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While the Sundance Film Festival is the better known film festival located in Utah that runs in January, it is not the only one, as the Slamdance Film Festival has been running in the same place during the same month for over 20 years. The unique aspect of the Slamdance Film Festival, however, is its Narrative Features and Documentary Features program, which restricts its selection to films that are directorial debuts, made for under $1 million, and don’t have Us distribution. The 2015 incarnation of the festival is set to run from January 23rd to the 29th, and ahead of the festival’s premiere next month, organisers have unveiled the lineup for the aforementioned categories. The lineup is as follows.

Narrative Features Program:

Across The Sea (Turkey/USA), making its North American Premiere

Written and Directed by Nisan Dağ and Esra Saydam

Starring Damla Sönmez, Jacob Fishel, Ahmet Rıfat Şungar, Hakan Karsak,...

Festival top brass announced the 19 films that will screen at the Slamdance Film Festival, set to run in Park City, Utah, from January 23-29.

The 11 narrative and eight documentary selections include 13 world premieres. All competition films are feature directorial debuts budgeted below $1m without Us distribution.

“It’s very exciting to bring this dynamic lineup to audiences in Park City,” said festival director Anna Germanidi. “We are proud to help launch these filmmakers’ careers and celebrate the success we all believe these films deserve.”

“Our success in showcasing emerging artists is most obviously linked with American talent, but increasingly at Slamdance, we want to also support new international talent,” said co-founder and president Peter Baxter.

All synopses below provided by Slamdance.

Narrative Features

Across The Sea (Turkey-usa)

Dirs Nisan Dağ, Esra Saydam

Young, beautiful and pregnant, Damla has to confront her first love in a Turkish summer town before she can fully embrace her new life in...

The Sundance Film Festival dominates Park City in late January, but there is also the upstart Slamdance Film Festival. We’ve not really highlighted that fest or its program, but I always stay at Treasure Mountain Inn where Slamdance is headquartered and they’ve kind of grown on me. Last year they brought Christopher Nolan to speak (the fest had the good sense to program his first film) and Joe Mangianello came to vamp his male stripper docu. This year, there’s every chance of seeing Dennis Rodman, the flamboyant former rebounding machine and Bff of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for the docu Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang In Pyongyang. So let’s all root for an international incident! Here are the films they’ll be playing from January 23-29:

Narrative Features Program

Across the Sea – Directors & Screenwriters: Nisan Dağ, Esra Saydam. (Turkey/USA) North American Premiere.