Eric Lavallée

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.

Ira Sachs' good rapport with Sundance dates back to when his 2005 film Forty Shades of Blue claimed the Grand Jury Prize. Financed with a Kickstarter campaign and aided by Sundance Institute's Annenberg Grant, Keep the Lights On will fill the festival's queer film quota, but also becomes a force to be reckoned with in perhaps the festival's U.S Dramatic Competition section.

If Bradley Rust Gray's drama horror romance is going to be included at the fest this year, it all depends on the kind of strategy Magnolia Pictures decides to employ. The distributor already has a strong relationship with the fest (previously providing titles such as Timecrimes and Troll Hunters) -- add that to the blogger buzz the pic has been receiving, the cast of young indie starlets in heat and the fact that Bradley's wife should also be at the fest with her latest means we can reasonably expect a Park City at Midnight showing for Jack and Diane.