2015 Sundance Film Festival Winners

U.S. DRAMATIC

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl stars Nick Offerman, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon and Thomas Mann and was picked up by Fox Searchlight for a record-breaking $12 million.

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl- directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
AUDIENCE AWARD: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl- directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
DIRECTING AWARD: Robert Eggers, The Witch
WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD: Tim Talbott, The Stanford Prison Experiment
SPECIAL JURY AWARD- CINEMATOGRAPHY: Diary of a Teenage Girl- Brandon Trost
SPECIAL JURY AWARD- EDITING: Dope- Lee Haugen
SPECIAL JURY AWARD- COLLABORATIVE VISION: Advantageous- Jacqueline Kim, Jennifer Phang
AUDIENCE AWARD (NEXT): James White- directed by Josh Mond
ALFRED P. SLOAN PRIZE: The Stanford Prison Experiment- directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez

U.S. DOCUMENTARY

The Wolfpack, winner of the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize tells the story of Angulo brothers, who while locked away in the Lower East Side of Manhattan reenact their favorite movies.

GRAND JURY PRIZE: The Wolfpack- directed by Crystal Moselle
AUDIENCE AWARD: Meru- directed by Jimmy Chin, E. Chai Vasarhelyi
DIRECTING AWARD: Matthew Heineman, Cartel Land
SPECIAL JURY AWARD - SOCIAL IMPACT: 3 1/2 Minutes- directed by Marc Silver
SPECIAL JURY AWARD- VERITE FILMMAKING: Western- Bill Ross, Turner Ross
SPECIAL JURY AWARD- BREAKOUT FIRST FEATURE: (T)error- Lyric R. Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe
SPECIAL JURY AWARD- CINEMATOGRAPHY: Cartel Land- Matthew Heineman, Matt Porwoll

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC

Slow West is a western starring Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Mendelsohn.  A24 Films picked up the film prior to Sundance in a partnership with DirecTV.

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Slow West- directed by John Maclean
AUDIENCE AWARD: Umrika- directed by Prashant Nair
DIRECTING AWARD: Alanté Kavaité, The Summer of Sangaile
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE- CINEMATOGRAPHY: Partisan- Germain McMicking
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE- ACTING: Glassland- Jack Reynor
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE- ACTING: The Second Mother- Regina Casé, Camila Márdila 

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY

World Cinema Documentary winner The Russian Woodpecker explores a dark secret uncovered by a Ukrainian victim of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

GRAND JURY PRIZE: The Russian Woodpecker- directed by Chad Garcia
AUDIENCE AWARD: Dark Horse- directed by Louise Osmond
DIRECTING AWARD: Kim Longinotto, Dreamcatcher
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE- EDITING: How to Change the World- Jim Scott
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE- IMPACT: Pervert Park- Frida Barkfors, Lasse Barkfors
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE- UNPARALLELED ACCESS: The Chinese Mayer- Hao Zhoe

Sundance Film Festival Awards

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
AUDIENCE AWARD:  Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
DIRECTING AWARD: Cutter Hodierne, Fishing Without Nets
WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD: The Skeleton Twins- Craig Johnson & Mark Heyman
CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD: Low Down- Christopher Blavelt
BREAKTHROUGH TALENT: Justin Simien, director of Dear White People
GRAND JURY PRIZE (Documentary): Rich Hill (Tracy Droz Tragos & Andrew Droz Palermo)
DIRECTING AWARD (Documentary): Ben Cotner & Ryan White, The Case Against 8
CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD (Documentary):  E-TEAM- Ross Kauffman

Full winners here.

2014 Sundance Film Festival Line-Up

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

These films hope to join the ranks of past Sundance triumphs Precious, Winter's Bone, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Fruitvale Station.  Stars like Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway and Kristen Wiig are among the many famous faces appearing in competition at next years Park City festival.

Kristen Stewart stars in Camp X-Ray

Camp X-Ray- directed by Peter Sattler
Cold in July- directed by Jim Mickle
Dead White People- directed by Justin Simien
Fishing Without Nets- directed by Cutter Hodierne
God's Pocket- directed by John Slattery
Happy Christmas- directed by Joe Swanberg
Hellion- directed by Kat Candler
Infinitely Polar Bear- directed by Maya Forbes
Jamie Marks is Dead- directed by Carter Smith
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter- directed by David Zellner
Life After Beth- directed by Jeff Baena
Low Down- directed by Jeff Preiss
The Skeleton Twins- directed by Craig Johnson
The Sleepwalker- directed by Mona Fastvold
Song One- directed by Kate Baker-Froyland
Whiplash- directed by Damien Chazelle

Two Mothers trailer

Here's the French trailer to Two Mothers, which debuted at this years Sundance Film Festival.  The film, penned by Christopher Hampton (Atonement, Dangerous Liaisons) and directed by Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel) stars Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as two women who fall for each others respective young adult sons.  Looks all steamy and stuff, as well as a very pointed drama that could reap strong roles for the leading actresses...or not.  Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville (Animal Kingdom) play their sons.  The film received mixed reviews at Sundance.

On the subject of Robin Wright, is there another well-liked and clearly talented actress who has yet to fully break out in any significant way.  Even with the freshly plucked A Princess Bride coming out party, she always seemed sidelined, or marginalized, either by the films themselves or the actors you have seemed to steal her sheen.  Lately, however, it appears at least on screen (she's also currently in the much buzzed about Netflix original House of Cards) she's not trying altogether too hard, amassing a recent film resumé that includes small roles in respected titles like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball, and Rampart-- all the while just standing there alongside her leading men.  Rampart is a clear example of a slightly something more role and a gutsy performance attached to it, but it all kind of dissolved as the film slightly fell apart despite her conviction.  The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) was a nice role (of which earned a strange shout out from her ex Sean Penn at the 2009 Academy Awards telecast), but too much of slight film to be taken seriously, as was A Home at the End of the World (2004) and, perhaps her best film role, She's So Lovely (1998.)  As the song in Cabaret goes...maybe this time.

Sundance 2013: The Winners!

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Fruitvale
AUDIENCE AWARD: Fruitvale

Ryan Coogler's feature-- a true story about the 2008 Bay Area shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant-- won both the coveted Grand Jury Prize and Dramatic Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.  The film, starring Kevin Durand, Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz and Octavia Spencer, was sold to The Weinstein Company earlier in the festival and hopes to potentially join the recent past Jury Prize winners  onward to success at the Academy Awards.  Remember Precious (2009), Winter's Bone (2010) and current success story Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) all started their journey in the same place.

U.S. DOCUMENTARY GRAND JURY PRIZE: Blood Brother
U.S. DOCUMENTARY AUDIENCE AWARD: Blood Brother

Steve Hoover's documentary about  Ricky Braat, who traveled to India as a disillusioned American, only to become immersed with the population of children battling HIV/AIDS, also double-dipped in winning both the Grand Jury Doc Prize and the Audience Award.

U.S. DRAMATIC DIRECTING PRIZE: Jill Soloway, Afternoon Delight

A dark comedy starring Juno Temple and Kathryn Hahn and Jane Lynch about a housewife who takes in a stripper and adopts her as her live-in nanny.  Hahn, whose made a comedic impression on Parks & Recreation, as well as the Paul Rudd comedies Our Idiot Brother and Wanderlust earned nice notices here.

U.S. DOCUMENTARY DIRECTING PRIZE: Zachary Heinzerling, Cutie & the Boxer
 ,
A New York love story that chronicles the relationship between boxing painter, Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko and their forty-year marriage.  The film was sold the Radius/The Weinstein Company.

WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD: Lake Bell, In A World

Actress Bell (Boston Legal) directed, wrote and starred in this film about a father/daughter relationship in the professional world of movie-trailer voice over artists.

U.S. DRAMATIC CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD: Bradford Young, Ain't Them Bodies Saints

David Lowry's Ain't Them Bodies Saints stars Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara is the story of an outlaw who journeys to reunite with his wife.  The film earned decent praise, with many pointing the visual grace of the film that seemed to recall Terence Malick.  The film sold to IFC Films.

U.S. DRAMATIC SPECIAL JURY AWARD: Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now

Written by (500) Days of Summer scribes Scott Neustader and Michael H. Weber, and directed by James Ponsoldt (Smashed), actors Teller (Rabbit Hole) and Woodley (The Descendants) were cited for their performances in the film about a budding high school relationship.  Distributor A24 picked up the film.

Full list of winners.

Other highlights of the festival included Joseph Gordon Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon's Addiction, a film starring "Robin" as a porn-addicted Jersey boy with whom Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore try to cure-- the film earned lukewarm notices, but was picked up by Relativity Media.  Fox Searchlight picked up The Way Way Back, directed by The Descendants scribes Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, a comedy starring Steve Carrel, Sam Rockwell and Toni Collette, and was the biggest sale of this years festival at nearly $10 million.  Sony Pictures Classics secured Austenland, a comedy starring Keri Russell as a Jane Austen-obsessive who journeys to live in the novelists works for a retreat.

The biggest deal, in my mind at this Sundance Film Festival, was the unveiling of the third part of Richard Linklater's master Before series.  Before Midnight, the continuation of the grand brief romance, Before Sunrise, that started eighteen years ago on a fateful train trip to Vienna between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and reignited nine years later with the better, leaner, even more heavenly wistful Before Sunset debuted to ravishing reviews and sold to Sony Pictures Classics. Oh, Jesse and Celene, I want to visit you now!!!!

Sundance Film Festival 2013

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2012 Sundance Film Festival Winners

GRAND JURY PRIZE (Dramatic): Beasts of the Southern Wild- the film was snapped up by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

AUDIENCE AWARD (Dramatic): The Surrogate- Fox Searchlight picked up this much raved about film starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.

DIRECTING AWARD: Ava DuVernay, Middle of Nowhere

DIRECTING AWARD (Documentary): Lauren Greenfield, The Queen of Versailles- picked up by Magnolia Pictures. 

WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD: Safety Not Guaranteed- stars Mark Duplass as a romantic loner who wants to time travel, written by Derek Connelly 

GRAND JURY PRIZE (Documentary): The House I Live In- directed by Eugene Jarecki (brother of Andrew Jarecki, director of the acclaimed documentary Capturing the Friedmans and the not-so-acclaimed narrative All Good Things.)

AUDIENCE AWARD (Documentary): The Invisible War

WORLD CINEMA JURY PRIZE (Dramatic): Violeta Went to Heaven


WORLD CINEMA AUDIENCE AWARD (Dramatic): Valley of Saints


WORLD CINEMA JURY PRIZE (Documentary): The Law in These Parts

WORLD CINEMA AUDIENCE AWARD (Documentary): Searching for Sugar Man

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR ENSEMBLE ACTING: The Surrogate

Sundance Film Festival Winners

Taking a break from the 2010 awards spectacle, the crystal ball has started for 2011 with the announcement of the winners of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival:

GRAND JURY PRIZE (Drama): Like Crazy
a love story starring Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones (The Tempest), and Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar nominee from last year's Sundance champ, Winter's Bone.  Keep on eye out here, as the last two years in a row, the big Sundance winner has been it's way into Oscar's fancy (Precious in 2009, and Winter's Bone in 2010); of course, with clearer thinking, one must be reminded that the last two years have been the only times in history where Sundance's top prize was also a Best Picture nominee...

GRAND JURY PRIZE (Documentary): How to Die in Oregon
A documentary by Peter Richardson about assisted suicide.  Perhaps an Academy flick-- remember that 2 of the eventual Oscar nominees from last year made it in (Exit Through the Gift Shop and Restrepo), while the presumed frontrunner, now also-ran Waiting for 'Superman' also premiered at the 2010 Sundance Festival.

AUDIENCE AWARD (Drama): Circumstance 
Drama centering around a wealthy Iranian family coming to terms with a teenager's sexual rebellion, and her brother's dangerous obsession...sounds ominous, and cheery!

AUDIENCE AWARD (Documentary): Buck
A documentary about master horse trainer, Buck Brannaman.

WORLD CINEMA AWARD (Drama): Happy, Happy
From Norway...Animal Kingdom won this prize a year ago, featuring a glowing and blistering Oscar nominated performance from Jacki Weaver.

WORLD CINEMA AWARD (Documentary): Hell and Back Again
A documentary from the perspective of the US Marine fighting in Afghanistan.

WORLD CINEMA AUDIENCE AWARD (Drama): Kinyarwanda

WORLD CINEMA AUDIENCE AWARD (Documentary): Senna

BEST DIRECTOR (Drama): Sean Durkin, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Buzzed about flick starring Elizabeth Olsen (the sister of Mary Kate and Ashley) about a woman struggling to re-assimilate after fleeing a cult.  Also stars Sarah Paulson and John Hawkes, a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Winter's Bone.  I'd love to be around to hear people mangle that title up...would that be cruel?

BEST DIRECTOR (Documentary): Jon Foy, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

BEST DIRECTOR- WORLD CINEMA (Drama): Paddy Considine, Tyrannosaur

BEST DIRECTOR- WORLD CINEMA (Documentary): James Marsh, Project Nim
Awards buffs well remember that Marsh won the documentary prize two years ago for Man on Wire.

WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD: Sam Levinson, Another Happy Day
Dysfunction family flick starring Ellen Barkin, Ezra Miller (City Island), Demi Moore, Thomas Hayden Church and Ellen Burstyn.

BEST SCREENWRITING- WORLD CINEMA: Erez Kav-El, Restoration

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy

Sundance Film Festival Winners

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Winter's Bone- stars Jennifer Lawrence (The Burning Plain) and centers around a girl trying to hunt down her drug dealing father-- sounds sort of familiar with 2008's Grand Jury Prize winner Frozen River, which was also written and directed by a woman, Winter's Bone was written and directed by Debra Granik. Currently no distributor has purchased the film, but I doubt that will be for long. Coincidentally, no film in it's history has one a best picture nomination that won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance-- this might change this year however with Precious.

DRAMATIC AUDIENCE AWARD
happythankyoumoreplease- directed by Josh Radnor (star of How I Met Your Mother) and star Malin Ackerman.

GRAND JURY PRIZE (Documentary)
Restrepo- directed by Sebastian Junger, writer of the The Perfect Storm, this film details the war in Afghanistan.

AUDIENCE AWARD (Documentary)
Waiting for Superman- from director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud), this documentary about education in the US will be released by Paramount Vantage.

WORLD CINEMA JURY PRIZE
Animal Kingdom- Aussie film starring Guy Pearce-- the musical Once won this prize at the 2007 film festival.

WORLD CINEMA AUDIENCE AWARD
Undertow- this one seems to be a supernatural story with gay undertones...

DIRECTING AWARD
3 Backyards- Eric Mendelsohn- Mendelsohn directed the cool 1999 film Judy Berlin, his latest stars Embath Davidtz (Junebug) and Edie Falco.

WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD
Winter's Bone- Debra Granik-- I gather they really liked this movie!

CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD
Obselidia- Zak Mulligan

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE- DRAMATIC
Sympathy for Delicious- the directing debut of Mark Ruffalo starring Orlando Bloom, Juliette Lewis and Laura Linney.

correction: Winter's Bone was acquired by Roadside Attraction Pictures, and Granik, the film's writer\director previously made the film Down to the Bone, a Sundance hit in 2004 which starred Vera Farmiga (or Alex in Up in the Air, or Madeline in The Departed) as a drug addict, her claim to fame, and an excellent movie for anyone looking for a great, tragically depressing film.

Sundance Film Festival 2010

I typically don't follow film acquisitions from festivals, but since last fall, only one major film got distribution (A Single Man by The Weinstein Company) from screening at film festivals, I think it's interesting how it seems to be the face of American independent filmmaking has changed. I post this on the very day that Miramax Films (the subsidiary of Disney), once prominently and infamously owned by the Weinsteins, officially closes up shop. It would be a mistake to say that without Miramax the last twenty-five years or so would have been a lot bleaker for independent film in the United States, as well as prominence in foreign films.

They exloded on the scene with sex, lies and videotape in 1989 as the brashed, hippest studio around. Of course this studio was owned by the Walt Disney Company which made its controversies even more warped. But the debut of Steven Soderbergh's raw and risky teeny-tiny film somehow catipulted in the zeitgeist of the pop culture and announced the bold new world of American independent film. Thanks to shrewd marketing the Weinsteins, the film was a relative success, and scored Soderbergh an Oscar nomination for original screenplay-- but it was the fact that the film had made an impact on the film industry, for bustling filmmakers and for the Weinsteins that makes the film a starting point of the buyers market that has been around various film festivals like Sundance, Cannes, Venice and Toronto for the past two decades.

Things have changed a lot since then. What Miramax started, was what every major studio did over the next two decades...form a small version of their bigger studios. 20th Century Fox has Fox Searchlight; Universal Pictures has Focus Features; Paramount Pictures has Paramount Vantage; Warner Bros. has Warner Independent Pictures; Sony Pictures has Sony Pictures Classics. The problem is that with the exception of Fox Searchlight, Sony Classics and Focus, most of others aren't very good at maintaining them the way Miramax was. Add to that an economy that sucks, and suddenly everyone's becoming more conservative about spending money on films that aren't guarnateed a big profit. This isn't to say all is gloom, but it's not as joyous and exhuberant as years before.

Last year for example, Lion Gate Films purchased Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire which is now on it's way to becoming an Oscar nominee (the first best picture nominee ever that won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, an aside), but it wasn't the selling frenzy as it might have been year ago, when for instance Little Miss Sunshine was sold to Fox Searchlight after an intense bidding war for over $10 million. Or when Focus Features paid even more for Hamlet 2. Or when Miramax back in 1999 went ape shit and spent $10 million on Happy, Texas, a movie that didn't come close to earning that green back.

This year the offerings at Sundance look very interesting, at least on paper, and it seems the buyers are there too, but not as prolifically as years past. So far, Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Alright is the biggest sale-- almost $5 million to Focus Features. The film stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple with children, and when their children start to wonder who their father is, Mark Ruffalo shows up. Reviews so far have been very positive and the A-list actors insure that Focus will likely earn it's coin back. Other sales are the Iraq-stuck in a coffin film Buried, with Ryan Reynolds, which sold to Lions Gate for $3 million, the Hassidic Jew film Hesher with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Natalie Portman to Newmarket for $1 million, as well as the Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvienent Truth; It Might Get Loud) education documentary Waiting for Superman to Paramount Vantage.

Sundance Film Festival 2010

2010 SUNDANCE COMPETITION LINEUP:

DRAMATIC COMPETITION

• "Blue Valentine" - Directed by Derek Cianfrance, written by Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, a portrait of an American marriage that charts the evolution of a relationship over time. With Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman.
• "Douchebag" - Directed by Drake Doremus, written by Lindsay Stidham, Doremus, Jonathan Schwartz and Andrew Dickler, in which a man about to be married takes his younger brother on a wild goose chase to find the latter's fifth-grade girlfriend. Features Dickler, Ben York Jones, Marguerite Moreau, Nicole Vicius, Amy Ferguson, Wendi McClendon-Covey.
• "The Dry Land" - Directed and written by Ryan Piers Williams, in which a returning U.S. soldier tries to reconcile his experiences overseas with his life in Texas. With America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, Ethan Suplee, June Diane Raphael, Melissa Leo.
• "Happythankyoumoreplease" - Directed and written by Josh Radnor, about six New Yorkers negotiating love, friendship and gratitude when they're too old to be precocious and not yet fully adults. Stars Malin Akerman, Radnor, Kate Mara, Zoe Kazan, Tony Hale, Pablo Schreiber, Michael Algieri.
• "Hesher" - Directed by Spencer Susser, written by Susser and David Michod from a story by Brian Charles Frank, in which a mysterious, anarchical trickster enters the lives of a family dealing with a painful loss. Toplines Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, Devin Brochu, Piper Laurie, John Carroll Lynch.
• "Holy Rollers" - Directed by Kevin Tyler Asch, written by Antonio Macia, concerning a young Hasidic man in the throes of money, power and opportunity who becomes an international Ecstasy smuggler. With Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Bartha, Danny A. Abeckaser, Ari Graynor, Jason Fuchs.
• "Howl" - Directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, a "nonfiction drama" about how Allen Ginsberg created the eponymous poem and the subsequent landmark obscenity trial. Stars James Franco, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels.
• "The Imperialists Are Still Alive!" - Directed and written by Zeina Durra, about how a French Manhattanite continues her work as an artist in the wake of the sudden abduction of her childhood sweetheart and a blooming love affair. Toplines Elodie Bouchez, Jose Maria de Tavira, Karim Saleh Karolina Muller, Marianna Kulukundis, Rita Ackerman.
• "Lovers of Hate" - Directed and written by Bryan Poyser, about how the reunion of estranged brothers is undermined when the woman they both love chooses one over the other. With Chris Doubek, Heather Kafka, Alex Karpovsky, Zach Green.
• "Night Catches Us" - Directed and written by Tanya Hamilton, which focuses on the eventful return of a young man to the race-torn Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up during the Black Power movement. Features Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Jamie Hector, Wendell Pierce, Jamara Griffin.
• "Obselidia" - Directed and written by Diane Bell, about the amorous awakening of a lonely librarian with a beguiling cinema projectionist in Death Valley. Toplines Gaynor Howe, Michael Piccirilli, Frank Hoyt Taylor.
• "Skateland" - Directed by Anthony Burns, and written by Burns, Brandon Freeman and Heath Freeman, in which dramatic events in early '80s small-town Texas force a 19-year-old skating rink manager to see his life in a new light. With Shiloh Fernandez, A.J. Buckley, Ashley Greene, Brett Cullen, Ellen Hollman, Heath Freeman.
• "Sympathy for Delicious" - Directed by Mark Ruffalo and written by Christopher Thornton, which centers on a newly paralyzed DJ who gets more than he bargained for when he seeks out the world of faith healing. Stars Orlando Bloom, Ruffalo, Juliette Lewis, Laura Linney, John Carroll Lynch.
• "3 Backyards" - Directed and written by Eric Mendelsohn, in which a quiet suburban town becomes intense emotional terrain for three residents on one strange day. Toplines Embeth Davidtz, Edie Falco, Elias Koteas, Rachel Resheff, Kathryn Erbe, Danai Gurira.
• "Welcome to the Rileys" - Directed by Jake Scott, written by Ken Hixon, about a damaged man who seeks salvation by caring for a wayward young woman during a business trip to New Orleans. Stars James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo.
• "Winter's Bone" - Directed by Debra Granik and written by Granik and Anne Rosellini, which focuses on the dangerous efforts of an Ozard Mountain girl to track down her drug-dealer father while keeping her family intact. With Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin Breznahan, Isaiah Stone.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

• "Bhutto" - Directed by Duane Baughman and Johnny O'Hara, written by O'Hara, a look at the life of the assassinated former Pakistani prime minister.
• "Casino Jack and the United States of Money" - Directed by Alex Gibney, an investigation into the world of imprisoned super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his cronies.
• "Family Affair" - Directed by Chico Colvard, which examines resilience, survival and the capacity to accomodate a parent's past crimes on the road to satisfying the longing for family.
• "Freedom Riders" - Directed by Stanley Nelson, about civil rights activists who challenged segregation in the South in 1961.
• "Gas Land" - Directed by Josh Fox, which looks at toxic streams, dying livestock, flammable sinks and people with weakened health in the vicinity of natural gas drilling.
• "I'm Pat ------- Tillman" - Directed by Amir Bar-Lev, which focuses on the efforts of the family of the pro football star to take on the U.S. government after he was killed by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan in 2004.
• "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child" - Directed by Tamra Davis, a portrait of the celebrated '80s artist.
• "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" - Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, a forthright glimpse into the life and comedic process of the veteran comedian.
• "Lucky" - Directed by Jeffrey Blitz, which examines what happens when ordinary people hit the lottery jackpot.
• "My Perestroika" - Directed by Robin Hessman, an analysis of the transition of the U.S.S.R. as seen through the lives of five Muscovites who came of age at the time of communism's collapse.
• "The Oath" - Directed by Laura Poitras, lensed in Yemen, about two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 led them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo and the U.S. Supreme Court.
• "Restrepo" - Directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, for which the two filmmakers accompanied the Second Platoon in a crucial valley to reveal the soldiers' intense labor, fights and camaraderie as they take on the Taliban.
• "A Small Act" - Directed by Jennifer Arnold, which spotlights how a young Kenyan, whose life was dramatically changed when a Swedish stranger sponsored his education, later reciprocates by founding his own scholarship program.
• "Smash His Camera" - Directed by Leon Gast, which uses the story of notorious paparazzo Ron Galella to examine issues such as the right to privacy, freedom of the press and celebrity worship.
• "12th and Delaware" - Directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, a look at how the abortion battle continues in unexpected ways on an unassuming corner in the U.S.
• "Waiting for Superman" - Directed by Davis Guggenheim, which uses multiple interlocking stories to analyze the crisis in U.S. public education.

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

• "All That I Love" (Poland) - Directed and written by Jacek Borcuch, about four small-town teenagers who form a punk rock band in 1981 during the growth of the Solidarity movement. With Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Jakub Gierszal, Mateusz Banasiuk, Olga Frycz, Igor Obloza. North American premiere.
• "Animal Kingdom" (Australia) - Directed and written by David Michod, which centers upon a 17-year-old boy who, in the wake of his mother's death, is thrust precariously between a criminal family and a detectives who hopes to save him. Stars Guy Pearce, Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, James Frecheville. World premiere.
• "Boy" (New Zealand) - Directed and written by Taika Waititi, a study of how two young brothers reconciles fantasy with reality when their father returns home after many years. Features Waititi, James Rolleston, Te Aho Eketone. World premiere.
• "Four Lions" (U.K.) - Directed by Chris Morris, written by Morris, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, a comedy about some self-styled British jihadis. With Chris Wilson, Kevin Eldon. World premiere.
• "Grown Up Movie Star" (Canada) - Directed and written by Adriana Maggs, which spins on a teenage girl left to care for her rural father when her mother runs away. Features Shawn Doyle, Tatiana Maslany, Jonny Harris, Mark O'Brien, Andy Jones, Julia Kennedy. U.S. premiere.
• "The Man Next Door" (Argentina), written and directed by Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat, about two neighbors who clash over a wall separating their properties. With Rafael Spregelburd, Daniel Araoz, Eugenia Alonso, Ines Budassi, Lorenza Acuna. International premiere.
• "Me Too" (Spain) - Directed by Alvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro, about the unconventional relationship between a 34-year-old college-educated man with Down syndrome and his free-spirited co-worker. With Pablo Pineda, Lola Duenas, Antonio Naharro, Isabel Garcia Lorca, Pedro Alvarez Ossorio. International premiere.
• "Nuummioq" (Greenland) - Directed by Otto Rosing and Torben Bech, written by Bech, a contemporary story of how a young man pieces together aspects of his past and gets on with his life while journeying through Greenland's imposing landscapes. Stars Lars Rosing, Angunnguaq Larsen, Julie Berthelsen, Morten Rose, Makka Kleist, Mariu Olsen. World premiere.
• "Peepli Live" (India) - Directed and written by Anusha Rizvi, a satire about the media frenzy created when an impoverished farmer announces that he'll commit suicide so his family can receive government compensation. Toplines Riz Ahmed, Arsher Ali, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak.
• "Son of Babylon" (Iraq) - Directed and written by Mohamed Al Daradji, the tale of a young Kurdish boy and his grandmother as they travel through Iraq searching for the remains of their father/son in the wake of Saddam Hussein's fall from power. With Yasser Talib, Shazda Hussein, Bashir Al-Majid. International premiere.
• "Southern District" (Bolivia) - Directed and written by Juan Carlos Valdivia, a look at social change that envelopes an upper-class family in La Paz, Bolivia. Toplines Ninon del Castillo, Pascual Loayza, Nicolas Fernandez, Juan Pablo Koria, Mariana Vargas. North American premiere.
• "The Temptation of St. Tony" (Estonia) - Directed and written by Veiko Ounpuu, which centers upon a mid-level manager with an aversion to being "good" who confronts life mysteries as he loses his grasp on his once-quiet life. Features Taavi Eelmaa, Rain Tolk, Tiina Tauraite, Katarina Lauk, Raivo E. Tamm. World premiere.
• "Undertow" (Colombia-France-Germany-Peru) - Directed and written by Javier Fuentes-Leon, an offbeat ghost story in which a married fisherman on the Peruvian seaside tries to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within the town's rigid traditions. Stars Cristian Mercado, Manolo Cardona, Tatiana Astengo. North American premiere.
• "Vegetarian" (South Korea) - Directed and written by Lim Woo-seong, about a housewife whose strange dreams and resulting meat aversion cause trouble with her husband and attract the interest of her artist brother-in-law. Toplines Chea Min-seo, Kim Hyun-sung, Kim Yeo-jin, Kim Young-jae. International premiere.

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

• "Enemies of the People" (Cambodia-U.K.) - Directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, which recounts the shocking revelations that ensue when a young journalist whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge befriends the perpetrators of the Killing Fields genocide. World premiere.
• "A Film Unfinished" (Germany-Israel) - Directed by Yael Hersonski, in which film found in Nazi archives reveals the means used to stage Warsaw ghetto life. World premiere.
• "Fix Me" (France-Palestinian Territories-Switzerland) - Directed by Raed Andoni, in which Andoni seeks different forms of help for a relentless headache in his hometown of Ramallah. International premiere.
• "His and Hers" (Ireland) - Directed by Ken Wardrop, in which 70 Irish women offer insights into the relationships between women and men. World premiere.
• "Kick in Iran" (Germany) - Directed by Fatima Geza Abdollahyan, about the struggles of the first female Taekwondo fighter from Iran to qualify for the Olympic Games. World premiere.
• "Last Train Home" (Canada) - Directed by Fan Lixin, which focuses on the ordeals of a Chinese migrant worker who, along with many others, tries to reunite with a distant family. U.S. premiere.
• "The Red Chapel" (Denmark) - Directed by Mads Bruegger, about a journalist without scruples, a self-proclaimed spastic and a comedian travel to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit to challenge the totalitarian regime. U.S. premiere.
• "Russian Lessons" (Georgia-Germany-Norway) - Directed by Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov, which looks into ethnic cleansing in Georgia revealed by an investigation of Russian actions during the 2008 war. World premiere.
• "Secrets of the Tribe" (Brazil) - Directed by Jose Padiha, which examines the scandal and infighting within the academic anthropology community regarding the representation and exploitation of indigenous Indian in the Amazon Basin. World premiere.
• "Sins of My Father" (Argentina-Colombia) - Directed by Nicolas Entel, which delves into the life and times of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar through the eyes of his son, who fled Colombia to lead his own life. North American premiere.
• "Space Tourists" (Switzerland) - Directed by Christian Frei, a humorous look at billionaires who pay large sums to travel into outer space for fun. North American premiere.
• "Waste Land" (U.K.) - Directed by Lucy Walker, which reveals how lives are transformed when international artist Vik Muniz collaborates with garbage picker in the world's largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro. World premiere.