Eric Lavallée

With filming wrapped up in July, Katie Aselton can expect to be welcomed with open arms from the festival that showcased her directing debut in 2009's The Freebie. Shot in Maine, Black Rock is described as a Deliverance cast with girls (Lake Bell and Kate Bosworth) this thriller would be perfectly suited for a Park City at Midnight showing.

Indie producer stalwart (The Station Agent, Mysterious Skin) Joshua Zeman made his directing debut in 2009 with the docu Cropsey (here's our interview with Zeman) and it now appears that he has the directing bug. Earlier in the year he financed and filmed The Best Man for the Job starring Two Gates of Sleep's David Call.

Described as a "Southern Apocalpytic Kids Adventure Comedy," I've got a feeling that this pic - a 2009 June Screenwriters and Directors Lab participant and 2010 Sundance / NHK International Filmmakers Award winner will make waves out of ripples if it gets showcased at the fest this year. Currently in post, filmmaker/animator/composer Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild will most certainly grab a spot the U.S Dramatic Comp category.

Writer-director Todd Looby has been to Park City before - presenting his 2011 documentary short, Son of None at Sundance's competing festival, Slamdance. With Amy Seimetz - the hardest working film person in the biz cast with the inclusion of a bit part for Joe Swanberg, Be Good - a low budget DIY dramedy certainly looks, in this era of Go the F**k to Sleep parenting, like comedic material we'd find in Sundance's NEXT section.

Last year we had Little Birds and Pariah, and if finished in time (filming was completed in September), this year we could find the feature version based on Olivia Silver's 209 accepted short Little Canyon (see pic above - watch here). Arcadia sees Sundance regular John Hawkes play father to a trio of children which includes Kendall Toole (who once again plays the same role) and the film's POV, the child in the car's backseat played by an actress (Ryan Simpkins) who might be poised to break out bigger in Park City as a thirteen year-old than the toddler part she had in another Park City drama, Sherrybaby. Look for this to be added to the U.S Dramatic comp category.