Documentary Competition
Brother Outsider: The Life Of Bayard Rustin by Nancy Kates & Bennett
Singer
Bukowski: Born Into This by John Dullaghan
Capturing The Friedmans by Andrew Jarecki
A Certain Kind Of Death by Blue Hadaegh & Grover Babcock
A Decade Under The Influence
by Richard Lagravenese & Ted Demme
| This was a thorough look at American cinema during the 70s. Interviews with prominant directors and actors. Made me want to start a movie club to catch up on all my missed classics. |
| Wanna see this one, but it'll be on PBS. |
| The director is a MacArthur 'Genius' Award winner. |
| Creepy and heartwarming film about a Northern Californian woman who adopted a dozen special-needs kids. |
| Al Gore saw this, but I missed it. |
The Same River Twice by Robb Moss
State Of Denial by Elaine Epstein
Stevie by Steve James
Tom Dowd & The Language Of Music by Mark Moormann
The Weather Underground by Sam Green & Bill Siegel
| Wanted to see this one... |
Dramatic Competition
All The Real Girls by David
Gordon Green
| I saw this one at a midnight showing, so my opinions might be coloured by a lack of sleep, but O.M.G! It was sooo slow! Memo to directors: character studies should be about characters you CARE about. Despite a fantastic supporting cast, I didn't care if the main characters got together or not, so I left halfway through to get some sleep for the morning's movies. |
| I grew up in Cleveland, reading Harvey Pekar comics. This film was just like one of those, and I loved the use of archival video and animation. It was fun, with breath-taking acting, but I still was surprised it won juror's choice for best dramatic film. |
| I saw the rough cut of this early in the week and thought "eh". I ended up seeing the final cut and thought "WOW". You have to love musicals, but WOW! The talent these kids have blew me away. Fun reminders of band camp. It stuns me that most films are picked based on rough cuts and turn out to be pretty damn good. |
| This was my most star-studded premiere, proximity-wise. I was breathing distance to William H. Macy, Maria Bello, and Mr. Alec Baldwin. The film was an enjoyable ride. Not long-term satisfying, but entirely enjoyable. |
| Campy, but not enough. Disappointing for it's lack of reach. Good idea, average execution. The little things in this film made it. The big things were missing. Except for Jason Priestely's cock. That was big. |
| Set in San Francisco, but with all the major characters smoking in bars, this film won the Sundance Science award, whatever that is. This film annoyed me because it took a fantasismal idea, and let it drop over and over and over again. Cheesey dialogue, flat characters, and lots of requests for suspending your disbelief. They had great schwag though. |
Party Monster by Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato
| Hard for me to get into, as I have an aversion to self-aware cinema (which there was a ton of at SFF.) I saw Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green at this one. They're such kids. Good costumes. Mildly interesting story. |
| This won all sorts of prizes. I'll probably check it out in the art houses in a a few months. |
| I heard that despite three-years on this piece, you still couldn't hear the dialogue over the engines. And it still won a cinematography prize! |
| Saw Ryan Donowho all over Sundance. I guess there were lots of cute aspiring actors in town. Interesting piece for several reasons, most of which I had an opportunity to discuss with the director when she came to talk with the Reel Studio kids. We talked about the use of un-captioned Spanish during the Santeria scenes to help convey a sense of distance and traditon that was accesible with effort. I also liked how the characters were typical enough to allow stereotypes to be thought of, but realistic enough that when they followed different paths, you could believe their actions. The mom's boyfriend looks like a fatter harrier drunker Judd Nelson. Ultimately the film came across somewhat shallow, but better than a lot of the crap I saw. |
| One of my most favourite movies of the festival. It's about love and community, without being sappy. Excellent acting, great dialogue, but it's so much more than the sum of its parts. |
| Worst film ever. One more time, people: if you make a character study, please to be making it about characters people can care about! Oh, and crappy acting doesn't help. Vile. I regretted being awake. |
| Tear-jerker. And Holly Hunter's boobs. Splendid. Awful story told well. |
| Wanna see this. |
American Spectrum
The Beat by Brandon Sonnier
| Two guys from this performed spoken word for the Reel Studio teens. One of them could rap and beat box at the same time. Sweet Jesus! |
Born Rich by Jamie Johnson
| Zounds! The fab subject matter didn't hurt, but even so, a great documentary all around. Okay, the subject matter might have blinded me, but oh! so intriguing. Jamie avoided getting delving into himself, but he sure got others to open up. |
Civil Brand by Neema Barnette
Cry Funny Happy by Sam Neave
Detective Fiction by Patrick Coyle
A Foreign Affair by Helmut Schleppi
Love And Diane by Jennifer Dworkin
Milk And Honey by Joe Maggio
White Of Winter by Robert Saitzyk
| Described as moving 'like a painting'. Sold my tickets to it. |
American Showcase
Buffalo Soldiers by Gregor
Jordan
| A woman threw a bottle at the screen during the premiere, screaming "Unpatriotic!" I only saw half, and I can see why she thought so, but I admire people who can work under the system. I left to be sure I'd get into Irreversible. I want to know how it ends, but at the time, it seemed as if he'd get away with it or not, and the resolution of the tension seemed less interesting than the set up. Anyone know why IMDB has the release date set as 2001? |
Laurel Canyon by Lisa Cholodenko
The Maldonado Miracle by Salma Hayek
Normal by Jane Anderson
Raising Victor Vargas by Peter Sollett
| The wunderkin of Sundance. Good, but not great. Except for the grandmother. Now she was great. |
Frontier
At The First Breath Of Wind by Franco Piavoli
An Injury To One by Travis
Wilkerson
| Documentary with the heart of a sledgehammer. I never need to hear the phrase "it is" ever again. |
| Wanna see this one... |
| Audience members and staff passed out, either due to the horrendous violence and the ten-minute rape scene. I'm glad I saw this work, but it had a first-film quality to it. I'm interested to see what comes next. |
Native Forum
Admirational by Shane Lee Eagle Hannigan
Beneath Clouds by Ivan Sen
Bundle In Good Standing by Gabriel Whiteturkey
Cradlesong by Darlene Naponse
Is The Crown At War With Us? by Alanis Obomsawin
Mocassin Flats by Randy Redroad
Pikutiskaau (Mother Earth) by Shirley Cheechoo
Rangimarie by Puka Moeau
Sailing The Master Home by Gilbert Salas
Shit Skin by Nicholas Boseley
Withdrawl by Dax Thomas
Park City At Midnight
Dysfunktional Family by George Gallo
Girls Will Be Girls by Richard Day
The Hebrew Hammer by Jon
Kesselman
| The short (72 Virgins) that opened for this was the BEST FILM EVER. The Hebrew Hammer was, perhaps, the second best. I laughed until it hurt. I spent time worshipping the director. He seemed appreciative. |
Rolling Kansas by Thomas Haden Church
Spun by Jonas Åkerlund
Stoked: The Rise And Fall Of Gator by Helen Stickler
Premieres
Levity (Opening Night) by Ed Solomon
| As much as I wanted to see this, and all the Premieres, my general thought was: it'll be on cable someday. See docs and shorts and world cinema now. |
Confidence by James Foley
| Rollicking good update of The Sting and a superb star-vehicle for Ed Burns. |
The Event by Thom Fitzgerald
Garage Days by Alex Proyas
Good Fences by Ernest Dickerson
In America by Jim Sheridan
It's All About Love by Thomas Vinterberg
Masked And Anonymous by Larry Charles
| Heard it's like a Bob Dylan song. |
Off The Map by Campbell Scott
| I'm going to buy this film and use it as a road map for my future. It was perfect. |
People I Know by Daniel Algrant
Secret Lives Of Dentists by Alan Rudolph
| Ugh! The world does not need more movies about the monogamy issues of heterosexual white upper-middle-class families. I walked out 10 minutes before the end, and was disgusted I had stayed so long. Made me wonder if I should bother reading MOO. What a waste of a great title and squicky moments. |
The Singing Detective by Keith Gordon
Soldier's Girl by Frank Pierson
Special Screenings
The Legend Of Suryiothai by
Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol Of
Thailand
| I'm waiting for the 6 hour director's cut so I can see the spectacular scenery without having to read translations of all the voice-overs. |
| Midnight show. Walked out. How the hell do you make a movie about snowboarding boring?! |
| Elvis Mitchell and I only saw half of this, but I'd see the other half anytime. Well done beyond what you'd ever guess. |
The Blues: A Special Creation Exclusively For Sundance, The Blues Will Sneak Peek Segments From An Epic Seven Part Docu Series From Directors Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett, Clint Eastwood, Mike Figgis, Marc Levin, Richard Pearce And Wim Wenders
Sundance Collection
Wattstax by Mel Stuart
World Cinema/Documentary
Balseros by Carlos Bosch & Josep Maria Domenech
Bus 174 by José Padilha
The Day I Will Never Forget by Kim Longinotto
Frescoes by Alexander Gutman
Iran: Veiled Appearances by Thierry Michel
The Passion Of María Elena by Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez
The Purified by Jesper Jargil
New Scenes From America by Jorgen Leth
The True Meaning Of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia by J.
Baichwal
To Live Is Better Than To Die by Weijun Chen
World Cinema
| Holy Freakin' Shit! This is such a good zombie movie, that even if you hate zombie movies, you must see it on opening night. Being in a room of 1200 film buffs made this experience transend film and move towards the sublime. Everyone gasps! Everyone groans! Everyone screams! This movie was perfect. I hate scary films, but this was a wonderous movie. |
AKA by Duncan Roy
| Wanna see. |
The Baroness And The Pig by Michael Mackenzie
| Planned to see, but heard it was slow, and when you're running on no sleep, slow is deadly. |
Bend It Like Beckham by Gurinda Chadha
| Wanna see. |
| Zing! One of only a few films I plan to buy from SFF03. Fun fun fun fun fun fun. But a musical, so YMMV. |
The Death Of Klinghoffer by Penny Woolcock
Fear X by Nicolas Winding Refn
| Heard there's not enough John Turturro in this. |
I Love You by Zhang Yuan
The Kite by Alexei Muradov
Life Show by Huo Jianqi
Long Life, Prosperity And Happiness by Mina Shum
| Fun little Vancouver piece. |
The Missing Gun by Lu Chuan
| Enh. |
Music For Weddings And Funerals by Unni Straume
Open Hearts by Susanne Bier
Red Bear by Adrian Caetano
The Sea by Baltasar Kormakur
Song For A Raggy Boy by Aisling Walsh
Whale Rider by Niki Caro
Woman Of Water by Hidenori Sugimori
Shorts
above & beneath playing in Shorts Program 3
Admirational playing in Native American Shorts Program
aqui iba el himno (here was
the anthem) playing in Shorts Program 5
Asylum playing with State of Denial
At the Quinte Hotel playing with The Baroness and the Pig
Atomic Love playing in Animation Spotlight
Autobank playing in
Shorts Program 4
Blue and Orange playing in Animation Spotlight
Branson: Musicland USA playing with Tom Dowd & the Language of Music
Buffalo Common playing with An Injury to One
Bundle in Good Standing playing with Pikutiskwaau (Mother Earth)
Climbing Miss Sophie
playing in Shorts Program 4
The Clinic playing with The Beat
Come Nightfall playing
in Shorts Program 5
The Cutman playing in Shorts Program 2
D. E. B. S. playing in Shorts Program 2
Devil Talk playing with Laurel Canyon
Dog playing in Animation Spotlight
Downpour Resurfacing playing in Shorts Program 6
Dreamscapes playing in Animation Spotlight
Earthquake playing in Shorts Program 3
The ErlKing playing in Animation Spotlight
Fake Clouds playing with The Same River Twice
Family Tree playing in Shorts Program 1
Field Studies #3
firepussy playing in Shorts Program 1
Fits & Starts playing
with Camp
five deep breaths
playing in Shorts Program 4
The Freak playing in Animation Spotlight
From the 104th Floor playing in Animation Spotlight
Gertrudis Blues playing with The Passion of MarÃa Elena
going to the ocean playing in Shorts on the Frontier
Good Night Valentino playing in Shorts Program 3
Gravel playing in
Shorts Program 4
Historia del Desierto (Desert Story) playing in Animation Spotlight
In Order Not to Be Here playing in Shorts on the Frontier
Jer-Z Knights playing with Rolling Kansas
Jon's Day playing in Animation Spotlight
The King and Dick playing with The Weather Underground
Kiss and Tell playing in Shorts Program 6
Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness playing with The Pill
Little Failures
playing with Dopamine
Live from Shiva's Dance Floor playing with The Education of Gore
Vidal
The Long and Short of It playing with The Maldonado Miracle
Lucy & Ricky playing
with Rhythm of the Saints
Mark Set Burn playing in Shorts on the Frontier
Mocassin Flats playing in Native American Shorts Program
Most playing in Shorts Program 3
The Nazi playing with The Kite
Neo-Noir playing with Detective Fiction
New Scenes from America playing with The Purified
Night Light playing in Shorts Program 3
A Ninja Pays Half My Rent playing with Bookies
O beautiful playing in
Shorts Program 5
Ocularist playing with A Certain Kind of Death
Olivia's Puzzle playing
with The Murder of Emmett Till
Openminds playing in Shorts Program 1
Pa playing in Animation Spotlight
Pan with Us playing with The Mudge Boy
Parking playing in Animation Spotlight
The Perpetual Life of Jim Albers playing in Shorts on the Frontier
The Planets playing with At the First Breath of Wind
Quest to Ref playing with Civil Brand
Rangimarie playing with Cradlesong
Rebel playing in Shorts on the Frontier
Request playing in Shorts Program 1
Rosso Fango playing with Angela
Sailing the Master Home playing in Native American Shorts Program
Set Set Spike playing in Animation Spotlight
72 Virgins playing
with The Hebrew Hammer
Shit Skin playing with Beneath Clouds
Skelehellavision playing in Shorts on the Frontier
Struggle playing in
Shorts Program 5
The Support Group
playing in Shorts Program 5
Swallow playing in
Shorts Program 4
Terminal Bar playing
with Born Rich
the_future_of_human containment playing in Shorts on the Frontier
this is JOHN playing in Shorts Program 3
Tim Tom playing with Pieces of April
Tooba playing in Shorts on the Frontier
The Tortoise and the Hare playing in Animation Spotlight
Toy playing in Shorts Program 2
Tromba D'oro (Golden Trumpet) playing in Shorts Program 3
Twin Towers playing in Shorts Program 6
Vanessa playing in Shorts Program 6
The Velvet Tigress playing with What I Want My Words to Do to You
Whatever We Do playing in Shorts Program 2
Whispers playing in Shorts Program 2
Why Can't We Be a Family Again? playing in Shorts Program 6
Wilfred playing with A Foreign Affair
Withdrawl playing in Native American Shorts Program
Zagati playing with The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams'
Appalachia
Awards
The Sundance Film Festival is proud to announce the winners of the
Independent Feature Film Competition for the 2003 Sundance Film Festival
in Park City, Utah (January 16 - 26).
The Documentary Grand Jury Prize was given to CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS,
directed by Andrew Jarecki and produced by Andrew Jarecki and Marc
Smerling. The Dramatic Grand Jury Prize was presented to AMERICAN
SPLENDOR, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and
produced by Ted Hope.
The Documentary Audience Award was presented to MY FLESH AND BLOOD,
directed by Jonathan Karsh and produced by Jennifer Chaiken. The Dramatic
Audience Award winner was THE STATION AGENT, directed by Tom McCarthy and
produced by Mary Jane Skalski, Robert May, and Kathryn Tucker. The
Audience Awards, sponsored by Volkswagen of America, Inc., are given to a
documentary and a dramatic film in Competition or American Spectrum, as
voted by Film Festival audiences.
The World Cinema Audience Award was given to WHALE RIDER, directed by Niki
Caro and produced by Tim Sanders, John Barrett, and Frank Hubner. The
World Cinema Audience Award, sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company, is given
to a film in the World Cinema category as voted by Film Festival
audiences.
The Directing Award recognizes excellence in directing for dramatic and
documentary features. The Documentary Directing Award went to MY FLESH AND
BLOOD, directed by Jonathan Karsh. The Dramatic Directing Award was
presented to Catherine Hardwicke for THIRTEEN.
The Excellence in Cinematography Award honors exceptional photography in
both a dramatic and documentary film at the Film Festival. Dana Kupper,
Gordon Quinn, and Peter Gilbert for STEVIE from the Documentary
Competition and Derek Cianfrance for QUATTRO NOZA from the Dramatic
Competition received the 2003 Cinematography Awards.
The Freedom of Expression Award is given to a documentary film that
informs and educates the public on issues of social or political concern.
The Documentary Jury awarded the Freedom of Expression Award to WHAT I
WANT MY WORDS TO DO TO YOU, directed by Judith Katz, Madeleine Gavin, and
Gary Sunshine and produced by Judith Katz.
The Dramatic Jury presents the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award to
outstanding achievement in writing. The 2003 prize was given to Tom
McCarthy for THE STATION AGENT.
The Documentary Jury bestowed Special Jury Prizes to THE MURDER OF EMMETT
TILL, directed by Stanley Nelson and produced by Mark Samels and to A
CERTAIN KIND OF DEATH, directed and produced by Blue Hadaegh and Grover
Babcock.
The Dramatic Jury bestowed Special Jury Prizes for Outstanding Performance
to both Patricia Clarkson, for her work in THE STATION AGENT, PIECES OF
APRIL, and ALL THE REAL GIRLS, and Charles Busch for his role in DIE
MOMMIE DIE. The Dramatic Jury also presented two Special Jury Prizes for
Emotional Truth to ALL THE REAL GIRLS, directed by David Gordon Green, and
WHAT ALICE FOUND, directed by A. Dean Bell.
The Shorts Jury presented the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking to TERMINAL
BAR, directed by Stefan Nadelman. The Shorts Jury awarded Honorable
Mentions in Short Filmmaking to OCULARIST, directed by Vance Malone;
EARTHQUAKE, directed by James Brett; PAN WITH US, directed by David Russo;
ASYLUM, directed by Sandy McLeod and Gini Reticker; THE PLANETS, directed
by Francesca Talenti; THE FREAK, directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas; FITS &
STARTS, directed by Vince Di Meglio; and FROM THE 104TH FLOOR, directed by
Serguei Bassine.
The 2003 Documentary Competition jurors were Nanette Burstein, Susan
Froemke, Avon Kirkland, Lesli Klainberg, and Doug Pray.
The Dramatic Competition jurors for 2003 were Steve Buscemi, Emanuel Levy,
David O. Russell, Tilda Swinton, and Forest Whitaker.
The 2003 Shorts Jury were Thérèse DePrez, Scott Foundas, and Ruby
Lerner.
The 2003 Sundance Online Film Festival Viewers Awards went to OKEN SAINTS,
by Brooke Burgess (Animation), and ONE, by Stewart Hendler (Short
Subject).
The Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award was created to honor and
support emerging filmmakers with their next screenplays – one each from
the United States, Europe, Latin America and Japan – who possess the
originality, talent and vision to be celebrated as we look to the future
of international cinema. The winning filmmakers and projects are: Yesim
Ustaoglu, WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS from Europe; Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo
Stoll, WHISKY from Latin America; Michael Kang, THE MOTEL from the United
States; and Mai Tominaga, 100% PURE WOOL from Japan. from Japan.
