Strong European presence in Sundance line-up

by Naman Ramachandran

01/12/2011 - The Sundance Institute has announced its selections for the 2012 festival (January 19-29) and as always there is a strong European element in the World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions.

European selections in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition include Bohdan Sláma’s 4 Suns (Czech Republic), Babis Makridis’ L (Greece), David Trueba’s Madrid, 1987 [trailer] (Spain), Sally El Hosaini’s My Brother the Devil [trailer] (UK), Mads Matthiesen’s Teddy Bear [trailer] (Denmark), Andrés Wood’s Violeta Went to Heaven (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Spain) and Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong [trailer] (France).

Antonio Campos’ France/US coproduction Simon Killer is selected in the US Dramatic Competition.

European selections in the World Cinema Documentary Competition include Omar Shargawi and Karim El Hakim’s ½ Revolution (Denmark), Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s 5 Broken Cameras (Palestine, Israel, France), Mads Brügger’s The Ambassador (Denmark), Frederik Gertten’s Big Boys Gone Bananas (Sweden), Bart Layton’s The Imposter (UK), Lise Birk Pedersen’s Putin's Kiss (Denmark) and Malik Bendjelloul’s Searching for Sugar Man (Denmark, UK).

Robert Redford, Founder and President of Sundance Institute said, “We are, and always have been, a festival about the filmmakers. So what are they doing? What are they saying? They are making statements about the changing world we are living in. Some are straightforward, some novel and some offbeat but always interesting. One can never predict. We know only at the end, and I love that.”