Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2005 >> Premieres
This section is dedicated to celebrating independent filmmakers out of competition. Featuring 24 out-of-competition films, this was not a vintage year for films that would go on to multiplex success. More notable films from the 2005 festival included Layer Cake, The Jacket and the - cruelly overlooked by British distributors - Lackawanna Blues.
View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: American Documentary Competition, American Dramatic Competition, American Spectrum, Frontier, Park City At Midnight, Special Screenings, World Documentary Competition, World Dramatic Competition
The Upside Of Anger and Dear Wendy
3-Iron (Bin-jip)
(Country: South Korea, Japan; Year: 2004; Director: Kim Ki-duk; Writer: Kim Ki-duk; Stars: Lee Seung-yeon, Hyun-kyoon Lee, Kwon Kyuk-ho, Ju Jin-mo, Choi Jeong-ho, Lee Mi-suk, Moon Sung-hyuk)
The silent love affair between a battered wife and a respectful intruder.
The Ballad Of Jack And Rose
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Rebecca Miller; Writer: Rebecca Miller; Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Catherine Keener, Camilla Belle, Beau Bridges, Jason Lee, Ryan McDonald, Paul Dano, Jena Malone)
The dangers for impressionable teenage daughter of living with ex-hippie eco warrior dad.
The Chumscrubber
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Arie Posin; Writer: Arie Posin, Zac Stanford; Stars: Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Justin Chatwin, Glenn Close, Kathi Copeland, Rory Culkin, Thomas Curtis, Tim DeKay, David Ellison, William Fichtner, Ralph Fiennes)
When Dean discovers the hanging body of his friend, he doesn't even bother to tell any of the patio party of adults, figuring they just wouldn't care. Thus begins a series of events that inclulde drug dealing and kidnapping amongst other things in this parody of suburban existence.
Dear Wendy
(Country: Denmark/France/Germany/UK; Year: 2005; Director: Thomas Vinterberg; Writer: Lars Von Trier; Stars: Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Mark
Webber, Michael Angarano,
Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson,
Chris Owen, Alison Pill)
Allegorical story of guns and gun
culture set in a mythical American
mining town.
Drum
(Country: South Africa; Year: 2004; Director: Zola Maseko; Writer: Jason Filardi; Stars: Taye Diggs, Jason Flemyng, Gabriel Mann, Tumisho Masha, Moshidi Motshegwa, Tanya Baleson)
Based on a true story, the film focuses on young journalist Henry Nxumalo, who works and plays hard while writing for the historic black magazine Drum. But encroaching on his tantalizing world is apartheid.
Lackawanna Blues and The Matador
Game 6
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Michael Hoffman; Writer: Don DeLillo; Stars: Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Ari Graynor, Bebe Neuwirth, Griffin Dunne, Shalom Harlow, Nadia Dajani, Harris Yulin, Roger Rees, Tom Aldredge, Lillias White)
Director Michael Hoffman constructs the wonderfully rarefied world of a playwritght whose affairs are crumbling even as he plunges to open a new play.
The Girl From Monday
(Country: US; Year: 2004; Director: Hal Hartley; Writer: Hal Hartley; Stars: Bill Sage, Sabrina Lloyd, Tatiana
Abracos, Leo Fitzpatrick, D.J.
Mendel, James Urbaniak, Juliana
Francis)
In a dystopian near future,
counter revolutionaries battle the
multimedia conglomerate that
runs their lives.
Happy Endings
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Don Roos; Writer: Don Roos; Stars: Lisa Kudrow, Tom Arnold, Steve
Coogan, Jesse Bradford, Bobby
Cannavale, Laura Dern, Jason
Litter, David Sutcliffe, Sarah
Clarke, Maggie Gyllenhaal,
Edward Furlong, Ray Liotta)
The complication of mixed
gender relationships in a modern
American "comedy... sort of".
Heights
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Chris Terrio; Writer: Amy Fox, Amy Fox, Chris Terrio; Stars: Chandler Williams, Bess Wohl, Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Jesse Bradford, Daniel Neiden, Thomas Lennon, Matthew Davis, John Light, Isabella Rossellini)
A whirlwind day of chance encounters that profoundly alter the lives of a worldly mother and daughter.
Inside Deep Throat
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato; Writer: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato; Stars: Dennis Hopper, Helen Gurley
Brown, Wes Craven, Gerard
Damiano, Larry Flynt, Hugh
Hefner, Xaviera Hollander, Erica
Jong, Norman Mailer, Camille
Paglia, Gore Vidal, Dr Ruth
Westheimer )
Documentary on the making of
the most famous blow job in the
history of blue movies.
MirrorMask and The Girl From Monday
Inside I'm Dancing (Rory O'Shea Was Here)
(Country: UK/Ireland; Year: 2004; Director: Damien O'Donnell; Writer: Jeffrey Caine; Stars: James McAvoy, Steven
Robertson, Romola Garai,
Brenda Fricker, Gerald McSorley,
Tom Hickey)
Anarchic behavior in a care
home leads to freedom and
independence for two disabled
Irishmen.
The Jacket
(Country: US/UK; Year: 2005; Director: John Maybury; Writer: Massy Tadjein, based on a story by Tom Beecker and Marc Rocco; Stars: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kris Kristofferson, Kelly Lynch, Brad Renfro, Steven Mackintosh, Fish, Jason Lewis, Jonah Lotan)
A casualty of war returns to a world that appears strange and unreal.
Kung Fu Hustle (Gong Fu, Kung Fu)
(Country: China/Hong Kong; Year: 2004; Director: Stephen Chow; Writer: Tsang Kan Cheong, Stephen
Chow, Xin Huo, Chan Man
Keung; Stars: Stephen Chow, Wah Yuen, Qiu
Yuen, Kwok Kuen Chan, Siu
Lung Leung, Chi Chung Lam)
A good guy, trying to convince
people he's a bad guy, runs into
serious trouble.
Lackawanna Blues
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: George C Wolfe; Writer: George C Wolfe, based on a play
by Ruben Santiago-Hudson; Stars: S Epatha Merkerson, Jimmy
Smits, Carmen Ejogo, Marcus
Carl Franklin, Mos Def, Louis
Gossett Jnr, Macy Gray, Hill
Harper, Terrence Dashon
Howard, Ernie Hudson, Delroy
Lindo, Rosie Perez, Ruben
Santiago-Hudson, Live
Schreiber, Henry Simmons,
Patricia Wettig)
A celebration of the black
communities in New York during
the Fifties and Sixties.
Layer Cake
(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Matthew Vaughn; Writer: J J Connolly, based on the novel by J J Connolly; Stars: Daniel Craig, Kenneth Cranham, Colm Meaney, Jamie Foreman, Michael Gambon, Dexter Fletcher, Burn Gorman, Tom Hardy, Tamer Hassan, Sally Hawkins, Darren Healy, Nathalie Lunghi, Sienna Miller, Peter Rvic)
Cockney drug dealer become enmeshed in gang war over stolen happy pills.
Layer Cake and Inside I'm Dancing
Loverboy
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Kevin Bacon; Writer: Hannah Shakespeare, Victoria Redel; Stars: Kyra Sedgwick, Dominic Scott Kay, Kevin Bacon, Blair Brown, Matt Dillon, Oliver Platt, Campbell Scott, Marisa Tomei, Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon, John Lafayette)
What happens if a mother loves her child too much?
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing And Charm School
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Randall Miller; Writer: Randall Miller, Jody Savin; Stars: Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, John Goodman, Mary Steenburgen, David Paymer, Donny Wahlberg, Danny DeVito, Sean Astin, Adam Arkin, Sonia Braga, Ernie Hudson, Elden Henson)
A sad baker helps a dying motorist and discovers that he's not the only one who can't dance.
The Matador
(Country: US/Germany/Ireland; Year: 2005; Director: Richard Shepard; Writer: Richard Shepard; Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis, Adam Scott, Portia Dawson, Philip Baker Hall, Dylan Baker, Claudia Lobo, Arturo Echeverria, William Raymond, Guillermo Capetillo, Federico Pizarro)
The last fling of a burned out hitman and his uncommon friendship with a failing businessman.
MirrorMask
(Country: UK; Year: 2005; Director: Dave McKean; Writer: Neil Gaiman, based on a story by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean; Stars: Stephanie Leonidas, Gina McKee, Rob Brydon, Jason Barry, Stephen Fry, Dora Bryan, Robert Llewellyn, Andy Hamilton)
A circus girl falls into a fantasy world where darkness threatens the kingdom of light.
Mysterious Skin
(Country: USA, Netherlands; Year: 2004; Director: Gregg Araki; Writer: Scott Heim, Gregg Araki; Stars: Chase Ellison, George Webster, Rachael Nastassja Kraft, Lisa Long, Chris Mulkey, Elisabeth Shue, David Lee Smith, Bill Sage, Riley McGuire, Ryan Stenzel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
The wrenching childhood mystery of two indivisually despearte teens.
Happy Endings and Kung Fu Hustle
Nine Lives
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Rodrigo García; Writer: Rodrigo García; Stars: Elpidia Carrillo, Aomawa Baker, Miguel Sandoval, Mary Pat Dowhy, Andy Umberger, K Callan, Chelsea Rendon, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Isaacs, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Lisa Gay Hamilton)
Nine different characters at emotional crossroads, very different yet hauntingly the same. Nine women who find themselves captives of relationships, both past and present with an undeniable connection.
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical
(Country: US, Germany; Year: 2005; Director: Andy Fickman; Writer: Kevin Murphy, Dan Studney,; Stars: Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell, Neve Campbell, Alan Cumming, Ana Gasteyer, John Kassir, Amy Spanger, Robert Torti, Steven Weber, Kevin McNulty, Stephen J.M. Sisk)
Film adaptation of the award-winning stage musical.
Snowland (Schneeland)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2005; Director: Hans W Geissendörfer; Writer: Hans W Geissendörfer, Elisabeth Rynell; Stars: Thomas Kretschmann, Julia Jentsch, Maria Schrader, Ulrich Mühe, Oliver Stokowski, Beate Abraham, Brigitte Annessy, Martin Feifel, Joachim Król, Susanne Lothar, Alexander Sandberg)
A modern Gothic tale of lives that inhabit the darkest realms of humanity.
The Upside Of Anger
(Country: US, Germany, UK; Year: 2005; Director: Mike Binder; Writer: Mike Binder; Stars: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, Evan Rachel Wood, Mike Binder, Tom Harper, Dane Christensen, Danny Webb, Magdalena Manville)
Deflecting the fury of a woman scorned with frequent showers, Bloody Marys and a little light humour.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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