Sundance 2009: Film Line-Up

by Andre Soares | | Leave a Comment     

 

Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon in The GreatestPerhaps it’s just my impression, but the 25th edition of the Sundance Film Festival, which runs from Jan. 15-25, 2009, in Park City, Utah, seems to be focused on more commercial fare. If so, that’s understandable considering that for the most part Sundance films have been flopping left and right at the US box office. That is, when they find distribution.

This year, there are quite a few films, many of which seem to be about romantic endeavors, with name talent: Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan in Shana Feste’s family drama The Greatest (right); Michael Cera as (a version of) himself in Nicolas Jasenovec’s Paper Heart; Jeff Daniels as a reclusive author in John Hindman’s The Dream of the Romans; Timothy Hutton and Dominic Cooper in John Krasinski’s adaptation of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men; Nathalie Baye in Josiane Balasko’s A French Gigolo; Emma Thompson in Nick Hornby’s An Education; Emmy Rossum in Adam Salky’s Dare; among others.

As usual, the documentaries tend to have a heavy sociopolitical bent — e.g., Anders Oestergaard’s Burma VJ, about the dangers faced by Burmese journalists, and Mary Ann Bruni’s Quest of Honor, about a former teacher’s fight to eradicate honor killings in the tribal areas of Kurdistan — but there’s also lighter stuff, such as Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal’s Nollywood Babylon, about Nigeria’s prolific (albeit little-seen) film industry, and R.J. Cutler’s The September Issue, which follows Anna Wintour (Meryl Streep — sort of — in The Devil Wears Prada) and her team’s preparations for the crucial (for those who care about that sort of thing) September issue of Vogue.

Talks of Prop. 8 boycotts, which have been plaguing the Sundance Festival since the November 2 election, have slowed down somewhat. Even so, Michael Cieply reports in the New York Times that festival organizers "will make certain that no film is screened only in the Holiday Village theater in Park City, operated by Cinemark, a chain whose chief executive, Alan Stock, donated to Proposition 8’s backers in the November election. The idea is to give anyone who has qualms about Cinemark the opportunity to see a movie somewhere else."

Coincidentally or not, after a cursory look at the films’ plots, out of the 100+ films in competition the only one I could find with what might be taken as a "gay theme" is Lynn Shelton’s Humpday, a comedy about straight male bonding gone amok.

 

Sundance 2009: World Cinema Documentary Competition

Sundance 2009: World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Sundance 2009: US Documentary Competition

Sundance 2009: US Dramatic Competition

Sundance 2009 Boycott: Park City to Suffer?

Cairo Film Festival 2008: What’s the Use?

Amazonas Film Festival and the Environment in THE GUARDIAN

Penélope Cruz, Kristin Scott Thomas, Clint Eastwood at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2009

MARY AND MAX to Open Sundance 2009

Sundance, Prop. 8, and Boycotts

by Andre Soares | December 3, 2008 | Filed Under Film Festivals, Gay & Lesbian 

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