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Every year on opening day Robert Redford hosts a press kick-off to the Sundance Film Festival in the Egyptian, the old theater in town. They have followed a pretty standard pattern in the past.  Redford discusses the difficulties that independent films face, the ones Sundance still tries to remedy, even as they face their own problems.

This year the festival lost one of their more popular screening venues, The Racquet Club, and they continue to deal with the “riff-raff,” as festival director John Cooper calls the ambush marketers that glut the street. But Redford chimed in that the festival had always faced problems. Money, for many years, was a huge concern, he said. There were also misfires in programming. Redford told a funny story about an early effort to present Way Down East, the great D.W. Griffith silent with Lillian Gish, as part of their curation of great films at the festival. They hired an orchestra to provide thematic music while the performance was going on, much as would have occurred when the film was originally released. What the musicians didn’t know was that Way Down East is a two-and-a-half hour long movie. They eventually quit while the film was still unspooling.

This year Sundance intends to widen its view and inspire even more people to watch more independent film all over the country and the world.

Never was that so true as during the premiere last night (1/20) of Pariah, a vibrant, fresh film written and directed by a very accomplished, promising newcomer, Dee Rees.  Alive with color and music and anchored by tremendous performances, including the lead Adepero Oduye, Pariah tells the story of a 17-year-old girl who is coming to grips with her sexuality, an outing not welcomed by her religious mother (played fiercely by Kim Wayans) and her strict father (Charles Parnell). In the post-screening discussion Rees told the audience that the film was semi-autobiographical. Her own mother had rejected her for five years after Rees came out to her parents while her father became “politely silent.” That Rees shows both the parents struggling to nurture and love their daughter, all the while being disgusted by what they know to be her orientation, demonstrates a maturity and compassion in a storyteller that’s rare. The crowd last night gave the film a standing ovation. That actually isn’t terribly rare in Sundance but it bodes well for this film to strike with some segment of a mainstream audience.

Perhaps my favorite moment yesterday was at the end of the press conference. Cooper and Redford were unmiked and moving downstage, their backs to the auditorium. The press was striking their setups or already up the aisle. Cooper, like a coach reaffirming his hopes, his intentions and their mandate all at the same said, quietly, “Let’s see some movies.” Redford picked up on it immediately and affirmed his director’s suggestion. “Yeah,” he said, even more quietly but with more passion, “Let’s go see some movies.”

A Sundance obsession of mine: following buzz-generating films after the festival ends, as they step on to the path toward a hopeful theatrical release. From Sex, Lies, and Videotape to Winter’s Bone, that very special Sundance glow has jumpstarted careers, legitimized studios, and, most importantly, gotten people amped up for independent film; at the same time, each year more movies go the way of Happy, Texas or worse — they don’t earn a credible distribution deal at all.

That said, I think there’s two heaps of promise in this year’s crop. Here’s a quick rundown.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, people who buy films arrive at festivals with lists of potential acquisitions. Reports indicate that Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times is on a lot of such lists already. Director Andrew Rossi spent a year with NYT editors; in particular, specialists who are helping the paper stay current, given the myriad ways we now get our news. WikiLeaks goes mainstream as Rossi’s camera rolls, which should help make this a competitive acquisition. We feel like Sony Pictures Classics will get it.  Watch a clip if you’d like.

Sam Levinson channeled Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Hannah and Her Sisters for his directorial debut, Another Happy Day, centered around an unhinged Ellen Barkin at her son’s wedding on her family’s estate. Put very succinctly: any film that features Barkin sent into the histrionic stratosphere by her mother (Ellen Burstyn), is my kind of film. I’d also think I’d love to see this as a play, a mini-series, or with Barkin and Burstyn locked in a small, heated room with a bottle of bourbon each and an Oscar up for grabs.

The story behind Kevin Smith‘s first horror movie, Red State, has been well documented. Like Vincent Gallo at Venice, Smith won’t be talking with the press, there apparently are no private screenings, and the movie might be auctioned off after its premiere. Oh, and Smith is organizing a peaceful protest of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, who we don’t think are coming to Park City with a competitive offer to buy the film. (In truth, they will be fresh from three morning protests in Salt Lake City.)

James Marsh deserved his Oscar for Man on Wire, and now he’s back with Project Nim, a chronicle of an experiment conducted in the 1970s in which a chimpanzee was nurtured like a human child while his handlers looked to teach him sign language. Is my mouth open and are my eyes streaming with tears already? I’ll never tell.

It feels like just a few months ago this project was a Twitter rumor, but now Win Win, Thomas McCarthy‘s follow-up to The Visitor, makes its world premiere with a spring release date in place courtesy of Fox Searchlight, the specialty studio that mostly wins (though they did put out Gentlemen Broncos). Paul Giamatti, loved by festival crowds, stars as a lawyer/wrestling coach whose already murky life is complicated by the arrival of a client’s grandson, a wrestling prodigy. The storyline doesn’t grab me; it’s McCarthy’s way with his performers that draws me close. Giamatti’s riding high with his recent Golden Globes win and the successful recent launch of Barney’s Version; something tells me he or McCarthy will earn Sundance honors as well. or perhaps an audience award.

Another film arriving with distribution in place is Meek’s Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt‘s period western featuring Oregon settlers (Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson, others) in peril. Reichardt has an ardent following and Meek’s has already hit major festival stops, but I feel with the film’s own merits, combined with True Grit fever and the desire to revive the genre (this just in: an aged Sam Peckinpah script is being polished up for hopeful production), will yield plenty of attention in Park City. I can almost hear studio people whispering the phrase “she’s the next Kathryn Bigelow“.

Someday Lou Taylor Pucci might breakthrough as a mainstream actor (if he wants to be). As a young man suffering from a brain tumor that prevents him from creating new memories in The Music Never Stopped, he might find an in — at least with critics and Sundance audiences. J.K. Simmons co-stars as the estranged father in Jim Kohlberg‘s directorial debut.

Finally, for now, I sense that Bobby Fischer Against the World could be one the first deals at the festival. The subject is still a cultural/historical reference point, director Liz Garbus has formidable indie cred, and this is the last work from editor Karen Schmeer (best known for her work with Errol Morris) who passed away right at the end of last year’s festival.

There are plenty of other films that could earn awards and juicy distribution deals — and who knows, I could be wrong about most of the above. Or all of them? That’s part of what fuels the obsession.

The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20-30, 2011.

Last year’s Sundance selection was pretty darn good. Winter’s Bone, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Catfish, happythankyoumoreplease, and Buried,  were among the standouts. Festival director John Cooper made good on his promise (and Redford‘s direction) to reinvent the festival, bringing it back to its roots of challenging, engaging films.

This year looks promising as well.

The opening films may or may not be part of that assessment. History would dictate they won’t be. No one was bringing up last year’s opening films, Howl or Restrepo in their year-end “Best of” lists, though both were fine films; they just weren’t that inspiring to persist in memory.

This year’s opening films include Pariah, a film by Dee Rees, about a young girl who is torn between her sexual orientation and her straight-laced parents and The Guard, about a tough Irish cop who teams up with an by-the-book FBI agent to catch drug smuggler. The latter stars Brendan Gleeson as the cop and Don Cheedle as the agent. It’s written and directed by John Michael McDonagh who is the brother of Martin McDonagh.  That’s significant because Martin wrote and directed In Bruges, which helped successfully open the festival in 2008 (and also starred Gleeson, along with Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes). Perhaps solid opening Sundance films run in the McDonagh family.

After yesterday’s announcement of the films in competition, the Sundance Film Festival has released a list of non-competitive feature films that will be screening in the Next, Spotlight, New Frontier and Park City at Midnight categories, as well as Premieres and the inaugural Documentary Premieres category.

Read the press release for a full list NEXT, Spotlight, New Frontier and Midnight titles.

Read the press release for the full list of Premieres and Documentary Premieres.

Festival director John Cooper noted that short films selected for inclusion in the festival will be announced on Monday, December 6, 2010.

The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20-30, 2011.

The wait is finally over, as the Sundance Institute released its list of the films that will be in competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Read the full press release here, which includes the entire list of films competing.

The festival will be holding a live chat/press conference in a little under an hour (1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern) to talk with fans, filmmakers and the press regarding the list of films and the festival in general. You can take part in that chat at http://www.sundance.org/live/.

For the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, 115 feature-length films were selected, representing 28 countries by 40 first-time filmmakers, including 25 in competition. These films were selected from 3,812 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,943 U.S. and 1,869 international feature-length films. 92 films at the Festival will be world premieres.

With the beginning of December just hours away, anticipation regarding the announcement of the Sundance 2011 line-up becomes a bit unbearable.  Here are a few articles to help kill time until the line-up is released later this week:

• The team at indieWIRE has compiled a wish list of 30 films that they think have a good chance of making the cut in Park City. While we’re excited to see just about every one of the films listed (especially Take This Waltz, My Idiot Brother, and The Future) and would welcome their inclusion, it’s the potential for groundbreaking films by currently unknown filmmakers that makes the Sundance particularly difficult.

• Kevin Smith has generated some pre-festival buzz by revealing to /Film that if his film Red State is accepted to Sundance, he plans on auctioning the film off to distributors attending the festival, and may even bring a professional auctioneer with to handle the task. Distributors, have your bidding paddles ready.

• Just before Thanksgiving, Robert Redford shared the Sundance Institute’s plans for 2011, including the addition of a documentary premiere section to the upcoming festival. It’s a welcome nod the genre’s impressive growth and popularity over the past decade, and could be the impetus behind a whole new generation of exploration.

Which films are on your own Sundance 2011 wish list?

Clockwise from top right: John Ratzenberger, Kristen Schaal, and Jeff Garlin; Jake Gyllenhaal; Milla Jovovich; Nicolas Cage

WonderCon 2010 was top-heavy with TV panels and relatively light on film programming. That said, it makes for a fun Saturday when you can watch an extended trailer for Inception, get within inches of the new Freddy Krueger, steep in the respective hotness that is Milla Jovovich and Jake Gyllenhaal, watch Jeff Garlin and Kristen Schaal perform Toy Story 3 dialogue, and realize the only difference between Ali Larter and Christopher Nolan‘s outfits is one pair of leather pants.

Making it a very special episode of WonderCon was my companion for the day, San Francisco-based filmmaker Joshua Grannell. I’m in love with Joshua’s feature debut, All About Evil, which is gearing up for a roadshow release; I also admire Joshua’s take on all things pop culture and cult cinema — he can tell you that Chris Evans definitely wears mascara before riffing on the films of Doris Wishman. Joshua had never been to WonderCon, and since he’s putting together a unique release for his film, I turned to him for a WonderCon review.

Q: You spent seven hours at WonderCon with no coffee, water, or gum; what lessons did you learn?

A: I learned that it’s best to sneak in gum, water, and coffee in the future. I could’ve gone 12 hours if I’d had those staples! I also learned that it helps to go with a bona fide member of the press, such as yourself, so that I don’t have to wait in long lines to get up close and personal with the panels and press conferences. It was fun to see the behind-the-scenes publicity machine at work in the press rooms and I feel like I have a better understanding of how the big studios are using the conventions to directly get information and content into the hands of fans. The only films showcased that way were of course handled by the big studios so it’s definitely a game for the rich.

Julie Caitlin Brown, Joshua Grannell, and Mink Stole from All About Evil

Q: Which movies impressed you today, and how?

I think I was most excited and impressed by Christopher Nolan‘s presentation of Inception. I felt like his demeanor and presence was perfectly serious and sobering and the movie looks fascinating and beautiful. I love his movies and think he’s a brilliant filmmaker, but sometimes wish there was just the teeniest hint of humor. He makes incredible films, but they’re humorless. After seeing him in person, I honestly feel like I “get it”. He might be the most serious man alive! But he delivers. Inception looks fascinating and impossible to describe. The other most enticing offering was Toy Story 3 which got the audience laughing and having fun in mere seconds. Pixar is unstoppable! They make it look easy, and that sort of comedy that appeals to both adults and children is anything but easy. I didn’t even care about Toy Story 3 until after they’d shown their clips. Now I want to see it.

Q: Which filmmakers and actors seem to “get” WonderCon?

I thought that Pixar did it right, where they got the audience and cast involved in an actual demonstration. It was fun and really changed up the pace. I also thought Jake Gyllenhaal was a total pro. He was able to be completely serious about presenting Prince of Persia, while also indulging his fans, having a great sense of humor, and just putting everyone at ease with is undeniable charm.

Q: How much of Nicolas Cage‘s hair was real? Please describe his look.

A: Ohmygod, it was fascinating. It was as if they couldn’t get the real Nicolas Cage so they wheeled in the one from Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, but then it talked. His hair is sorta like a marriage of Fabio and [Rocky Horror's] Riff-Raff, if the two looks were combined. I was kinda shocked when he started talking about how much he liked wearing wigs! I’m not even lying. He brought it up on his own accord.

Q: “If offered the chance to present All About Evil at WonderCon, my panel would go like this …”

I was thinking that it would have been fun to send Natasha Lyonne but have her appear there as Deborah (the lead character in my movie), who’s a filmmaker. She could have presented some of her own notorious and grisly gore films and clips and when it was time to “bring out the cast”, we’d wheel out a bunch of coffins, urns, and cadavers wrapped in plastic.

I think that would have been the best way to do it. I’m showy like that!

Poor Jenny…

This just in: Amanda Seyfried showing a less sane, super-sexier side than her Dear John persona. Chloe, the latest work from Atom Egoyan, stars Ms. Seyfried as the titular character, an escort hired by a doctor, Catherine (Julianne Moore), who suspects her husband, David (Liam Neeson), is cheating. The plan unravels, as these schemes so often do, when both marrieds begin to fall for Chloe’s seductive ways.

Chloe premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and Sony Pictures Classics enacts a platform release starting on March 26th.

We could fall crazy in love with any of these three stars — how about you?