Check It Out: Sundance '05 Festival Slate Announced
On the heels of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Institute announced the feature films selected for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

“Every year a new generation of American independent filmmakers reinvents independent film,” said Festival Director Geoff Gilmore. “This year, we’re screening some of the most artistically innovative films and inspired storytelling we’ve ever seen.”

Independent filmmakers from across the U.S. and around the world submitted a total of 2,163 feature films, and Festival programmers selected 120 features to show in ten distinct categories at the Festival, which runs January 20-30 in Park City, Utah.

The ‘05 Festival continues its tradition of screening the best new narrative and documentary work from American independent filmmakers, and also includes its first-ever World Cinema Competition in which 16 dramatic films and 12 documentaries will compete for Jury Prizes and Audience Awards. Running parallel to the long-standing Independent Feature Film Competition, these new competitions signal the Festival’s growing commitment to presenting original new work from international filmmakers to U.S. audiences.

Other categories of the Festival are the Premieres section which showcases higher profile work, and the more adventuresome sections of American Spectrum, Frontier, and Park City at Midnight. Special Screenings and presentations from the Sundance Collection round out the full Festival program. The Festival will also present 80 short films, which will be announced on December 6.

Click here to read the press releases announcing the feature films that will screen at the ’05 Festival.

Life After the Labs
21 projects recently supported by the Institute’s Feature Film Program have significantly advanced since leaving the Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs, and are now in various stages of production.
Full article

Joshua Marston’s Maria Full of Grace was developed through the Feature Film Program. Marston was recently nominated for a Gotham Award recognizing Breakthrough Directors.

Sundance Salons and Festival Sneak Peaks Top Fall Calendar
At a recent Sundance Salon in Park City, Utah members of the Patron Circle enjoyed a chance to meet Sam George, co-writer of Stacey Peralta’s Riding Giants. The surfing documentary which opened the ’04 Festival was the first script for George, who is associate editor of Surfer Magazine. The Spur on Park City’s Main Street played host to the event which was a pre-cursor to a screening of Riding Giants, the first film presented in the Institute’s Documentary Screening Series.

The Sundance Institute’s Patron Circle is a donor group that shares the Institute’s commitment to the development of artists and projects of independent vision. Upcoming Patron Circle events include special Sneak Peeks of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in Los Angeles and Utah. Events are by invitation only. For more information please contact patroncircle@sundance.org.

	Utah committee member Ann MacQuoid, Riding Giants co-writer Sam George and Sundance Salon guests Karen Thompson and Sharon Thompson.
	Sam George was the featured artist at a recent Sundance Salon in Park City.

Documentary Series Presents Free Monthly Screenings in Park City
Competitive Scrabble, freedoms of the press, and political corruption are some of the subjects explored by the films to be presented during the 2004-2005 Sundance Institute Documentary Film Series. Launched on November 4, the free monthly screening series presents a selection of noteworthy documentaries that have been shown at the Sundance Film Festival in recent years. A variety of special guests such as filmmakers, critics, and subjects of the documentaries, will be on hand after each screening for open forum discussions.

The series presents Jehane Noujaim’s Control Room on December 2. Screenings begin at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month through June, 2005, in the Jim Santy Auditorium at the Park City Library, 1255 Park Avenue. Tickets or reservations are not required. The series is a part of the Institute’s Arts & Audiences Utah Initiative and is generously supported by the Summit County Recreation, Arts and Parks Program.

Diane Weyermann, Director of the Institute’s Documentary Film Program, with Control Room director Jehane Noujaim. Control Room will be shown in December as part of the Institute’s Documentary Screening Series in Utah.

Fall Screenplay Readings Continue
Part of the script development process following the Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs, Screenplay Readings are an opportunity for both writers and their audience to hear a professional cast bring scripts to life for the first time and provide a rare glimpse into the script development process. Readings are open to program alumni, creative advisors, and Patron Circle members.

Peep World
Writer/director Peter Himmelstein was a fellow of the 2004 Filmmakers Lab where he developed Peep World, which chronicles a darkly comic day in the life of a family tormented by fact, fiction, and mortality. To RSVP, or for more information, please call 212.727.9573.

Monday, December 13th
Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd St.
New York