2008 Sundance Film Festival

From January 17 to 27, 2008 this festival will be held and while is still announcing its line-up here are some of the films that will be screened. The festival includes 121 feature films with 87 world premiers, 14 North American premiers and 12 US premieres representing 25 countries with 55 first-time filmmakers including 32 in competition. These films were selected from 3,624 feature film submissions.

The 2008 program includes the following categories:
Independent Film Competition: Documentary and Dramatic
World Cinema Competition: Documentary and Dramatic
Short Programs

Out of Competition: Premieres, Spectrum, Park City at Midnight, and New Frontier.

Dramatic Competition

American Son, Neil Abramson,
Anywhere, U.S.A., Anthony Haney-Jardine
Ballast, Lance Hammer
Choke, Clark Gregg
Download Nancy, Johan Renck
Frozen River, Courtney Hunt
Good Dick, Marianna Palka
The Last Word, Geoff Haley
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Rawson Marshall Thurber
North Starr, Matthew Stanton
Phoebe in Wonderland, Daniel Barnz
Pretty Bird, Paul Schneider
Sleep Dealer, Alex Rivera
Sugar, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Sunshine Cleanning, Christine Jeffs
The Wackness, Jonathan Levine

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Absurdistan, Veit Helmer, Germany
Blue Eyelids (Párpados Azules), Ernesto Contreras, Mexico
Captain Abu Raed, Amin Matalqa, Jordan
The Drummer (Jin Gwu), Kenneth Bi, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Germany
I Always Wanted to be A Gangster (J’ai Toujours Rêvé D’Être un Gangster)
Just Another Love Story (Kærlighed På Film), Ole Borendal, Denmark
King of Ping Pong (Ping Pongkingen), Jens Jonsson, Sweden
Máncora, Ricardo de Montreuil, Spain and Peru
Megane (Glasses), Naoko Ogigami, Japan
Mermaid (Rusalka), Anna Melikyan, Russia (Seems interesting)
Perro Come Perro (Dog Eat Dog), Carlos Moreno, Colombia
Riprendimi (Good Morning Heartache), Anna Negri, Italy
Strangers, Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv, Israel
Under The Bombs (Sous Les Bombes), Philippe Aractingi, Lebanon
The Wave (Die Welle), Dennis Gansel, Germany
The Wind and The Water (Burwa Dii Ebo), A Collective Collaboration, Panama

Opening Night: In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, UK
Closing Night: CSNY Déjà vu, Neil Young, USA

Read the lineups for the films out of competition but found nothing much interesting from the plot summary. One that called my attention is Funny Games an American remake of the German movie with the same name that I watched a few days ago and honestly I couldn’t watched completely had to fast forward as it was really disturbing!

This festival always screens films that with very few exceptions does not appeal to me and this year looks like is going to be as always with very few films calling my attention but I’m always hoping that something outstanding will appear.

If you want to browse the fest site to see the full line-up go here.