HOLLYWOOD - Dramatic and documentary film competition finalists for the 2002 Sundance Film Festival were announced Monday, with new and more seasoned artists making the list. Next year's festival in Park City, Utah, though, is marked by several changes.Sundance organizers have decided to split its non-competitive American Spectrum into two categories to differentiate between lower budget films and higher profile films with better-known actors. While American Spectrum will still feature smaller films like Blue Car, a first feature by Karen Moncrief, the new American Showcase category will highlight films from veteran indie filmmakers, like Thirteen Conversations About One Thing starring Matthew McConaughey and John Turturro.
The upcoming festival was also bumped up a week to accommodate the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and will run from Jan. 10-20. Festival artistic director Geoffrey Gilmore told Variety that security matters, a major concern for the Olympics, are being addressed.
"We will definitely have added security in place. There will be bag checks, metal detectors and other measures. We're working very closely with Olympics security officials, the state and federal agencies, and I know we'll have enough security. On the other hand, we've tried not to overreact," Gilmore explained.
There is also a chance that the primary home of the documentary competition--the old Holiday Cinema triplex--will not be ready in time for the festival, which would require a change in venue.
What has remained unchanged at Sundance is the diversity.
The 16 films in the drama grouping include Bark, a dark comedy about a woman who believes she is a dog starring Lisa Kudrow and Hank Azaria; Peter Mattei's first feature The End of Love starring Steve Buscemi, Rosario Dawson, and Jill Hennessy; Pumpkin, an anti-P.C. satire with Christina Ricci, Brenda Blethyn and Dominique Swain; and the digitally shot Personal Velocity starring Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk.
Documentaries featured include American Standoff, an examination of the crisis in the American labor movement as seen through the stories of three rank-and-file Teamsters; How to Draw a Bunny, a revelation of the life, career and death of Andy Warhol and Ray Johnson; and Sister Helen about a woman who became a Benedictine nun after the death of her husband and two sons, and opened a center for recovering alcoholics in the South Bronx.
Entries in the Premieres, World Cinema, Frontier, Midnight and other categories will be announced Tuesday, Variety reports.
Win your way to the premier independent film festival in the "Sundance Screen & Ski Sweepstakes."