2011 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FILMS IN COMPETITION PAGE TWO - U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION: PAGE #1 - PAGE #2 - - U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION - - WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION: PAGE #1 - PAGE #2 - - WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION -
- FILMS IN COMPETITION - - PAGE #1 - PAGE #2 - PAGE #3 - PAGE #4 - PAGE #5 - PAGE #6 -
PARIAH (US Dramatic): 1st Assistant Cameraman Hans Charles, Writer/Director Dee Rees, Director of Photography Bradford Young. Photo Credit: Jenny Baptiste. PARIAH (Director and screenwriter: Dee Rees) — When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Bronx teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression. Cast: Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker, Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell, Aasha Davis. Brooklyn teenager Alike (pronounced A-LEE’-KAY, played by ADEPERO ODUYE), finds herself caught between her conservative, middle class upbringing and the glam NYC queer youth subculture. Torn between the equally fervent influences of her best friend Laura (PERNELL WALKER), her overprotective mother Audrey (KIM WAYANS), and an unexpected love interest (AASHA DAVIS), Alike struggles to forge her own sexual identity. DEE REES Writer/Director is an alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a 2008 Sundance Screenwriting & Directing Lab Fellow. She has written and directed several short films, including PARIAH, which screened at over 40 festivals worldwide and garnered 25 best short awards. PARIAH was a finalist for the 2009 Sundance/NHK International Award and Rees was named a 2008 Tribeca Institute/Renew Media Arts Fellow for her work. She was also chosen as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” for 2008 and nominated for a USA Fellowship in 2009. Rees’ most recent short film, COLONIAL GODS, aired on the BBC in the fall of 2009 and chronicles a complicated friendship between a Somali and Nigerian man set against the backdrop of gentrification in a small immigrant community in Cardiff, Wales known as Tiger Bay. Rees also directed and edited a documentary feature, EVENTUAL SALVATION, which received a 2007 Sundance Documentary Fund Grant and premiered on Sundance Channel in October 2009. She worked as a script supervision intern on Spike Lee’s films WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE and INSIDE MAN and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University. TAKE SHELTER (Director and screenwriter: Jeff Nichols) — A working-class husband and father questions whether his terrifying dreams of an apocalyptic storm signal something real to come or the onset of an inherited mental illness he's feared his whole life. Cast: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Kathy Baker. TERRI (Director: Azazel Jacobs; Screenwriters: Patrick deWitt) — Terri is a story about a big boy who feels alone in a small town. After his high school's vice-principal takes Terri under his wing, he comes to learn there are others that feel the same way he does. And when Terri defends the honor of his secret crush, lonely worlds collide. Cast: Jacob Wysocki, John C. Reilly, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Bridger Zadina. The Untitled Sam Levinson Project (Director and screenwriter: Sam Levinson) — A pair of reckless siblings are dragged into a chaotic family wedding by their overwrought mother. Cast: Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, Jeffrey DeMunn, Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Haden Church.
LIKE CRAZY (US Dramatic): Sam (Jennifer Lawrence). Photo Credit - Fred Hayes. LIKE CRAZY (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. LITTLE BIRDS (Director and screenwriter: Elgin James) — Amidst the stark landscape of the Salton Sea, two 15-year-old girls test the limits of their friendship when one follows the other to Los Angeles. Cast: Juno Temple, Kay Panabaker, Leslie Mann, Kate Bosworth, Kyle Gallner. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (Director and screenwriter: Sean Durkin) — Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult. Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson. On the Ice (Director and screenwriter: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean) — On the snow-covered Arctic tundra, two teenagers try to get away with murder. Cast: Josiah Patkotak, Frank Qutuq Irelan, Teddy Kyle Smith, Adamina Kerr, Sierra Jade Sampson.