In John Cooper's first year as head honcho, we'll get to see a new sidebar going by the name of "NEXT". Whether this is just a more organized, fresh coat of paint to distinguish films of the festival that don't receive the major buzz (for reasons x, y and z) or a new view a newly shaped mandate, the festival offers "independent" films that provide the star quotient and stick to their roots. Take the five indie titles below that I think we might find at the fest, and you could easily categorize them in different indie types of categories.
Please Give - Tied to the limb to indie vet actress Catherine Keener and the Sundance Film Festival (she saw her Walking and Talking play there in the 90's). Sony Pictures Classics might want to present Nicole Holofcener's newest with a festival push before what might be an eventual spring or summer release. Set in a New York building, this sees Keener live next door to a cantankerous elderly woman. It explores the interactions between Keener's character, who owns the woman's apartment, the woman and her two granddaughters, in what's described as an examination of "life, death and real estate." Sundance Selection Forecast: 60% Chance. This could end up at Tribeca if they are looking for less of a long lead with the press. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)
Rabbit Hole - Remember almost a decade back when John Cameron Mitchell delivered Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 01'. His third film is based on David Lindsay-Abaire's Broadway play, the story concerns a happily married couple whose lives are disrupted after an unexpected tragedy and the intensely emotional, redemptive journey they must undertake to regain happiness. This stars Nicole Kidman. Sundance Selection Forecast: 10% Chance. The Fox Searchlight title will probably be kept for a Cannes or fall festival date instead. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)
Restless City - Fashion photographer Andrew Dosunmu workshopped the project (formerly going by the title of Mother of George) at the Sundance's Screenwriting lab back in 2005. The project follows a West African immigrant as he struggles to make ends meet and achieve his dream of becoming a musician in New York City. Sundance Selection Forecast: 75% Chance. The pic should receive a dramatic comp slot this year. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)
Shelter - Completed in 2008, this film has been kicking around for a while in post production. I'm thinking Julianne Moore could help the outcome of Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein's horror thriller and a Park City at Midnight screening is a stretch, but not impossible after last year's Norweigen Nazi Zombie film inclusion. This sees Moore play a forensic psychiatrist discovers that all of one of her patient's multiple personalities are murder victims. She will have to find out what's happening before her time is finished. Sundance Selection Forecast: 10% Chance. Perhaps this stands a better chance with an European preem? (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)
Shit Year - I was harsh on my critique of his first film, Wild Tigers I Have Known, but the upside is that Cam Archer is a talented filmmaker who'll most likely bring Ellen Barkin with him to the fest with a tale that sees a middle aged women, who suffers from an obsessive-compulsive urge to pull out her own hair, one strand at a time. (correction this is the synopsis for a project being developed called "Pull". Sundance Selection Forecast: 90% Chance. My kind of film – and right up the fest's alley. Word to distributo who eventually picks this up: not not change the film's title. (ioncinema.com Preview/IMDB Link)
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