With the Hollywood strikers
still on, the Sundance Film Festival which opens Thursday might bring uplift to
the gloomy events.
The little village in Utah
transforms itself every time the festival is here, and this year is no exception.
Film distributors are arriving in Park City, Utah
with a desire to make some gains.
Buyers are keeping their eyes opened for independent movies
that have a commercial potential.
Some reports say that some 50,000 will attend the festival
this year, the BBC news reports.
The first day of the festival will open with playwright
Martin McDonagh’s film debut, “In Bruges” starring Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell
and Brendan Gleeson.
Farrell plays the role of a hit man who is traveling the
Belgian city and waits for instruction from his boss, played by Fiennes. The movie
is a dark comedy and is sold as a Farrell movie, who plays nicely the role of a
violent hit man.
Among other movies present at the festival are “Choke” with
Anjelica Houston, “The Wackness” starring Sir Ben Kingsley who plays a
psychiatrist who has a marijuana addiction.
Emily Blunt and Amy Adams star in “Sunshine Cleaning,” and “Mysteries
of Pittsburgh,” an adaptation of Michael Chabon is another good movie.
This year the almost 120 movies offer comedy and optimism
rather than the ones from last year, which appeared gloomier, with Iraq
themes.
Geoffrey Gilmore, the longtime director of the Sundance
festival said: “As I watched the films, many of them about families, many of
those families dysfunctional, I felt that they were not trying to solve the
problems of the world, that it was a more personal group of films.”
Fifty one of the movies come from unknown producers, new to
the Sundance scene.
Many of the pictures from this year have social issues.
Question remains if movies from this festival will live to
see the big screen.
Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight said: “I think that
Sundance is a wonderful place to look for film,” the New York Times informs.
He bought “Waitress” from the last year which did very good.
The festival will provide material for the film industry
this year as there is no ending in sight for the writers’ strike.
