Sundance Programmers Announce 2009 Out-of-Competition Movies

by Andrew Gnerre | Published December 5, 2008

On Thursday, December 4, 2008, the Sundance Institute announced its 2009 Sundance FIlm Festival selections for the out-of-competition sections of Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Park City at Midnight. Regardless of how “Hollywood” anyone thinks Sundance has gotten, no one can doubt they know how to put together a strong program. Including the competitive movies, the 2009 festival will screen 118 features culled from 3,661 submissions—1,905 from the United States and 1,756 international submissions. There will be 87 world premieres, 21 countries represented and movies from 42 first-time moviemakers.

From the look of things the lineup includes too many highlights to get into, but as always, the allure of Sundance are the surprises—the undiscovered gems that always seem to surface. Check out the entire list of selections below and visit http://festival.sundance.org for more information.

PREMIERES

500 Days of Summer / USA. (Director: Marc Webb; Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber)
Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. World Premiere

Adventureland / USA (Director and Screenwriter: Greg Mottola)
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader. World Premiere

Brooklyn’s Finest / USA (Director: Antoine Fuqua; Screenwriter: Michael C. Martin)
Cast: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin. World Premiere

Earth Days / USA (Director: Robert Stone)
Closing Night Film. World Premiere

Endgame / UK (Director: Pete Travis; Screenwriter: Paula Milne)
Cast: William Hurt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Strong. World Premiere

I Love You Philip Morris / USA (Directors and Screenwriters: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa)
Cast: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro. World Premiere

The Informers / USA (Director: Gregor Jordan; Screenwriters: Bret Easton Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki)
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke. North American Premiere

In the Loop / UK (Director: Armando Iannucci; Screenwriters: Armando Iannucci and Jesse Armstrong)
Cast: Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Tom Hollander. World Premiere

Manure / USA (Director: Michael Polish; Screenwriters: Mark Polish and Michael Polish)
Cast: Téa Leoni, Billy Bob Thornton, Kyle MacLachlan. World Premiere

Mary and Max / Australia (Director and Screenwriter: Adam Elliot)
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman (voice), Toni Collette (voice), Barry Humphries (voice). Opening Night Film. World Premiere

The Messenger / USA (Director: Oren Moverman; Screenwriters: Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)
Cast: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Jena Malone, Eamonn Walker. World Premiere

Moon / UK (Director: Duncan Jones; Screenwriter: Nathan Parker)
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey. World Premiere

Motherhood / USA (Director and Screenwriter: Katherine Dieckmann)
Cast: Uma Thurman, Minnie Driver, Anthony Edwards. World Premiere

Rudo and Cursi (Rudo y Cursi) / Mexico (Director and Screenwriter: Carlos Cuarón)
Cast: Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Guillermo Francella. U.S. Premiere

Shrink / USA (Director: Jonas Pate; Screenwriter: Thomas Moffett)
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Keke Palmer, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts, Saffron Burrows. World Premiere

Spread / USA (Director: David Mackenzie; Screenwriter: Jason Dean Hall)
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche. World Premiere

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