Park City, 1/17.

"OK, ritual complaints out of the way, along with the annual shock of feeling a new year of movies suddenly come squealing out of the starting grid and bang into fourth gear, just as we've put the old one to bed," writes Andrew O'Hehir in Salon. "Fact is, it looks like Sundance has a terrific lineup this year, heavy on back-to-basics indies likely to please film buffs more than investment bankers." And he presents a "list - 100 percent guesswork and rumor - about the films I'm most excited to catch over the next week."

"As for which of Sundance's more than 100 new feature films - most of them world or North American premieres - will generate the lion's share of 'Ohmigod, it's the next Sex, Lies and Videotape/Reservoir Dogs/Little Miss Sunshine chatter over the next 10 days, it's anybody's guess," blogs Scott Foundas at... the Dallas Observer? Ok. "It's a safe bet, though, that buyers will cast their eyes with particular scrutiny on the festival's glitzy Premieres section, where one can find slightly bigger-budget, more overtly commercial offerings than in the more prestigious competition sections."

"Fortissimo Films has announced a deal for worldwide sales rights to the Sundance Film Festival's closing night film, CSNY Deja Vu," reports indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez, following news of the first deal made at the fest: Zeitgeist has picked up Up The Yangtze, "a documentary about the effects of the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam that is displacing millions and destroying national landmarks in [China]."

Also: "Since the turn of this new century, much to the dismay of festival organizers, sanctioned and guerrilla marketers alike have spent millions trying to capture the attention of the Sundance Film Festival's coveted audience of celebrities, industry-types, filmmakers, journalists, and socialites.... This year at Brand-Dance, as we now label the collective swirl of parties, gifting suites and sponsor events that run primarily during the first five days of Sundance, it seems as though there is more happening outside the movie theaters than ever before."

"With no end in sight to the writers' strike, studio specialty divisions and a slew of relatively new distribution companies will be looking for movies to fill their threatened schedules for later this year and 2009," writes David Carr. "And that could drive up prices for the undiscovered gem even more from last year's busy - some would say overheated - market that left more than a few buyers singed."

Also in the New York Times, David M Halbfinger: "With a comedy and two dramas at the Sundance Film Festival opening this week, Milk set to begin filming on Monday in San Francisco, two more films awaiting release this spring and at least two others that could go into production before a potential actors' strike this summer, Groundswell is kicking up a lot of dirt in the indie world."

"While heated bidding wars are most always a certain at Sundance, distributors are hoping cooler heads prevail this time out." Anthony Kaufman talks with a few for the Wall Street Journal.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Marina Zenovich's "compelling, smartly told film, debuting Friday night in Sundance's documentary competition, takes the seemingly familiar story of the circumstances surrounding Polanski's fleeing the country after pleading guilty to having sex with a minor and tells it with such intelligence, dispassion and detail that it's like we've never heard it before," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. "Which is exactly the point."

"I came to Sundance in 1996 as the head of Pandora Films in the US with a little Australian gem called Shine." If you've read Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures, you may remember the fight over rights to that one; Jon Taplin looks back to a wild night and sunny morning.

On the way to Park City, the Hollywood Reporter's Gregg Goldstein ran into Morgan Spurlock and family and found them to be just as nice and normal as you'd like.

Park City Specials: indieWIRE, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.

Online viewing tip. Joe Swanberg and Ronnie Bronstein present their first video for SpoutBlog: "The Sucker and the Crank."

Posted by dwhudson at January 17, 2008 3:05 PM