Sunday, December 5, 2010

2011 Sundance Film Festival - World Cinema Dramatic Competition

This past Wednesday, the Sundance institute announced the films that will be competing at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

13 films were chosen from 1,073 entrants for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and will be screened at the festival that runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah.

Some of these sound really interesting, especially All Your Dead Ones and Mad Bastards.  Unfortunately I won't be attending the festival.  Maybe next year I'll make the trip.

Here is the list of international dramatic films in competition:


Abraxas - Japan

Director: Naoki Kato
Screenwriters: Dai Sako and Naoki Kato

After botching a speech on career guidance at a local high school, a depressed Zen monk with a heavy metal past realizes that only music can revive his spirit.

Cast: Suneohair, Rie Tomosaka, Manami Honjou, Ryouta Murai, Kaoru Kobayashi. 

International Premiere


All Your Dead Ones (Todos Tus Muertos) - Colombia

Director: Carlos Moreno
Screenwriters: Alonso Torres and Carlos Moreno

One morning, a peasant wakes to find a pile of bodies in the middle of his crops. When he goes to the authorities, he quickly realizes that the dead ones are a problem nobody wants to deal with.  

Cast: Alvaro Rodríguez, Jorge Herrera, Martha Marquez, Harold Devasten, John Alex Castillo. 

World Premiere


The Cinema Hold Up (Asalto Al Cine) - Mexico

Director: Iría Gómez Concheiro
Screenwriters: Iria Gómez Concheiro and Juan Pablo Gómez

Four childhood friends in Mexico's Guerrero colony toy with the idea of robbing a cinema. Each hopes that the heist will hurtle them past life's obstacles, only to realize that the caper risks the only thing they have: their friendship.  

Cast: Gabino Rodríguez, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Ángel Sosa, Paulina Avalos. 

World Premiere


A Few Days of Respite (Quelque Jours de Repit) - Algeria, France

Director and screenwriter: Amor Hakka

A pair of gay men who have escaped from Iran seek safe harbor in a small French village, where a lonely middle-aged woman offers aid.

Cast: Marina Vlady, Samir Guesmi, Amor Hakkar. 

World Premiere


The Guard - Ireland

Director and screenwriter: John Michael McDonagh

A small-town cop in Ireland has a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a fondness for prostitutes and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international drug-smuggling ring that has brought a straight-laced FBI agent to his door. However, a surreal chain of events pulls him into the action.  

Cast: Don Cheadle, Brendan Gleeson, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot, Fionnula Flanagan. 

World Premiere

Main Street - Park City, UT

Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig) - Norway  (Jury Prize)

Director: Anne Sewitsky
Screenwriter: Ragnhild Tronvoll

A perfect housewife, who just happens to be sex-starved, struggles to keep her emotions in check when an attractive family moves in next door.  

Cast: Agnes Kittelsen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Maibritt Saerens, Joachim Rafaelsen. 

International Premiere


Kinyarwanda - Rwanda, USA  (Audience Award)

Director and screenwriter: Alrick Brown

Based on accounts from survivors, Kinyarwanda tells the story of Rwandans who crossed the lines of hatred during the 1994 genocide, turning mosques into places of refuge for Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis.  

Cast: Edouard Bamporiki, Cassandra Freeman, Cleophas Kabasiita, Hadidja Zaninka, Kennedy Mazimpaka, Hassan Kabera. 

World Premiere


Lost Kisses (I Baci Mai Dati) - Italy

Director: Roberta Torre
Screenwriters: Roberta Torre and Laura Nuccilli

A 13-year-old girl in the deprived outskirts of a sprawling Sicilian city becomes a local celebrity to her needy community when word spreads that she just might be able to perform miracles

Cast: Donatella Finocchiaro, Pino Micol, Giuseppe Fiorello, Carla Marchese, Martina Galletta, Tony Palazzo. 

International Premiere


Mad Bastards - Australia

Director: Brendan Fletcher
Screenwriters: Brendan Fletcher in collaboration with Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait and John Watson

In a frontier town of northern Australia's Kimberley Region, an urban street warrior meets his match in a local cop. Performances and stories from real people in Kimberley are woven through the music of legendary Broome musicians, The Pigram Brothers.

Cast: Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait, John Watson, Ngaire Pigram, Lucas Yeeda. 

International Premiere


Restoration (Boker Tov Adon Fidelman) - Israel

Director: Yossi Madmoni
Screenwriter: Erez Kav-El

Aided by a young and mysterious apprentice, an antique furniture restorer struggles to keep his workshop alive, while his relationship with his own estranged son, who is trying to close down the shop, begins to disintegrate.  

Cast: Sasson Gabay, Henry David, Nevo Kimchi, Sarah Adler. 

World Premiere

Egyptian Theatre - Park City, UT


The Salesman (Le Vendeur) - Canada

Director and screenwriter: Sébastien Pilote

Car salesman Marcel Lévesque operates by the rules of a bygone era, turning on the charm to make his quota. But the increasing decline of his fading industrial town threatens to plummet this peddler of dreams into an unfriendly reality.

Cast: Gilbert Sicotte, Nathalie Cavezzali. 

World Premiere


Ticket to Paradise (Boleto al Paraiso) - Cuba

Director: Gerardo Chijona Valdes
Screenwriters: Gerardo Chijona Valdes, Francisco Garcia Gonzalez and Maykel Rodriguez Ponjuan

A teenage girl running away from her father's sexual harassment meets a young rocker who has escaped to Havana with his misfit group of friends. Set in 1993, during a period of acute shortages in Cuba, the local AIDS hospice begins to look like an unlikely refuge to the hopeless teens.  

Cast: Miriel Cejas, Héctor Medina, Dunia Matos, Jorge Perugorria, Luis A. Garcia. 

International Premiere


Tyrannosaur - United Kingdom  (Directing Award: Paddy Considine, Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performances: Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan)

Director and screenwriter: Paddy Considine

For Joseph, a man plagued by self-destructive violence and rage, a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker with a devastating secret of her own.  

Cast: Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan, Olivia Colman.

World Premiere


Vampire - Canada, U.S.A.

Director and screenwriter: Iwai Shunji

On the surface, Simon seems like a fairly normal, average young man, devoted to his teaching job and ailing mother. Secretly, he is compelled to hunt through online chat rooms and message boards, searching for the perfect girl who will ensure his own survival.

Cast: Kevin Zegers, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rachel Leigh Cook, Kristin Kreuk, Aoi Yu and Adelaide Clemens. 

World Premiere

25th Street - Ogden, UT

4 comments:

Willow said...

All your dead ones is something I'm interested in....

Politricks77 said...

Was hoping to Romania among the chosen few but I guess maybe next year when you'll be there to cover the story :)

tigey said...

Some of these really look promising

Respect,
Victor, member of PL Team

major mack said...

good list....im gonna look out for some of these

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