Sundance 2005 lineup includes more 'must-sees'
Sundance '05 fest lineup includes more 'must-sees'
Nov 30, 2004
Announcing the lineup of films for the four feature competitions at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, festival director Geoffrey Gilmore admitted there is both good news and bad. The good news is that the quality of films has never been better.
"Boy, are we excited by the quality of the competition," Gilmore said. "It's hard for us to say that because it puts us out on a limb. But the overall quality and standards of independent film are on the rise."
The bad news is a dramatic increase in "must see" films for industry execs, critics and the general public. "We know it's going to drive everyone nuts," Gilmore said.
Among the films in competitions for 2005 Sundance, there are no fewer than 42 world premieres, nine North American premieres and nine U.S. premieres. And in the categories of American Spectrum, Park City at Midnight, Special Screenings and the Premieres themselves, which will be announced today, there will be many more premieres, pushing the number well past 80 films.
The Sundance Film Festival, set for Jan. 20-30 in Park City, will introduce several major changes. Long known as the key platform for American independent films, the festival will inaugurate a World Cinema Competition, which, like the indie feature competition, will be divided into dramatic and documentary sections.
"What we are trying to do is use the international competition to create a platform and visibility for world cinema," Gilmore said. He pointed to the festival's longtime support of documentaries, which he feels has helped "broaden the general understanding of cinema that has built up over the last decade. Documentaries are now part of the world of film. What we hope is that by giving a new platform to international film, we can broaden the conversation in film culture."
Just as the American indie competition films usually come from unknown directors, the new World Cinema Competitions will feature relative newcomers. Sundance wants to take these new voices in international moviemaking, Gilmore said, and "give them a megaphone."
Another change with the 2005 Sundance, and one that may alleviate the concerns of attendees faced with more "must sees" than in previous years, is the addition of a new screening venue. The Park City Racquet Club, the site of festival's annual closing-night ceremonies, will house a new screening room with about 700 seats. The Racquet Club will serve as the home venue for the Dramatic Competition, whose films will receive later screenings at the Eccles and Library venues.
This will mean more options and more opportunities to see films that invariably sell out, said Sundance director of programming John Cooper. "What we have not done," he said, "is create more hours in the day in which to see these films."
Acknowledging that Sundance has become the major market for American indie films, the festival will introduce the Sundance Industry Office, a customer service department for industry attendees.
"Before, we pretty much left everybody (in the industry) to their own devices," Cooper said. That included the buying of tickets and the obtaining of passes. "We want to take a little of the panic out of the festival without losing the energy," he added.
The final change is to the Sundance Online Film Festival. "We have added to the programming quite a bit with much different content and, once again, with free access," Gilmore said. Located at www.sundance.org, the Online Film Festival will launch Jan. 20 and conclude June 20, offering many of the short films showing at the festival plus interviews with filmmakers and daily coverage from Park City.
Despite the addition of two new competition categories, the festival has actually shrunk. Whereas 137 features screened this year, the '05 festival will show 120 features. For one thing, turning the foreign section into a competition limited the number of dramatic foreign features in the festival to 16 -- the same number of films that compete in the Independent Dramatic Competition -- as opposed to the 28 foreign films shown in 2004.
For the 2005 festival, 2,613 feature films were submitted for consideration including 1,385 U.S. feature films and 1,228 international features. These numbers represent an increase from 2004, where 2,485 were submitted, with 1,285 coming from the U.S. and 1,200 from abroad.
Once again, the Documentary Competition is certain to provoke controversy. Paul Provenza's "The Aristocrats" will see 100 major comedians tell the same very, very dirty joke, one known to all comics going back to vaudeville yet never uttered onstage. Alex Gibney's "Enron: Rise and Fall" will explore the corporate culture behind one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history. And Eugene Jarecki's "Why We Fight" places the Iraq war in the context of the post-World War II military-industrial complex that must find wars to fight to sustain its manifest.
The Dramatic Competition exhibits a strong Southern character with both Phil Morrison's "Junebug" and Tim Kirkman's "Loggerheads" taking place in North Carolina, and Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow" and Ira Sachs' "Forty Shades of Blue" set in Memphis.
All the films in the two Independent Feature Film sections are world premieres, which has not always been the case. However, the foreign films competing in the new World Cinema Competitions merely had to be U.S. premieres to qualify.
A complete list of titles follows.
DRAMATIC COMPETITION
"Between," David Ocanas
"Brick," Rian Johnson
"Dying Gaul," Craig Lucas
"Ellie Parker," Scott Coffey
"Forty Shades of Blue," Ira Sachs
"How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer," Georgina Garcia Riedel
"Hustle & Flow," Craig Brewer
"Junebug," Phil Morrison
"Loggerheads," Tim Kirkman
"Lonesome Jim," Steve Buscemi
"Me and You and Everyone We Know," Miranda July
"Police Beat," Robinson Devor
"Pretty Persuasion," Marcos Siega
"The Squid and the Whale," Noah Baumbach
"Thumbsucker," Mike Mills
"Who Killed Cock Robin?" Travis Wilkerson
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
"After Innocence," Jessica Sanders
"The Aristocrats," Paul Provenza
"The Devil and Daniel Johnston," Jeff Feuerzeig
"The Education of Shelby Knox," Marion Lipschutz, Rose Rosenblatt
"Enron: Rise and Fall," Alex Gibney
"The Fall of Fujimori," Ellen Perry
"Frozen Angels," Eric Black, Frauke Sandig
"Mardi Gras: Made in China," David Redmon
"Murderball," Henry-Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro
"New York Doll," Greg Whiteley
"Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story," Dan Klores, Ron Berger
"Romantico," Mark Becker
"Shakespeare Behind Bars," Hank Rogerson
"Trudell," Heather Rae
"Twist of Faith," Kirby Dick
"Why We Fight," Eugene Jarecki
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
"Brothers," Susanne Bier
"Cronicas," Sebastian Cordero
"The Forest for the Trees," Maren Ade
"Green Chair," Park Chul-su
"The Hero," Zeze Gamboa
"Kekexili: Mountain Patrol," Lu Chuan
"Lila Says," Ziad Doueiri
"Live-In Maid," Jorge Gaggero
"Monsterthursday," Arild Østin Ommundsen
"On a Clear Day," Gaby Dellal
"Palermo Hollywood," Eduardo Pinto
"Stranger," Malgosia Szumowska
"This Charming Girl," Lee Yoon-Ki
"Tony Takitani," Jun Ichikawa
"Unconscious," Joaquín Oristrell
"Wolf Creek," Greg Mclean
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
"The 3 Rooms of Melancholia," Pirjo Honkasalo
"Dhakiyarr vs. the King," Tom Murray, Allan Collins
"Grizzly Man," Werner Herzog
"I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth," Vicente Ferraz
"El Immortal," Mercedes Moncada
"The Liberace of Baghdad," Sean McAllister
"Odessa Odessa," Michale Boganim
"Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire," Peter Raymont
"Shape of the Moon," Leonard Retel Helmrich
"Unknown White Male," Rupert Murray
"Wall," Simone Bitton
"Yang Ban Xi -- The 8 Modelworks," Yan Ting Yuen
"Boy, are we excited by the quality of the competition," Gilmore said. "It's hard for us to say that because it puts us out on a limb. But the overall quality and standards of independent film are on the rise."
The bad news is a dramatic increase in "must see" films for industry execs, critics and the general public. "We know it's going to drive everyone nuts," Gilmore said.
Among the films in competitions for 2005 Sundance, there are no fewer than 42 world premieres, nine North American premieres and nine U.S. premieres. And in the categories of American Spectrum, Park City at Midnight, Special Screenings and the Premieres themselves, which will be announced today, there will be many more premieres, pushing the number well past 80 films.
The Sundance Film Festival, set for Jan. 20-30 in Park City, will introduce several major changes. Long known as the key platform for American independent films, the festival will inaugurate a World Cinema Competition, which, like the indie feature competition, will be divided into dramatic and documentary sections.
"What we are trying to do is use the international competition to create a platform and visibility for world cinema," Gilmore said. He pointed to the festival's longtime support of documentaries, which he feels has helped "broaden the general understanding of cinema that has built up over the last decade. Documentaries are now part of the world of film. What we hope is that by giving a new platform to international film, we can broaden the conversation in film culture."
Just as the American indie competition films usually come from unknown directors, the new World Cinema Competitions will feature relative newcomers. Sundance wants to take these new voices in international moviemaking, Gilmore said, and "give them a megaphone."
Another change with the 2005 Sundance, and one that may alleviate the concerns of attendees faced with more "must sees" than in previous years, is the addition of a new screening venue. The Park City Racquet Club, the site of festival's annual closing-night ceremonies, will house a new screening room with about 700 seats. The Racquet Club will serve as the home venue for the Dramatic Competition, whose films will receive later screenings at the Eccles and Library venues.
This will mean more options and more opportunities to see films that invariably sell out, said Sundance director of programming John Cooper. "What we have not done," he said, "is create more hours in the day in which to see these films."
Acknowledging that Sundance has become the major market for American indie films, the festival will introduce the Sundance Industry Office, a customer service department for industry attendees.
"Before, we pretty much left everybody (in the industry) to their own devices," Cooper said. That included the buying of tickets and the obtaining of passes. "We want to take a little of the panic out of the festival without losing the energy," he added.
The final change is to the Sundance Online Film Festival. "We have added to the programming quite a bit with much different content and, once again, with free access," Gilmore said. Located at www.sundance.org, the Online Film Festival will launch Jan. 20 and conclude June 20, offering many of the short films showing at the festival plus interviews with filmmakers and daily coverage from Park City.
Despite the addition of two new competition categories, the festival has actually shrunk. Whereas 137 features screened this year, the '05 festival will show 120 features. For one thing, turning the foreign section into a competition limited the number of dramatic foreign features in the festival to 16 -- the same number of films that compete in the Independent Dramatic Competition -- as opposed to the 28 foreign films shown in 2004.
For the 2005 festival, 2,613 feature films were submitted for consideration including 1,385 U.S. feature films and 1,228 international features. These numbers represent an increase from 2004, where 2,485 were submitted, with 1,285 coming from the U.S. and 1,200 from abroad.
Once again, the Documentary Competition is certain to provoke controversy. Paul Provenza's "The Aristocrats" will see 100 major comedians tell the same very, very dirty joke, one known to all comics going back to vaudeville yet never uttered onstage. Alex Gibney's "Enron: Rise and Fall" will explore the corporate culture behind one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history. And Eugene Jarecki's "Why We Fight" places the Iraq war in the context of the post-World War II military-industrial complex that must find wars to fight to sustain its manifest.
The Dramatic Competition exhibits a strong Southern character with both Phil Morrison's "Junebug" and Tim Kirkman's "Loggerheads" taking place in North Carolina, and Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow" and Ira Sachs' "Forty Shades of Blue" set in Memphis.
All the films in the two Independent Feature Film sections are world premieres, which has not always been the case. However, the foreign films competing in the new World Cinema Competitions merely had to be U.S. premieres to qualify.
A complete list of titles follows.
DRAMATIC COMPETITION
"Between," David Ocanas
"Brick," Rian Johnson
"Dying Gaul," Craig Lucas
"Ellie Parker," Scott Coffey
"Forty Shades of Blue," Ira Sachs
"How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer," Georgina Garcia Riedel
"Hustle & Flow," Craig Brewer
"Junebug," Phil Morrison
"Loggerheads," Tim Kirkman
"Lonesome Jim," Steve Buscemi
"Me and You and Everyone We Know," Miranda July
"Police Beat," Robinson Devor
"Pretty Persuasion," Marcos Siega
"The Squid and the Whale," Noah Baumbach
"Thumbsucker," Mike Mills
"Who Killed Cock Robin?" Travis Wilkerson
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
"After Innocence," Jessica Sanders
"The Aristocrats," Paul Provenza
"The Devil and Daniel Johnston," Jeff Feuerzeig
"The Education of Shelby Knox," Marion Lipschutz, Rose Rosenblatt
"Enron: Rise and Fall," Alex Gibney
"The Fall of Fujimori," Ellen Perry
"Frozen Angels," Eric Black, Frauke Sandig
"Mardi Gras: Made in China," David Redmon
"Murderball," Henry-Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro
"New York Doll," Greg Whiteley
"Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story," Dan Klores, Ron Berger
"Romantico," Mark Becker
"Shakespeare Behind Bars," Hank Rogerson
"Trudell," Heather Rae
"Twist of Faith," Kirby Dick
"Why We Fight," Eugene Jarecki
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
"Brothers," Susanne Bier
"Cronicas," Sebastian Cordero
"The Forest for the Trees," Maren Ade
"Green Chair," Park Chul-su
"The Hero," Zeze Gamboa
"Kekexili: Mountain Patrol," Lu Chuan
"Lila Says," Ziad Doueiri
"Live-In Maid," Jorge Gaggero
"Monsterthursday," Arild Østin Ommundsen
"On a Clear Day," Gaby Dellal
"Palermo Hollywood," Eduardo Pinto
"Stranger," Malgosia Szumowska
"This Charming Girl," Lee Yoon-Ki
"Tony Takitani," Jun Ichikawa
"Unconscious," Joaquín Oristrell
"Wolf Creek," Greg Mclean
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
"The 3 Rooms of Melancholia," Pirjo Honkasalo
"Dhakiyarr vs. the King," Tom Murray, Allan Collins
"Grizzly Man," Werner Herzog
"I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth," Vicente Ferraz
"El Immortal," Mercedes Moncada
"The Liberace of Baghdad," Sean McAllister
"Odessa Odessa," Michale Boganim
"Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire," Peter Raymont
"Shape of the Moon," Leonard Retel Helmrich
"Unknown White Male," Rupert Murray
"Wall," Simone Bitton
"Yang Ban Xi -- The 8 Modelworks," Yan Ting Yuen
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