PARK CITY, UTAH – Sundance Institute today announced the films from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival scheduled to screen in theaters in nine different cities, including the newly added Seattle, Washington Egyptian Theatre, on the evening of Thursday, January 27, 2011. The screenings are part of Sundance Film Festival USA, designed to introduce the Festival experience to film-loving audiences nationwide. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival opens January 20 and runs through January 30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
“A major component of the Sundance Institute mission is to expand and engage audiences for independent storytelling,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director, Sundance Institute. “Sundance Film Festival USA is an extension of the Institute’s year-round support of independent theaters across the country – designed both to provide people with access to films premiering at the Festival, and to encourage interaction between artists and audiences.”
Courtesy of Official Airline Sponsor Southwest Airlines, filmmakers will be dispatched from Utah to cities across America, where they will introduce and screen their original films and engage in Q&As with local audiences. In each city an introduction video featuring highlights from the Festival will precede the screenings. Chase SapphireSM, the Official Credit Card of the Festival, is a rewards credit card designed to offer premium travel rewards and benefits, a range of redemption choices, exceptional customer service and memorable experiences. Chase Sapphire will offer its cardmembers exclusive access to tickets in cities participating in the regional screenings. Tickets for the January 27 screenings are available through each individual theater’s box office.
In Park City that same Thursday – the kickoff of the Festival’s anticipated awards weekend – filmgoers will have the chance to experience centerpiece programming at the Eccles Theatre, when the Festival screens the world premiere of Life in A Day. Directed by Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald, produced by Ridley Scott and made possible by YouTube, Life in a Day enlisted a global community to capture a moment of their lives on camera. More than 80,000 submissions and over 5,000 hours of film clips came from contributors from Australia to Zambia. 20 of the filmmakers whose work is featured in Life In A Day will appear in a panel discussion following the film, which will stream simultaneously on YouTube. Ticket information can be found at www.sundance.org.
“Sundance Film Festival USA is a Festival program that epitomizes the mission of Sundance Institute,” said John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival. “We are thrilled to return to the eight cities visited in 2010 and to add Seattle, home to a very robust film community. And what better way to celebrate the realization that film connects and unites us all than with Life in a Day? Some of the most special moments of last year’s Festival took place on that second Thursday all across the country, and we anticipate the same this year.”
Films screening as part of Sundance Film Festival USA are:
Win Win / U.S.A. – Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater www.michtheater.org
Director and screenwriter: Tom McCarthy, based on the story by Tom McCarthy and Joe Tiboni – When a disheartened attorney moonlighting as a high school wrestling coach stumbles across a star athlete, things seem to be looking up. That is, until the boy’s mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything. Cast: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor. World Premiere
My Idiot Brother / U.S.A. – Brookline, MA – Coolidge Corner Theatre www.coolidge.org
Director: Jesse Peretz; Screenwriters: Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall – After serving time for being conned into selling pot, Ned successively moves in with each of his three sisters as he tries to get back on his feet. His best intentions quickly bring the family to the cusp of chaos and ultimately the brink of clarity. Cast: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer. World Premiere
Kaboom / U.S.A. – Brooklyn, NY – BAM www.bam.org
Director and screenwriter: Gregg Araki – A science fiction story centered on the sexual awakening of a group of college students. Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Chris Zylka, Roxane Mesquida, Juno Temple. U.S. Premiere
The Music Never Stopped / U.S.A. – Chicago, IL – Music Box Theatre www.musicboxtheatre.com
Director: Jim Kohlberg; Screenwriters: Gwyn Lurie and Gary Marks, based on the story “The Last Hippie” by Oliver Sacks – A father struggles to bond with his estranged son who suffers a brain tumor that prevents him from forming new memories. He learns to embrace his son’s choices and to try to connect with him through the power of music. Cast: J.K. Simmons, Julia Ormond, Cara Seymour, Lou Taylor Pucci, Mia Maestro. World Premiere
The Details / U.S.A. – Los Angeles, CA – Vintage Cinemas Vista Theatre (323) 660-6639
Director and screenwriter: Jacob Aaron Estes – When a family of hungry raccoons begin feasting on the worms living under the sod of a young couple’s backyard, the pest problem sets off a wild and absurd chain reaction of anxiety, infidelity, organ donation and other assorted mayhem. Cast: Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney, Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert, Kerry Washington. World Premiere
Like Crazy / U.S.A. — Madison, WI – Sundance Cinemas Madison www.sundancecinemas.com
Director: Drake Doremus; Screenwriters: Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones – A young American guy and a young British girl meet in college and fall in love. Their love is tested when she is required to leave the country and they must face the challenges of a long-distance relationship. Cast: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston. World Premiere
Letters from the Big Man / U.S.A. – Nashville, TN – The Belcourt Theatre www.belcourt.org
Director and screenwriter: Christopher Munch – An artist and government hydrologist surveying a remote part of southwestern Oregon befriends a sasquatch man and must take bold steps to protect his privacy, as well as her own. Cast: Lily Rabe, Jason Butler Harner, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Jim Cody Williams, Fiona Dourif. World Premiere
Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology / U.S.A. – San Francisco, CA – Sundance Kabuki Cinemas www.sundancecinemas.com
Director: Tiffany Shlain; Screenwriters: Tiffany Shlain, Ken Goldberg, Carlton Evans and Sawyer Steele – Connected is an exhilarating stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century. For centuries we’ve been declaring independence. With insight, curiosity, and humor, the film explores whether it’s time to declare our interdependence. World Premiere
Cedar Rapids / U.S.A. – Seattle, WA – The Egyptian Theater and special post-festival screening in Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater (date TBA) http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/Seattle/EgyptianTheatre.htm and www.michtheater.org
Director: Miguel Arteta; Screenwriter: Phil Johnston – A wholesome and naive small-town Wisconsin man travels to big city Cedar Rapids, Iowa to represent his company at a regional insurance conference. Cast: Ed Helms, John C Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Alia Shawkat, Sigourney Weaver. World Premiere
Festival Sponsors
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors-Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura, Sundance Channel and Chase SapphireSM; Leadership Sponsors-Bing™, Canon, DIRECTV, Honda, Southwest Airlines and YouTube™; Sustaining Sponsors-FilterForGood®, a partnership between Brita® and Nalgene®, L’Oréal Paris, Stella Artois®, Timberland, and Trident Vitality™. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations will defray costs associated with the 10-day Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s year-round programs for independent film and theatre artists. In return, sponsorship of the preeminent Festival provides these organizations with global exposure, a platform for brand impressions and unique access to Festival attendees.
About Sundance Film Festival
Supported by the nonprofit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water and Napoleon Dynamite and, through its New Frontier initiative, has brought the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julian, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp and Matthew Barney. www.sundance.org/festival
Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. www.sundance.org
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