Kevin Bacon directs debut movie Loverboy
With a week to go until Sundance opening night we preview what's set to be hot and not at the festival this year - don't forget to check back for daily reports on the action from Park City, starting on Friday January 21.
Last year's hits at the festival which went on to achieve international acclaim include Morgan Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me, The Motorcycle Diaries, Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State. But what should you be looking out for this year?
The Brits have a strong showing with Scots film On A Clear Day, starring Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn, being shown on opening night. It is the only British entrant in the World Dramatic Competition and tells the story of Frank (Mullan) who is laid off from his shipyard job and decides to tackle his depression by swimming the English Channel. British interest will also be on the much-hyped The Jacket. Directed by Brit John Maybury and starring, among others, Keira Knightley, the thriller about a military veteran who travels into the future was partly shot in Scotland and makes its debut on Sunday 23 January.
Scotland, too, strikes another coup, with Robert Carlyle appearing in the starstudded Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing And Charm School alongside John Goodman, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Danny DeVito and Sean Astin. The film tells the story of a bereaved baker who, via a chance encounter with a stranger in a car accident, discovers a date with destiny. And don't forget the British short films. Leigh Hodgkinson's Moo(n) is part of the Animation Spotlight, while Andrea Arnold's Wasp is part of Shorts Program IV.
Other films premiering at the festival this year include Kevin Bacon's directorial debut Loverboy - about a mother who loves her child too much - and family tale MirrorMask - which promises to be a visually stunning, magical tale from graphic novelists Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
Controversy is sure to surround many of the American Documentary Competition offerings. After Innocence examines the surge of reversed convictions brought about by DNA evidence - questioning the US court system that has allowed such grave errors to be made. Also under the microscope are designer babies and the fertility industry in Frozen Angels, the Catholic clergy in Twist of Faith, and the US Defense department and government in Why We Fight.
Not all the documentaries are going for the jugular, however, with many focussing on smaller issues or life stories, such as New York Doll, tracing the rise and fall of the glam rock band and, in particular, their bassist Arthur 'Killer' Kane, Mardi Gras: Made In China, which follows the trail of beads from the gruelling factory conditions where they are made in China to New Orleans annual festival and Romantico, which tracks two Mexican mariachis who roam the bars of San Francisco for a living.
The World Documentary Competition strand also covers both the great and small and features Finnish film The 3 Rooms of Melancholia, a portrait of Chechnyan children in war, UK director Sean McAllister's The Liberace of Baghdad, about Iraqi musical phenomenon Samir Peter and Wall which takes a long, hard look at the barrier separating Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Films vying for position in the American Dramatic Competition include Between, a thriller by first-time director David Ocanas and starring Poppy Montgomery (Without A Trace) and her new love Adam Kaufman (Dawson's Creek); Thumbsucker, a modern-day fairy tale starring Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Keanu Reaves and Benjamin Bratt, about a boy and his destructive habit; and Steve Buscemi's Lonesome Jim, the tale of a young man who moves back in with his parents and finds himself mired in family obligations.
On A Clear Day faces some stiff competition in the World Dramatic Competition from films including cameraman-turned-director Ziad Doueiris Lila Says about a flirtation between two innercity teenagers, Aussie horror Wolf Creek and Spanish historical caper Unconscious.
Late night films to look out for in the Park City At Midnight slot include British director Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, about sexual behaviour and intimacy which promises "real sex" whatever that means; South Korean revenge story Old Boy, which received a glowing review from our critic and others when it was shown at Edinburgh Film Festival last year and Crispin Glover's directorial debut, What is It?, which has been 10 years in the making.
Other sections of the festival include Special Screenings, American Spectrum, Shorts and Frontier, which among other films includes the wonderfully entitled Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2.
And don't worry if you aren't going. You can still catch some of the action thanks to the Sundance Online Film Festival. Just log on to www.sundance.org which will be broadcasting coverage and the Frontier Shorts - for free - from January 20.
We would particularly like to thank those lovely people at GNER who are providing travel to London for one of our reviewers so that she can catch her flight to cover the Sundance festival. Tickets for travel on GNER services are available on 08457 225 225 or from GNER's website
