Fest will feature at least 82 world premieres

On Monday, the Sundance Film Festival announced a loaded competition slate that includes a documentary about the human side of bestiality and a drama about the darker side of Dakota Fanning.

The 2007 Sundance Film Festival will run Jan. 18-28 and will include 122 feature films, with 82 world premieres, 24 North American premieres and 10 U.S. premieres. The selection committee had to wade through 3287 submitted features.

"We are witnessing a broadening of the traditional independent arena. In this year's Festival there is a breadth of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling that is transforming the old idea of the American indie film," says Geoffrey Gilmore, director, Sundance Film Festival. "This year's American Competition reflects a newfound awareness and self-expression that results in an engagement by the work that is both political and personal, a collective voice fueled by a steadfast optimism and hope for the future."

On the documentary competition side, that steadfast optimism takes many unusual forms. Take Robinson Devour's "Zoo," a film about the aftermath of the death of a Seattle man who had -- to put it gently -- inappropriate relations with a horse. Also mining dark territory on the documentary side are Iraq-based docs like Charles Ferguson's "No End in Sight" and Rory Kennedy's "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib." Quirkier offerings seem to include Lincoln Ruchti's "Chasing Ghosts," about the 1982 Video Game World Champion" and Amir Bar-Lev's "My Kid Could Paint That," about a four-ear-old girl whose abstract paintings sell for big bucks.

The feature competition's most star-studded film may be Deborah Kampmeier's untitled Southern gothic tale of an abused girl who finds meaning in blues music, starring Fanning, Robin Wright Penn, David Morse and Piper Laurie.

Other familiar faces appearing in competition films include Heather Graham ("Adrift in Manhattan"), John Cusack ("Grace Is Gone"), Sundance fav Parker Posey ("Broken English") and Kate Beckinsale (with Sam Rockwell in "Snow Angels").

"Snow Angels" is directed by Sundance vet David Gordon Green, while other Festival alums with dramatic competition films including Chris Smith ("The Pool") and Jeffrey Blitz ("Rocket Science").

A complete list of the Sundance offerings, including international competition features and docs, can be found at http://festival.sundance.org/2007/.