Yesterday, the Sundance Institute brought its massive, hovering helicarrier (we like to imagine it’s how Robert Redford gets around when he’s not making films) down to radio contact level and began blaring details of the 2012 festival’s feature and documentary competition line-up. Today it’s the turn of the Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, NEXT and New Frontier sections.
Spotlight is a chance for films that have played elsewhere in the world to get their time in the sun(dance). Among the films showing are martial arts action madness The Raid (which some of Team Empire have already seen and loved) and Andrea Arnold’s take on Wuthering Heights.
Then there’s Park City at Midnight, the home for the bizarre, horrific, twisted and funny tales you really need to see in the wee hours. Featured flicks include** Grabbers** (the Irish horror comedy starring Richard Coyle and Russell Tovey) and Tim And Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, created by the warped minds of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. How warped? Look upon their works , ye mighty and be… confused.
Finally, We have Next (which also features the odd emoticon logo ⇔), which comprises very original films made in intriguing ways and on low budgets, and New Frontier, which celebrates new media, art and performances.
“In many ways, the extremes of the Festival’s program are most readily apparent in our out-of-competition sections, which showcase the wildest comedies, the most terrifying horror films and uncompromised visions from singular voices springing up from around the country and the world,” Sundance Director of Programming Trevor Groth said in a statement. “We hope audiences experiment with their film selections to an equal degree as these filmmakers have experimented with their storytelling.”
For a full list and more details, get thee to the Sundance site.