Eric Lavallée

Having worked with Franco before on Erased James Franco (short film which sees Franco re-enacts scenes from his filmography and reinterprets Julianne Moore's role in Todd Haynes' Safe) Carter's directorial debut continues with the notion of performance. Maladies will forever be known as the film that set Franco off towards a stint on General Hospital in 2010. With Catherine Keener and David Strathairn we see this as an almost sure bet in the Premieres section.

First-time helmer Ted Koland's Minnesota-shot dramedy (featured on IndieWIRE - see the production pic above) happens to feature a good grab-bag of acting names (Justin Long, Tyler Labine, Addison Timlin, Frances O'Connor and Park City favorite Jess Weixler) and the logline sounds somewhat savoury - canceled wedding, followed by shock and surprise might come across as sincere, slightly dark and poignant. Depending on the film's tone, Lumpy might find itself in the Midnight section or Premieres category.

This might be the year where writer-director David Wein gets to showcase his skillset in January instead of March. A SXSW regular (2008's Sex Positive and 2009's Breaking Upwards), Wein has parlayed a rising indie career with co-consiprator Zoe Lister-Jones into a Fox Searchlight backed production -- the distributor bought the project at the script phase and set him up with old school thesps Bill Pullman and Debra Winger and the next gen in Hamish Linklater and Greta Gerwig. With the film currently in post, we think there is a good chance for this to show up in Park City.

Invited to the 2010 festival with his debut film HappyThankYouMorePlease, my guess is programmers might send out a second invite for Josh Radnor's sophomore film because of the lead actress who stars alongside Radnor. Liberal Arts is toplined by Elizabeth Olsen who became a part of Sundance's history because of her breakout perf in Martha Marcy May Marlene -- during the fest she'll be mentally preparing for the Indie Spirits. Expect a Premieres section showing.

Not sure if Synecdoche, New York pair Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener own or thought about buying a condo in Park City, they might as well since they might be back again for an umpteenth time. Already in the can for several months now, Yaron Zilberman's first foray into fiction feature filmmaking pans out into fare we end up finding in Sundance every year. Almost seven years since his docu debut Watermarks, Zilberman would come to the fest without the stress of bidder wars as RKO Pictures have already picked up the drama. Look for A Late Quartet to receive a Premieres showing.