Sundance organisers unveiledthe upcoming Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight and Fromthe Sundance Collection programmes today [Nov 30].
HBO-BBC co-production Longfordstarring Jim Broadbent and SamanthaMorton is the closing night film, while the US premiere of Sarah Polley'sdirectorial debut Away From Herstarring Julie Christie is named the Salt Lake City Gala. As previouslyannounced, Brett Morgen's political documentary Chicago 10 is the opening night selection.
"We are struck by the sheerdiversity of independent film in this year's festival, particularly in thePremieres and Spectrum sections," festival director Geoff Gilmore said. "Therange of artistic expression this year - both directorial and inperformances - gives a special quality to the films presented inPremieres. The Spectrum section truly uncovers the aesthetic experimentationand complex storytelling that is at the heart of emerging independentfilm-making at this moment."
Gilmore pointed out bravuraperformances from Catherine Keener as an abusive adoptive mother in thetrue-life story that informs An American Crime; Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as siblingswho help their estranged ailing father in The Savages; Brenda Blethyn as a raucous entertainer in Clubland; Meryl Streep and Chinese star Liu Ye in theacademia drama Dark Matter; andQueen Latifah as a former crack addict who becomes an AIDS activist in LifeSupport.
Sundance favourite CraigBrewer (Hustle And Flow) returnswith Black Snake Moan starringSamuel Jackson and Christina Ricci, while other directors to catch the eyeinclude Danish auteur Christoffer Boe with Offscreen, Anthony Hopkins with Slipstream, and Antonio Banderas with Summer Rain. Lindsay Lohan's role alongside Jared Leto in the JohnLennon assassination drama Chapter 27 will ensure plenty of excitement among the star-spotters, while theinclusion of Adrienne Shelly's Waitress introduces a poignant note to proceedings as this was her last filmbefore her untimely death in New York in early November.
PREMIERES
An American Crime/USA
Dir: Tommy O'Haver
Catherine Keener and Ellen Page star in thetrue story of a 1960s Indianapolis housewife who abused a girl and kept herlocked in a basement.
World Premiere
Away From Her/Canada
Dir: Sarah Polley
Polley's directorial debut stars Julie Christieand Gordon Pinsent as a married couple whose fundamental issues are exposed bythe woman's onset of Alzheimer's disease.
US Premiere
SALT LAKE CITY GALA
Black Snake Moan/USA
Dir: Craig Brewer
Brewer follows up his Sundance 2005 audienceaward winner Hustle & Flow. Samuel Jackson and Christina Ricci star in thestory of a reformed bluesman who takes it upon himself to save a wild girl fromher own excesses.
World Premiere
Chapter 27/USA
Dir: Jarrett Schaefer
Jared Leto undergoes an astonishing physicaltransformation to portray Mark David Chapman in the days leading up to hisassassination of John Lennon. Lindsay Lohan also stars.
World Premiere
Chicago 10/USA
Dir: Brett Morgen
Explores the build-up to and the unravelling ofthe Chicago Conspiracy Trial and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention.
World Premiere
OPENING NIGHT PARK CITY
Clubland/Australia
Dir: Cherie Nowlan
Brenda Blethyn plays the raucous mother of ashy and sexually inexperienced 20-year-old boy who brings his girlfriend backto meet the parents.
World Premiere
The Good Night/USA
Dir: Jake Paltrow
Martin Freeman plays a disillusioned former popstar and jingle writer who discovers happiness and love in his dreams. PenelopeCruz, Gwyneth Paltrow and Danny DeVito also star.
World Premiere
King Of California/USA
Dir: Mike Cahill
Michael Douglas plays a mentally unstablefather who tries to convince his daughter there's Spanish gold buried somewherein suburbia. Evan Rachel Wood also stars.
World Premiere
Life Support/USA
Director: Nelson George
Inspired by a true story, Queen Latifah starsas a mother who overcomes crack addiction to became a positive role model andAIDS activist in the black community.
World Premiere
Longford/UK
Dir: Tom Hooper
Jim Broadbent plays Lord Longford, theprofoundly religious British peer who campaigned for the release of MoorsMurderer Myra Hindley, played by Samantha Morton.
World Premiere
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
The Nines/USA
Dir: John August
A troubled actor, a television show runner, andan acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious andunsettling ways. Hope Davis and Ryan Reynolds star.
World Premiere
Resurrecting The Champ/USA
Dir: Rod Lurie
Josh Hartnett plays a sports reporter whouncovers a dark secret when he learns that a heavyweight boxing legend (SamuelL Jackson) thought to be dead is living out his final years on the street.
World Premiere
The Savages/USA
Dir: Tamara Jenkins
Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman playsiblings who are plucked from their self-absorbed lives when they are forced tocare for their estranged and elderly father.
World Premiere
Son Of Rambow/UK
Dir: Garth Jennings
A sheltered boy growing up in England in theearly 1980s gets caught up with the school terror.
World Premiere
Summer Rain (El Camino De Los Ingleses)/Spain
Dir: Antonio Banderas
Adapted from the novel byBanderas'childhood friend Antonio Soler, Summer Rain is a coming-of-age tale aboutfriends in Malaga in the late1970s.
World Premiere
Trade/USA
Dir: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Kevin Kline plays a Texas police officer with atragic past who helps a young Mexican man save his 13-year-old sister from drugtraffickers. Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) wrote the screenplay.
World Premiere
Year Of The Dog/USA
Dir: Mike White
Molly Shannon stars as an easygoing secretarywho embarks on a journey of discovery after her beloved dog dies. John CReilly, Peter Sarsgaard, Thomas McCarthy and Laura Dern also star.
World Premiere
SPECTRUM
Angel-A/France
Dir: Luc Besson
A fairy tale about a man who gets a secondchance in life when he saves a statuesque, mysterious beauty from a suicide bidin the Seine River.
North American Premiere
Bugmaster (Mushishi)/Japan
Dir: Katsuhiro Otomo
Based on a celebrated Manga tale about atraveling mystical doctor who visits remote regions of Japan curing theill-effects of supernatural creatures.
US Premiere
Dark Matter/USA
Dir: Chen Shi-Zheng
Meryl Streep and China's Liu Ye star in a storyinspired by real events about a brilliant Chinese astronomy student whosedreams of winning the Nobel Prize are dashed by college politics in the US.
World Premiere
Dedication/USA
Dir: Justin Theroux
Billy Crudup plays a socially dysfunctionalchildren's book author forced to work closely with a female illustrator when heloses his long-time collaborator and only friend. Mandy Moore, Tom Wilkinson,Amy Sedaris, Dianne Wiest and Bob Balaban also star.
World Premiere
Delirious/USA
Dir: Tom DiCillo
Steve Buscemi stars as a small time paparazzowho befriends and hires a young homeless man who flirts with fame and fortunewhen he becomes entangled with a famous pop star. Michael Pitt and AlisonLohman also star.
North American Premiere
TheDevil Came On Horseback/USA
Dirs: Annie Sundberg andRicki Stern
Sundberg and Stern, the team behind acclaimeddocumentary The Trials Of Darryl Hunt, turn their attention to the story of aformer US Marine who exposes theDarfur genocide in Sudan.
World Premiere
Expired/USA
Dir: Cecilia Miniucchi
Samantha Morton and Jason Patric play a lonelymeter maid and a troubled parking officer who embark on a challenging loveaffair.
World Premiere
Fay Grim/USA
Dir: Hal Hartley
Hartley's spy caper stars Parker Posey as asingle mother whose husband has been missing for seven years and is used asbait by the CIA to track the man down.
US Premiere
Fraulein/Switzerland
Dir: Andrea Staka
A hardened Zurich restaurant owner fromYugoslavia loses her cool detachment from the past with the arrival of afree-spirited Balkan War refugee.
North American Premiere
The Go-Getter/USA
Dir: MartinHynes
When his mother dies a teenager takes aroad-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way hediscovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well.Lou Taylor Pucci and Zooey Deschanel star.
WorldPremiere
The Great World Of Sound/USA
Dir: Craig Zobel
A man answers an ad to train as a recordproducer and discovers his new job isn't all it's cracked up to be.
World Premiere
If I Had Known I Was A Genius/USA
Dir: DominiqueWirtschafter
A young African-American man recounts his lifewith his dysfunctional family.
World Premiere
Interview/USA
Dir: Steve Buscemi
Buscemi directs and stars alongside Sienna Milleras a fading political journalist assigned to interview a top televisionactress.
World Premiere
Low And Behold/USA
Dir: Zack Godshall
An unmotivated young man signs on as aninsurance adjuster in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and is profoundly changedby the loss he encounters.
World Premiere
La Misma Luna (The Same Moon)/USA
Dir: Patricia Riggen
When his grandmother dies a Mexican boystruggles to cross the border to reunite with his beloved mother in LosAngeles. America Ferrera is among the cast.
WorldPremiere
Miss Navajo/USA
Dir: Billy Luther
Documentary explores the role of women andtradition in Navajo culture and follows one young woman as she competes in theMiss Navajo Nation Pageant.
World Premiere
Red Road/UK
Dir: Andrea Arnold
Cannes 2006 Jury Prize winner about aGlaswegian woman forced to confront a man she hoped never to see again. TonyCurran and Kate Dickie, who won BIFA's best actor and actress awards this week,star.
US Premiere
Reprise/Norway
Dir: Joachim Trier
Two competitive twentysomething friends withliterary ambitions endure the slings and arrows of love, depression andburgeoning careers.
US Premiere
Save Me/USA
Dir: Robert Cary
A young gay man flees his life of drugs and sexto check into a Christian-run ministry, where his attempts to cure himself ofhis "gay affliction" are tested by powerful forces.
WorldPremiere
Tuli/Philippines
Dir: Auraeus Solito
When a young girl in a remote Philippinevillage is forced into an arranged marriage by her abusive father, she rejectstraditional mores and creates an alternative life.
US Premiere
The Unforeseen/USA
Dir: Laura Dunn
Documentary about environmental skirmish inTexas that questions the notion of the American Dream.
World Premiere
Waitress/USA
Dir: Adrienne Shelly
Shelly final directorial offering before heruntimely death in New York in early November. The story centres on an unhappilymarried waitress in the Deep South who falls into an unlikely relationship in alast bid at happiness. Keri Russell, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto and AndyGriffith star.
World Premiere
Wonders Are Many/USA
Dir: Jon Else
Documentary charting the creation of PeterSellars and John Adams' 2005 opera about Robert Oppenheimer and the ManhattanProject, while also exploringthe complex birth of nuclear weapons.
World Premiere
Year Of The Fish/USA
Dir: David Kaplan
Animated contemporary retelling of theCinderella story set in the underbelly of New York's Chinatown.
World Premiere
NEW FRONTIER
Artist Spotlight: Pierre HuYghe/France
Dir: Pierre Huyghe
Presentation of rarely seen short films by oneof France's most celebrated young artists, whose work has shown at theGuggenheim, the Tate Modern, and the Whitney Museums.
The Last Dining Table/South Korea
Dir: Gyeong-Tae Roh
Surrealist film about irony and separationexplores modern social problems including pollution and the collapse of familyvalues.
Offscreen/Denmark
Dir: Christoffer Boe
Boe lends friend an actor Nicolas Bro a camerato make a film about himself, resulting in a disturbingly intimate portraitthat blurs fact and fiction.
World Premiere
Phantom Love/USA
Dir: Nina Menkes
Surreal drama about a woman trapped within anenmeshed family, and her slow process of personal liberation.
World Premiere
Slipstream/USA
Dir: Anthony Hopkins
A man discovers that life is random and fortuneis sightless as he is thrown into a vortex where time, dreams and realitycollide in an increasingly whirling slipstream.
World Premiere
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait/France
Dirs:Douglas Gordonand Philippe Parreno
Seventeen cameras track the former footballsuperstar Zinedine Zidane during the course of one game.
US Premiere
PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT
Fido/Canada
Dir: Andrew Currie
Billy Connolly plays a young boy's pet zombiewho lands in trouble when he devours the next-door neighbour. Carrie-Anne Moss and Dylan Baker also star.
US Premiere
Finishing the Game/USA
Dir: Justin Lin
Comedy about the search for an actor to standin for Bruce Lee in an unfinished film following the martial art legend'sdeath.
World Premiere
It Is Fine!Everything is Fine!/USA
Dirs: Crispin Hellion Glover
A man with a severe case of cerebral palsy'sretelling of his point of view of life involving many women.
World Premiere
The Signal/USA
Dirs: David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, and Dan Bush
Three-part journey towards the discovery thatthe most brutal monster of all might exist within each of us.
World Premiere
SK8 Life/Canada
Dir: S Wyeth Clarkson
Eight skaters band together to save animportant part of their heritage.
North American Premiere
smiley face/US
Dir: Gregg Araki
Anna Farris plays a slacker who inadvertentlyeats her roommate's hash brownies and embarks on a day of surrealmisadventures.
World Premiere
The Ten/USA
Dir: David Wain
All-star ensemble in contemporary vignettes inspiredby the Ten Commandments. Cast includes Jessica Alba, Paul Rudd, Famke Janssen,Winona Ryder, Amanda Peet, Liev Schreiber, and Gretchen Mol.
World Premiere
We Are The Strange/USA
Dir: M dot Strange
Animated feature about two outcasts fightingfor survival in a sinister fantasy world.
World Premiere
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
The Last Mimzy/USA
Dir: Bob Shaye
Based on the acclaimed sci-fi short story byLewis Padgett, The Last Mimzy follows two children who discover a mysteriousbox containing devices that raise their intelligence levels. Joely Richardson,and Michael Clarke Duncan and Timothy Hutton star.
World Premiere
Autism Every Day/USA
Dir: Lauren Thierry
Documentary about families struggling to raisechildren with autism.
World Premiere
A complete list of films isavailable at the Sundance Institute website at www.sundance.org.
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