Sundance Film Festival expands lineup

Denis Villeneuve's Incendies, a new documentary from Supersize Me filmmaker Morgan Spurlock and the gory Nova Scotian indie thriller Hobo With a Shotgun are a few of the titles set to screen at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Organizers of the annual independent film showcase unveiled dozens of titles on Thursday to screen out of competition at the upcoming event, just a day after announcing the films that would vie for the festival's top honours.

Incendies, based on Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed stage play and also Canada's official submission for 2011 Oscar contention, is among the films chosen for the Sundance Spotlight program.

The Villeneuve movie, about twosiblings trying to unravel family secrets after the death of their mother, was named best Canadian feature at the Toronto International Film festival. Other titles that screened during TIFF will also be shown at Sundance, including South Korea's I Saw the Devil, the U.S. period drama Meek's Cutoff, and the Welsh coming-of-age comedy Submarine.

Spurlock's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, which explores branding, advertising and product placement, is one of the eight films making their debuts in the Documentary Premieres program.

'We are once again privileged to showcase the work of talented new artists. But it's also exciting to see returning directors honing their skills and emerging with dazzling new films.' Trevor Groth, Sundance director of programming

Also to screen in the docseries are Becoming Chaz, which charts Chastity Bono's personal journey into becoming a man; The Interrupters, about ex-gang members now trying to subdue violence in their communities; and Rebirth, which follows five individuals whose lives were altered by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The Festival Premieres section features a host of movies featuring star-studded casts, including the Canadian-U.S. co-production I Melt with You. Directed by Mark Pellington, the friendship drama stars Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Christian McKay and Carla Gugino.

Other big names in the program include Al Pacino (The Son of No One), Pierce Brosnan and Jennifer Connelly (Salvation Boulevard), Kevin Spacey (Margin Call), Ewan McGregor and Eva Green (Perfect Sense) Tobey Maguire (The Details) and Paul Giamatti (Win Win).

Festival Premieres will also include the latest from filmmaker Kevin Smith (Red State) and the YouTube project Life in a Day, which saw professional and amateur filmmakers worldwide capture a glimpse of one day last July and director Kevin Macdonald producing a film from the submissions.

B-movie inspired Hobo lands slot

Dartmouth, N.S., director Jason Eisener's Hobo With a Shotgun first made headlines in 2007, when it won the faux-movie trailer contest filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez held ahead of the theatrical release of their dual-film project Grindhouse. The trailer Eisener made for the non-existent film joined others by the likes of Eli Roth and Rob Zombie that were sandwiched between Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror.

After expanding his concept into a feature-length story, Eisener shot his film in Halifax and Dartmouth this spring, with veteran Dutch actor Rutger Hauer in the starring role as the homeless man-turned-vigilante.

Hobo With a Shotgun will screen as part of the Park City at Midnight program. Another film in the series is Alex Stapleton's documentary Corman's World: Exploits Ofa Hollywood Rebel, a portrait of prolific filmmaker Roger Corman.

Other programs include NEXT, which showcases innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking; New Frontier, whichfeatures works that"push the limits of traditional cinema aesthetics and the narrative structures of filmmaking," and a showcase of Native filmmaking. A complete lineup list is available on theSundance website.

"The Sundance Film Festival is uniquely a festival of discovery and we are once again privileged to showcase the work of talented new artists," Trevor Groth, Sundance director of programming, said in a statement.

"But it's also exciting to see returning directors honing their skills and emerging with dazzling new films."

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival takes place Jan. 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.