Sundance competition films announced

As far as American film festivals go, Sundance really needs no introduction. It's an entirely independent festival that kicks off the new year and is one of the more prestigious ones in all of North America. All of the local films being shown will be world premieres, and most of the other screenings will be shown for the first time in the continent. So without any further adieu, the lists:

Documentary Competition

An American Soldier, Edet Belzberg.
American Teen, Nanette Burnstein.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Christopher Bell.
Fields of Fuel, Josh Tickell.
Flow: For Love of Water, Irena Salina.
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Alex Gibney.
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, Lisa F. Jackson.
I.O.U.S.A., Patrick Creadon.
Nerakhoon (The Betrayal), Ellen Kuras.
The Order of Myths, Margaret Brown.
Patti Smith: Dream of Life, Steven Sebring.
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Marina Zenovich.
Secrecy, Peter Galison and Robb Moss.
Slingshot Hip Hop, Jackie Reem Salloum.
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, Katrina Browne.
Trouble the Water, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal.

Dramatic Competition

American Son, Neil Abramson.
Anywhere, U.S.A., Anthony Haney-Jardine.
Ballast, Lance Hammer.
Choke, Clark Gregg.
Downloading Nancy, Johan Renck.
Frozen River, Courtney Hunt.
Good Dick, Marianna Palka.
The Last Word, Geoff Haley.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Rawson Marshall Thurber.
North Starr, Matthew Stanton.
Phoebe in Wonderland, Daniel Barnz.
Pretty Bird, Paul Schneider.
Sleep Dealer, Alex Rivera.
Sugar, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
Sunshine Cleaning, Christine Jeffs.
The Wackness, Jonathan Levine.

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Alone in Four Walls (Allein in vier wänden), Alexandra Westmeier, Germany.
The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, Pietra Brettkelly, New Zealand.
Be Like Others, Tanaz Eshaghian, U.K.
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, Chris Waitt, U.K.
Derek, Isaac Julien, U.K.
Dinner with the President, Sabiha Sumar and Sachithanandam Sathananthan, Pakistan.
Durakovo: The Village of Fools (Durakovo: Le village des fous), Nino Kirtadze, France.
In Prison My Whole Life, Marc Evans, U.K.
Man on Wire, James Marsh, U.K.
Puujee, Kazuya Yamada, Japan.
Recycle, Al Massad, Jordan.
Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains, Gonzalo Arijon, France.
Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma, Patrick Reed, Canada.
Up the Yangtze, Yung Chang, Canada.
The Women of Brukman (Les femmes de la Brukman), Isaac Isitan, Canada.
Yasukuni, Li Ying, Japan.

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Absurdistan, Veit Helmer, Germany.
Blue Eyelids (Párpados azules), Ernesto Contreras, Mexico.
Captain Abu Raed, Amin Matalqa, Jordan.
The Drummer (Jin gwu), Kenneth Bi, Hong Kong/Taiwan/Germany.
I Always Wanted to be a Gangster (J'ai toujours rêvé d'être un gangster), Samuel Benchetrit, France.
Just Another Love Story (Kaerlighed pa film), Ole Borendal, Denmark.
King of Ping Pong (Ping pongkingen), Jens Jonsson, Sweden.
Máncora, Ricardo de Montreuil, Spain/Peru.
Megane (Glasses), Naoko Ogigami, Japan.
Mermaid (Rusalka), Anna Melikyan, Russia.
Perro come perro (Dog Eat Dog), Carlos Moreno, Colombia.
Riprendimi (Good Morning Heartache), Anna Negri, Italy.
Strangers, Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv, Israel.
Under the Bombs (Sous les bombes), Philippe Aractingi, Lebanon.
The Wave (Die Welle), Dennis Gansel, Germany.
The Wind and the Water (Burwa dii ego), collective collaboration, Panama.

Most of the films announced so far are by relatively unknown directors, but a few features stand out. In particular, the adaptation of Mysteries of Pittsburgh sounds promising, perhaps because the work it's based on is so brilliant, but it also stars Peter Sarsgaard, which is never a bad thing. Paste also reported ealier about the adaptation of Choke that will be shown. In documentary competition, features about Hunter S. Thompson and Roman Polanski promise to be interesting as well, given the fascinating lives of their subjects.

Sundance will reveal its non-competition lineup this Thursday. For more information on the films already revealed and the festival itself, check out the full press release here.

Related links:
Sundance.org
Paste: Sundance short films now on iTunes
Paste: Sundance 2007

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.