Slamdance Film Festival rolls out competition lineup

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Slamdance Film Festival has unveiled its 23rd annual narrative and documentary feature film competition lineup, Variety has learned.

The festival, launched in 1995 as an alternative to Sundance, has included showings of such notable titles as Oren Peli’s “Paranormal Activity.” The fest, which takes place at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, Utah, from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26, will screen 19 movies: 12 world premieres, three North American debuts, and one U.S. launch.

The narrative competition has 11 titles, while the documentary category boasts eight. Notable titles include “Dave Made a Maze,” starring Nick Thune and directed by Bill Watterson from his own script; the Sly Stone documentary “On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone”; Shumin Liu’s “The Family,” a Chinese-Australian production in which a couple in their 70s sets off to visit their adult children in three faraway cities; and the documentary “Who Is Arthur Chu?” about the 11-time “Jeopardy!” winner.

Other Slamdance alumni include Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster, Jared Hess, Lena Dunham, Benh Zeitlin, Seth Gordon, and Lynn Shelton. Significant titles that debuted at Slamdance include “Mad Hot Ballroom” and Gordon’s “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.”

The Slamdance feature competition is limited to films made by first-time directors with budgets under $1 million. It will also include a DIG (digital, interactive, and gaming) showcase with eight works by emerging artists.

“As filmmakers themselves, the Slamdance programmers and staff share the same creative spirit as the festival artists,” said Slamdance President Peter Baxter. “Our stories are different but our divergent attitude is the same. Together, we give a voice to DIY filmmaking. Empowering emerging artists is what we do, and you are about to see a great group at Slamdance 2017.”

Brian Golden Davis’ “The Million Dollar Duck” won the jury award and audience award for documentary feature at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival. Alex Simmons’ “Honey Buddies” nabbed the audience award for narrative feature.

“Slamdance gives a platform to artists working outside of the system — we pride ourselves on supporting filmmakers who create challenging work,” said Festival Manager Clementine Leger.