a 14-year-old girl’s sexual quest takes a dangerous turn when she pursues an older guy and tests the boundaries between obsession and love.
Cast: Gina Piersanti, Giovanna Salimeni, Ronen Rubinstein, Jesse Cordasco, Nick Rosen, Case Prime.

Milkshake
Director: David Andalman
In mid-1990’s America, we follow the tragic sex life of Jolie Jolson, a wannabe thug (and great-great-grandson of legendary vaudevillian Al Jolson) in suburban DC as he strives to become something he can never be – black.
Cast: Tyler Ross, Shareeka Epps, Georgia Ford, Eshan Bay, Leo Fitzpatrick, Danny Burstein.

Newlyweeds
Director: Shaka King
A Brooklyn repo man and his globetrotting girlfriend forge an unlikely romance. But what should be a match made in stoner heaven turns into a love triangle gone awry in this dark coming-of-age comedy about dependency.
Cast: Amari Cheatom, Trae Harris, Tone Tank, Colman Domingo, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Adrian Martinez.

Pit Stop
Director: Yen Tan
Two working-class gay men in a small Texas town and a love that isn’t quite out of reach.
Cast: Bill Heck, Marcus DeAnda, Amy Seimetz, John Merriman, Alfredo Maduro, Corby Sullivan.

A Teacher
Director: Hannah Fidell
A popular young teacher in a wealthy suburban Texas high school has an affair with one of her students. Her life begins to unravel as the relationship comes to an end.
Cast: Lindsay Burdge, Will Brittain, Jennifer Prediger, Jonny Mars, Julie Phillips, Chris Dubeck.

This is Martin Bonner
Director: Chad Hartigan
Martin Bonner has just moved to Reno for a new job in prison rehabilitation. Starting over at age 58, he struggles to adapt until an unlikely friendship with an ex-con blossoms, helping him confront the problems he left behind.
Cast: Paul Eenhoorn, Richmond Arquette, Sam Buchanan, Robert Longstreet, Demetrius Grosse.