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 The premieres, showcasing motion pictures outside the
festival's categories of competition, will screen new films from
Sundance stalwarts like director Noah Baumbach's "Mistress
America" starring Greta Gerwig, Joe Swanberg's "Digging for
Fire" and the comedy "Don Verdean" from filmmaker Jared Hess, of
"Napoleon Dynamite" fame.
"This is their life, working in independent film. It's not the
stepping stone to something else," said festival director John
Cooper. "They are entertaining and they're edgy as well."
Going into its 31st year, Sundance Film Festival, backed by
Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, is the top U.S. gathering
of the independent film community and has developed an avid
buyer's market. It takes place from Jan. 22 to Feb. 1, in the
ski resort town of Park City, Utah.
From major studios to boutique film distributors, Sundance films
have long been snapped up and marketed into Hollywood's film
awards race, with Fox Searchlight most notably spending more
than $10 million in 2006 to buy "Little Miss Sunshine," which
went on to both Oscar and box office success.
Earlier this year, Sony Pictures Classics picked up jazz
drumming drama "Whiplash" for $3 million, with its star J.K.
Simmons now a frontrunner for the best supporting actor Oscar.
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Cooper said the festival's premieres section in the past generally
saw entries from films already with distributors. This year, most of
the films are up for sale and likely to draw big interest from
buyers.
The festival will also see the premiere of anticipated documentaries
exploring hot button topics. Highlights from filmmakers include
Oscar-winner Alex Gibney's "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison
of Belief" and Kirby Dick's "The Hunting Ground," a deep dive into
rape on U.S. college campuses.
Much like Dick's previous documentary "The Invisible War" influenced
government policy to reduce rape in the armed forces, Cooper said,
"The Hunting Ground" could do the same for campus rape, an issue
gaining a larger spotlight in the last year.
HBO Films' "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck," the first authorized
documentary on the late Nirvana frontman, will also have its
premiere, along with "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the
National Lampoon," an insight into the 1970s satirical magazine, and
the comedy it brought to film and media.
(Editing by Eric Kelsey)
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