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CINEMA  

Sundance Film Festival Announces Competition

by Mich Sineath

This year's Sundance Film Festival includes directorial debuts of Salma Hayek, and Matt Dillon, and that's just two of the star-studded lineup set for this year's 2003 Indiefest.

Salma Hayek's "The Maldonado Miracle" tells the story of a small town that claims to have a bleeding statue of Jesus. While Matt Dillon directs and stars in "City of Ghosts:" a story about a con man in Cambodia. Both films will show out of competition in the "American Showcase" portion of the festival. "Reflecting the difficulties faced by independent filmmakers in completing projects these days, Sundance Film Festival programming director Geoffrey Gilmore said Monday that he put off announcing the festival's choices for the dramatic and documentary competitions until the last moment. "A couple of years ago, independent films were flourishing, but it was hard this year," Gilmore told Screen International magazine. "A lot of these films are the result of the creative tenacity and passion of the filmmakers -- these films are the most distinctive and diverse group of films I have ever seen."

According to the lineup announced Monday, this year's festival will include the star power of Mel Gibson, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Kirsten Dunst, Morgan Freeman, Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, Jessica Lange, Holly Hunter, and Penélope Cruz, just to name a few. In an effort to win the gold this year, it seems that members of the Hollywood players club wish to stretch their acting chops in order to star in such raved Indie films. While this works in favor of these talented, yet still dying-to-get-noticed Indie directors, the effort to get their films financed and shot without a big-name star attached has widened in gap greatly.

Among those films competing for dramatic awards are some of the most talked-about Indie productions of the past year. They include:

"Party Monster:" Set in the New York nightclub scene of the late 1980's; this is the story of Michael Alig (Macaulay Culkin), a club kid/party organizer, whose extravagant life is sent spiraling downward when he announces on television that he killed his drug dealer/roommate. Seth Green also stars as Alig's best friend, James St. James.

"Pieces of April:" Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek) stars in the comedic tale of a young woman trying to make Thanksgiving dinner for her estranged parents while she introduces them to her new boyfriend. Hilarity ensues, as the honesty of her efforts seems to fall a part.

"All the Real Girls:" Director David Gordon Green's sophomore effort tells a story of a young man (Paul Schneider) who while known throughout town as a sexual predator falls in love with his best friend's (Shea Whigham) little sister who is played virginally by Zooey Deschanel. As this hustler pledges that this time is different, little Romeo begins to realize that being in love is a lot harder than being in lust.

"American Splendor:" Paul Giamatti plays cartoonist Harvey Pekar in the true story of a file clerk working at a Cleveland Veterans hospital, who on the side, struggles to achieve success as a writer of comic books. The film is said to include both dramatic and documentary elements.

"The United States of Leland:" Ryan Gosling (Saved By the Bell) stars as a sensitive teenage killer, who is arrested and then sent to Juvenile Hall. The film takes a close look at the consequences that murder has on a community, as well as a family. Don Cheadle plays a teacher trying to discover the motivations behind his crime, while Kevin Spacey also stars

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