Never let it be said that the Sundance Film Festival is predictable. The festival, regarded as the premier U.S. showcase for independently produced features from around the world, will celebrate its 30th year by showcasing sequels to midnight-movie horror hits, an animated feature starring the voices of Forrest Whitaker and William H. Macy, and a feature designed as a showcase for actor Tom Hardy.
On Thursday the festival announced the slate of films that will play in its star-studded Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, New Frontier and the new Sundance Kids sections. Those announcements, as well as selections for the Short Film section and new Sundance Kids section of films for younger audiences,
Highlights of the edgy Park City at Might section include “Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead,” a sequel to the zombie comedy hit “Dead Snow” (which also premiered at Sundance) and “What We Do in the Shadows,” a vampire “mockumentary” re-teaming “Flight of the Conchords” director Taika Waititi and Conchords front man Jemaine Clement.
Tom Hardy top lines the Spotlight thriller “Locke,” from screenwriter/director Steven Knight (“Eastern Promises”), while “R1000” is a dark comedy from Japan that looks at S&M practices.
And “Ernest & Clementine,” a cartoon that details the unlikely friendship between a mouse and a bear, is one of two films feature in the new Sundance Kids section, a joint collaboration with the Utah Film Center.
The festival already announced its competition features and documentaries earlier in the week. As in keeping with a new tradition, Sundance 2014 will kick off in Park City Jan. 16, with screenings of four of those in-competition films: the documentaries “Dinosaur 13” and “The Green Prince” and the features films “Lilting” and “Whiplash.”
The Sundance Film Festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2014 and is the premier U.S. showcase for independently produced features and short films from the United States and around the world. The event runs Jan. 16-26 in a variety of locations in both Salt Lake City and Park City. Screenings and other events will also take place in Ogden and at the Sundance resort in Provo Canyon.