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Defiance has been axed by Syfy after three seasons, but the video game version will continue...

Syfy has been having something of a clean-out of late. Dominion and Continuum have been axed already this year, and now Defiance has got the chop as well. We’ve had three seasons, and there won’t be a fourth.

Syfy released this statement: "Defiance was a truly groundbreaking series, delivering an immersive, cross-platform experience that transcended the television screen in a way that viewers had never seen before."

"We are incredibly proud of the work of the extraordinary cast, writers, artists and designers – and especially showrunner Kevin Murphy – who together brought the rich world of Defiance to life over its three season arc," the statement continued.

Showrunner Kevin Murphy added this: "I got to collaborate with a group of stunning artists operating at the top of their game, and together we built a world.

Defiance concludes its third season with an effects-heavy episode, but is that the last we'll ever see of the show?

This review contains spoilers.

3.13 Upon The March We Fittest Die

What I can say with some certainty was that the effects budget for the entire show was mostly blown on this episode, in what I generally take to be its conclusion. It’s not as if the door is slammed shut for a potential return, but Syfy hasn’t yet announced Defiance's fate, and it could end here without too many unresolved aspects.

The title, Upon The March We Fittest Die, comes from American poet Walt Whitman’s poem Pioneers! O Pioneers! about the expansion West, and what a noble endeavour he saw in that. But before we can get to that somewhat tenuous linkage, we still have the Omec to deal with, and their seemingly indestructible leader, all-mother Kindzi.

The penultimate episode in Defiance's third run primes the season for a spectacular ending...

This review contains spoilers.

3.12 The Awakening

When I think back to many shows, not just science-fiction based, penultimate episodes are often much, much better than the finale that follows. Perhaps setting the dominos up is intrinsically a more satisfying experience than the short job of knocking them down.

Whatever the logic there was plenty in The Awakening for regular viewers of the show to enjoy, as Kindzi went on the rampage with her ravenous Omec children.

Being eaten alive is a fear that made Jaws a box office smash, but here it seems to be mostly designed to heighten the tension for those caged for consumption and to demonstrate what messy eaters the Omec are.

The scene in which Nolan and Irisa come across the Omec feeding demonstrates how formidable T’evgin could have been,...

With just two episodes left, Defiance has the pieces are in place for an interesting season three finale...

This review contains spoilers.

3.11 Of A Demon In My View

The title of this episode is borrowed from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. The whole line goes, “From the thunder and the storm / And the cloud that took the form / (When the rest of Heaven was blue) / Of a demon in my view”

How you personally mesh that with what happens on the show I’d say is up to you, but I took it as meaning that Kindzi was a constant threat and in this story she takes full form as the true nemesis of this season.

But before I get to her, I’d like to whine about how poor the opening sequence, in which Irisa was released from the overturned truck, was. People are generally unharmed when they...

A Demon in My View: Chow Returns with Rousing, Comedic Action

Director Stephen Chow returns with Journey to the West: Conquering Demons, his first film since the effervescent CJ7 (2008), this time granting co-director credit to Derek Kwok. Adapted from a famous 16th century novel (which in English, is known as Monkey), it’s considered one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, though those familiar with Chow’s frenetic mix of slapstick humor and striking visuals should rightly assume that considerable liberties have been taken in adapting the source material. Chow certainly stands as one of the very few directors who can smartly mix sappy with sweet, silly with exhilarating, and box it all in a mainstream composite of galvanizing aesthetic. While his latest starts to feel a bit batshit crazy by the time we get to the final lap, it’s easy to forgive the sometimes rampantly unfocused broad strokes.

The Film That Changed My Life | Argentine Film Festival | Daniel Day-Lewis | Jameson Cult Film Club

The Film That Changed My Life, London

A simple idea to mark the centenary of the Critics' Circle: 14 well-known film critics introduce their favourite movies, and try to change your life. Understandably, most the movies are classics, from Kate Muir's choice (and Martin Scorsese fave) I Know Where I'm Going! to If… and The 400 Blows. From the Guardian/Observer stable, Peter Bradshaw goes for Raging Bull, Philip French Bad Day At Black Rock, and Jason Solomons Annie Hall. For something more alternative, the Evening Standard's Derek Malcolm presents Ship Of Theseus, an acclaimed Mumbai drama made just last year, while Empire's Kim Newman offers an obscure 1960s double bill from Nathan Juran: First Men In The Moon and East Of Sudan.

Barbican, EC2, Fri to 2 May

Argentine Film Festival, London

Cinema won't settle the Falklands/Malvinas dispute,...

El Infierno, Chicogrande, and the other nominations of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) have been announced. The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) are presented by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. “The Ariel is the Mexican Academy of Film Award. It has been awarded annually since 1947. The award recognizes excellence in motion picture making, such as acting, directing and screenwriting in Mexican cinema. It is considered the most prestigious award in the Mexican movie industry.” The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) “ceremony will take place on May 7 [, 2011] at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.” The full listing of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) nominations is below

Best Picture

Abel

Chicogrande

El infierno (Hell)

Best Director

Felipe Cazals, Chicogrande

Luis Estrada, El infierno (Hell)

Diego Luna, Abel

Best Actress

Karina Gidi, Abel

Mónica del Carmen, Año bisiesto (Leap Year)

Maricel Álvarez, Biutiful

Úrsula Pruneda, Las...

Jose here. The nominations for the 25th Annual Goya Awards have been announced and leading the pack is none other than The Last Circus, Alex De La Iglesia's killer clown allegory which not only earned him a Best Director award at last year's Venice Film Festival but also picked up some of the worst reviews of any movie in any festival during 2010.

 

Best Film

Buried (yes, the Ryan Reynolds coffin thriller)

Even The Rain (Spain's Oscar Submission) The Last Circus Pa Negre

The bad reviews didn't seem to deter the Spanish Film Academy which showered the film with nods (a whopping 15! More than any other movie this year) including Breakthrough Actress for the appropriately named Carolin Bang and of course Best Picture and Best Director. Interestingly enough, de la Iglesia is also the Academy's president. But before we scream nepotism we have to take into consideration that Spain makes...

Buenos Aires -- Just hours away before the Academy's deadline for countries to submit films for Oscar consideration, the Argentine Film Academy announced on Friday that Pablo Trapero's crime thriller "Carancho" was selected as the Argentine candidate to nab a foreign-language Oscar nomination.

The election featured a rather low participation (only 78 of the Academy's 246 members) and resulted in Trapero's thriller winning the slot with 20 votes that placed it over its two main competitors, Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat's "The Man Next Door" (13) and Daniel Burman's "Dos hermanos" (10).

Produced by Matanza Cine (Argentina) in association with Patagonik, Ad Vitam Production (France), L90 Producciones (Chile) and Fine Cut (South Korea), "Carancho" faces the difficult challenge of repeating the feat of "The Secret in Their Eyes," the film directed by Argentine Film Academy President Juan Jose Campanella that took home the Oscar in the last edition.

Starring Argentine star Ricardo Darin...

An intriguing premise doesn't quite pan out as Carl had hoped with The Man Next Door...

Starting with a bang, The Man Next Door is about just that. A successful designer has a massive and wonderfully designed studio apartment for a house, in which he lives with his wife and daughter. He lives a happy life, that is, until the next door neighbour decides to create a window which looks straight into his home.

The film starts with a two shot split right down the middle, one dark and the other light. We see a sledgehammer smashing into the dark side over and over again relentlessly. Soon the white side starts to crumble, and soon the exterior of the wall falls off. Before long, bricks start falling through, and we see the idea of the film come to light.

Leonardo (Rafael Spregelburd) isn't happy about this, and so he shouts...

Two highly-anticipated second feature films from U.S. underground filmmakers will be making their World Premieres all the way over at the 64th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will run for twelve days on June 16-27. The films are Rona Mark’s The Crab and Zach Clark’s Vacation!.

The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.

Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...

The annual New Directors / New Films showcase organized by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center has selected as one of this year’s films Amer, the feature film debut by Montreal transgressive filmmaking duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani. The film will screen twice during the program:

April 2

9:15 p.m.

Film Society of Lincoln Center

April 3

2:00 p.m.

Museum of Modern Art

So far, 2010 is looking to be a huge year for Cattet and Forzani. Prior to Nd/Nf in April, Amer will screen in March at both the Boston Underground Film Festival and at SXSW. This is already after having a very successful 2009, where the film played at the Lausanne Underground Film Festival and has won awards at the Lund Fantastisk Film Festival, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Festival Nouveau Cinema de Montreal and more.

Amer is a tribute to the...

At Sundance this year, more than usual activity immediately kicked in among the international buyers and the international sales agents bulking up in preparation for the Berlinale's Efm even as the Us distributors were slow to show much energy in acquisitions. First out of the gate for the Americans was Lionsgate's acquisition of Buried . Next came extended discussions with CAA and Apparition and its ancillary distributor partner Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquistions for Splice for what is rumored $2.5 million while an independent source supplies $20 million P & A. Next came Newmarket's $1 million acquisition of Hesher. The Oprah Winfrey Network acquired Family Affair. Own's documentary film club is being done in partnership with doc film distributor Ro*co Films International. Own, a co-venture between Winfrey's Harpo Prods. and Discovery Communications slated for a January 2011 launch, is planning to create communities nationwide that can screen the films together and participate in a live, moderated panel discussion.

Winners of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival were announced recently, with Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's Restrepo taking home the Grand Jury Prize in the documentary category, and Debra Granik's Winter's Bone winning the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic category. You may remember Granik, the independent filmmaker who burst onto the Sundance scene in 2004, claiming the Dramatic Directing award for her first feature-length film, Down to the Bone. Despite its phenomenal reputation, Granik's big screen debut grossed a meager $30,000. Let's hope Winter's Bone turns out to be an anomaly in the director's rather minuscule line of work. A comprehensive list of all the winners this year can be seen after the jump. Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic: Winter’s Bone, directed by Debra Granik Grand Jury Prize, Documentary: Restrepo, directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington World Cinema Jury Prize, Dramatic: Animal Kingdom, written and directed by David Michôd.

Animal Kingdom, The Red Chapel, Restrepo, and Winter's Bone Earn Grand Jury Prizes

Audience Favorites Feature Contracorriente, happythankyoumoreplease, Waiting For Superman, and Wasteland

Park City, Ut-The Jury, Audience, Next, and other special award-winners of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at the Festival's Awards Ceremony hosted by David Hyde Pierce (star of The Perfect Host which premiered in this year's Park City at Midnight section) in Park City, Utah. Highlights from the Awards Ceremony can be seen on the Festival website, www.sundance.org/festival.

Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from four categories: U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition and World Cinema Documentary Competition. All films in competition were also eligible for Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards as selected by Festival audiences. The U.S. Audience Awards presented by Honda and World Cinema Audience Awards were announced by Louis C.K. Joseph Gordon Levitt...

Debra Granik’s dark thriller Winter’s Bone took home the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic competition and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell, the film is about a young girl searching for her missing, meth-making father in the harsh conditions of the Ozark Mountain. Roadside Attractions acquired the rights and is planning a summer release.

“How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor directorial debut, the indie romantic-comedy HappyThankYouMorePlease, won the Audience Award for dramatic competition. It has not inked a distribution deal, but reportedly has several interested buyers. The ensemble cast includes Radnor, Malin Akerman, Richard Jenkins, and Kate Mara.

In documentaries, Restrepo earned the Grand Jury kudos and Paramount’s Waiting for Superman won the audience award.

The biggest surprise was Mark Ruffalo’s first film, Sympathy for Delicious, grabbing a special jury prize after being generally panned by critics.

• - -

The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.

• - -

The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.

• - -

The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.

• - -

The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.

• - -

The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.

• - -

The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.

• - -

The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.

"Winter's Bone" was the big winner at the Sundance Film Festival, taking home both the U.S. dramatic jury prize and the Waldo Salt screenwriting award.

The awards were announced in Park City, Utah Saturday (Jan. 30) to close out the festival.

Roadside Attractions recently acquired the North American rights to writer/director Debra Granik's sophomore film "Winter's Bone." The mystery follows teen Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) who is searching for her drug-dealing dad in the Ozarks.

"Restrepo," an examination of the Second Platoon stationed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, was awarded the U.S. documentary prize.

In the world category, the dramatic jury prize went to David Michod's coming-of-age film "Animal Kingdom," while the documentary prize went to Mads Brugger's "The Red Chapel."

Additional Sundance Film Festival prizes/awards

Special Jury Prizes:

Dramatic - "Sympathy for Delicious"

Documentary - "Gasland"

World Cinema Dramatic Breakout Performance - Tatiana Maslany,...

The Sundance Film Festival closed with the announcement of its annual awards which included some surprises.

The biggest winner was "Winter's Bone" which took home the Grand Jury Prize (Drama). The story of an Ozark Mountain girl hunting for her missing father also took home the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Grand Jury Prize (Documentary) went to "Restrepo" which follows a platoon in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys.

The World Cinema Jury Prize (Drama) went to David Michôd's Australian crime drama "Animal Kingdom", while the World Cinema Jury Prize (Documentary) went to Danish entry "The Red Chapel" about three quite different people visiting North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit.

Over in the audience-voted categories, Josh Radnor's New York-set comedy "happythankyoumoreplease" and Davis Guggenheim's public education system doco "Waiting for Superman" took home the Audience Awards for dramatic and documentary selections respectively. Javier Fuentes...

Another Sundance Film Festival has come and gone, and tonight, January 30th, 2010, the award winners for this year’s fest were announced. Hosted by David Hyde Pierce, the presenters consisted of this year’s jurors including Morgan Spurlock, Ondi Timoner, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Parker Posey and more.

Here is the list of winners. Embed links take you to Wamg reviews of that film:

Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Restrepo

Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Winter’S Bone

World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary – The Red Chapel

World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic – Animal Kingdom

Audience Award: Documentary – Waiting For Superman

Audience Award: Dramatic – happythankyoumoreplease

World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary – Wasteland

World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic – Contracorriente (Undertow)

Best of Next – Homewrecker

Directing Award: Documentary – Smach His Camera

Directing Award: Dramatic – 3 Backyards

World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary – Space Tourists

World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic – Southern District

Documentary Editing Award – Joan Rivers – A Piece Of Work

World...

Sundance has announced the 2010 Award Winning films and Animal Kingdom, The Red Chapel, Restrepo, and Winter’s Bone earned Grand Jury Prizes while Contracorriente, happythankyoumoreplease, Waiting For Superman, and Wasteland won the Audience Awards. Also, Homewrecker won Best of the Next Award.

While I attended the Sundance Film Festival for over a week and saw 20 something films, the only film I managed to catch from the above list was happythankyoumoreplease yesterday afternoon. But after my screening ended, the audience was clapping. Clearly, people really liked the film and since it hasn’t sold yet, winning the audience award should help Josh Radnor’s film land distribution. Also, it’s a really sweet romcom with a good cast. Hit the jump for more on the Awards winners including the complete list:

While winning Grand Jury prizes is great for any film, I’ve always found Audience Award winners to be a...

Sundance put a punctuation mark on this year's festival with their awards announcement -- emcee (and "The Perfect Host" star) David Hyde Pierce rapped the name of nearly every festival film over the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow." (Hyde Pierce joked, "it was Redford's idea.") Here are the winners:

Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Film: Debra Granik's "Winter's Bone" (Roadside Attractions picked up the film and will likely distribute in the summer.)

Special Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Film: Mark Ruffalo's "Sympathy for Delicious"

Directing Award, Dramatic Category: Eric Mendelsohn for "3 Backyards"

Directing Award, Documentary Category: Leon Gast for "Smash His Camera"

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini for "Winter's Bone"

Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's "Restrepo"

Special Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary: Josh Fox's natural gas drilling doc...

Debra Granik's "Winter's Bone" was the big winner in Park City Saturday night, as it won both the dramatic competition grand jury prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Earlier in the day, the gritty drama secured North American distribution through Roadside Attractions for release later this year.

The film, about an unflinching Ozark Mountain girl trudging through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her missing father, was adapted from the Daniel Woodrell novel by Granik and Anne Rosellini. Granik's previous film, the 2004 Sundance entry "Down to the Bone," won her a dramatic directing award.

The rest of the awards were fairly well spread around at the Saturday night ceremony hosted by David Hyde Pierce, who starred in the Park City at Midnight entry "The Perfect Host" this year.

 

To kick off the evening, Pierce came on stage in knit cap rapping to...

This blog, Latin America in Sundance, will continue to be updated at least up to the day of the World Cinema round tables January 28 which Caroline Libresco inaugurated several years ago. The focus of this blog obviously will be the selection of Latin American films from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, and Peru. We shall see if any creates enough of a stir - or what I consider a stir - within my purview of buying and selling (the agents surely will discover the directors and other talent without my prompting) - for a longer span of my attention. The politics of the films also interest me as Latin America is such an integral part of the USA today.

Nalip has this to say about the current state of Latino programming: "... in Nalip's 11th year, this seems worse than slow: it appears that diversity is really on a backburner.

With filmmakers from Iraq, Bolivia, India and out of all places, Greenland, it's no wonder that many of the filmmaker names selected in Sundance's 2010 edition World Cinema Dramatic Competition are drawing a blank stare. Among those that we do know we find Taika Waititi returning to the festival (after the little seen charmer Eagle vs. Shark) with a set in the 80's pic called Boy, and David Michod will be coming to the festival as the scribe for Hesher, and as the the writer-director of Animal Kingdom starring Guy Pearce. - With filmmakers from Iraq, Bolivia, India and out of all places, Greenland, it's no wonder that many of the filmmaker names selected in Sundance's 2010 edition World Cinema Dramatic Competition are drawing a blank stare. Among those that we do know we find Taika Waititi returning to the festival (after the little seen charmer Eagle vs. Shark) with a set...

Sundance Institute has announced the line-up of films competing for jury prizes during the 26th Sundance Film Festival's U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions. Among the wide-ranging list of movies selected for the competitions are Kristen Stewart-starring drama "Welcome to the Rileys", family drama "Blue Valentine" starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, and James Franco's non-fiction drama "Howl".

Speaking about this year's selection, newly installed director of the festival John Cooper said, "A lot of our films are hard to describe, and that's very attractive." He then added, "We put marketability on the sidelines for a while and said, 'Let's just go for films that were highly original and pushed the envelope.'"

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival that runs January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah will include new non-competitive categories called Spotlight, for what are viewed as particularly audience-friendly films,...