All these wonderful things

Oscar Goes Bigger for 2011: EXIT & 4 Other Million Dollar Grossers Lead Shortlist Pack

Yesterday afternoon, the Academy announced its documentary shortlist.  As we mentioned at the time, the headline was that EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP had defied most of the odds to hurdle what we thought would be the most difficult barrier stopping it from winning the Oscar - making the shortlist at all - while the most shocking snub was the failure to advance Laura Poitras' THE OATH, a film that we had pegged as a frontrunner and which had already been nominated for the top award at Cinema Eye, the IDA and the Gothams.

But more about those in a minute.

So, first off, it's not a terrible list.  I've seen a few folks contend that it's off-the-charts bad, and trust me, I've seen off-the-charts bad, and this isn't that.

It's curious, that's certain, but mostly because it's actually the kind of list that I think the Academy has been hoping for for years - a slick, brassy list of 15 that's chockablock full of big films and big directors: there's 5 million-dollar grossers in the bunch (the first time that has ever happened) and that doesn't include the headline-grabbing films about Pat Tillman and Eliot Spitzer and natural gas fracking, nor a just-opening, crowd-pleasing film about Brazilian garbage workers.

That makes at least 9 high-profile titles out of 15, which explains why a number of Oscar prognosticators felt pretty good about this year's list (and their pre-announcement predictions, which had centered on films that had a big theatrical launch and therefore that they'd actually heard of - not usually a good barometer).

A lot of these are big productions, too (which makes sense when you consider that Best Picture at the Oscars goes to the producers, not the directors), and for the first time in several years, many if not most of the big players seem to have a horse in the race - Sony Pictures Classics, Weinstein Co., HBO, NatGeo, Magnolia, Paramount, Cinetic, Oscilloscope (those that don't, like Roadside, either weren't really in the doc game this year or, like Zeitgeist and IFC, missed out with their own high profile titles).

And there are big name directors - two Oscar winners (Gibney and Guggenheim) and another nominee (Charles Ferguson), not to mention perhaps the world's most famous anonymous street artist.

This is the kind of shiny list that a lot of people can be (and likely are) pretty happy with, both inside and outside the Academy.

There are always going to be "snubs".  It's getting so that I dislike even using the word, because a "snub" almost implies that there's something unusual going on.  But if there are 3-5 or more "snubs" every year, it hardly seems novel.  Feels like we need a different word.

LAST TRAIN HOME, ARMADILLO, EXIT, MARWENCOL & THE OATH Lead 2011 Cinema Eye Nominations

Nominations were just announced at Sheffield Doc/Fest in the United Kingdom for the 4th Annual Cinema Eye Honors and the film with the most nominations is Lixin Fan's LAST TRAIN HOME, garnering 7 nominations, tying the record set previously by WALTZ WITH BASHIR and THE COVE.

Nominated with LAST TRAIN HOME for Outstanding Feature Film is Janus Metz' ARMADILLO, Banksy's EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (both with six nominations), Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL and Laura Poitras' THE OATH (which each garnered four nods).

Fan, Malmberg, Metz and Poitras were nominated for Outstanding Direction with legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman for LA DANSE: THE PARIS OPERA BALLET.  Wiseman is having a career resurgence with LA DANSE (which was nominated in three categories) and his new film BOXING GYM.

THE OATH has now been nominated for each of the major year end documentary prizes to date (Gothams and IDA previously).  EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP was also nominated for Best Documentary by the IDA.  MARWENCOL, which declined to pursue an Oscar nomination over the cost of fulfilling the Academy's requirements, was recently named the recipient of the IDA's Emerging Filmmaker Award.

It's the first year end awards recognition from ARMADILLO, which premiered at Cannes and has been a box office sensation in its native Denmark but is just having its US premiere tonight at DOC NYC, and LAST TRAIN HOME, which took top prize at IDFA last year and has seen steady theatrical business in the US and Canada.

Charles Ferguson's INSIDE JOB, considered by many to be the Oscar favorite, received three nominations, including a nod for Outstanding Production.  Ferguson was nominated previously for Cinema Eye for his debut film NO END IN SIGHT.

CATFISH, A FILM UNFINISHED, INTO ETERNITY, THE RED CHAPEL, RESTREPO, THE SOUND OF INSECTS - SECRET OF A MUMMY and SWEETGRASS all had two nominations.

From an international perspective, the nominations are dominated by Danish documentaries.  In addition to ARMADILLO, both INTO ETERNITY and THE RED CHAPEL are nominated for Outstanding International Feature (the other nominees are EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP and LAST TRAIN HOME).  

A full list of nominees is after the jump.

One of the Biggest Weeks of the Year Hits Full Steam in Sheffield Tonight

We're in the midst of a pretty momentous week for documentary film: imminently, two major, established international documentary fests kick off their latest edition, a promising newcomer unveils itself in New York City and we’ll be announcing this year’s Cinema Eye nominees.

When you think about it, this week also marks the beginning of perhaps the most jam-packed, three-month stretch during our documentary year.  Think about it, before the next 92 days are through we will know this year’s Oscar nominees, this year’s Spirit Award nominees and the Cinema Eye, IDA & Gotham award winners.  We’ll have gotten our first look at the major docs of 2011 via their premieres in Amsterdam and Park City.  And we’ll know the names of the films that are set to premiere in Austin.

It all begins today when the international documentary contingent braves the London tube strike to travel to Sheffield for the last November edition of Doc/Fest (it moves to June next year – yep, they’ve got another fest to plan starting right about yesterday).  Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK will launch this year’s Doc/Fest, with Stern, Sundberg and Rivers all in person.

Tomorrow night, at the Cinema Eye Roller Disco, we’ll announce the 2011 Cinema Eye nominees in 12 categories: 11 feature and the new award for Nonfiction Short Film.  Each year, the Cinema Eye nominators manage to come up with a pretty remarkable mix of big ticket docs and slightly less heralded, artistic efforts.  In a year heralded by many as the second coming of documentary (due to the huge number of major new works), it will be interesting to find out which films are called out on Thursday.

Artists, Activists and The Enigma: Seven of 2010's Essential Nonfiction Features

No one is going to argue that this has been an extraordinary year for nonfiction film.

Film blogger Scott Feinberg has even gone so far as to declare 2010 "The Year of the Documentary" - "the strongest - or, at the very least, the deepest - year yet in the history of documentary filmmaking".

The other week I had a conversation with someone who I frequently discuss the various politics and maneauverings of the Oscar race for Best Documentary and we agreed that this year it was entirely possible to come up with three completely different lists of five nominees - and that each list would be not just acceptable but pretty sterling.

But let's take Oscar (and Cinema Eye and IDA and Spirits and Gothams and critics prizes) out of the equation for a little while...

I actually meant to write this post back in June, when I'd already seen so many tremendous films - by newcomers and veterans alike.  But I put it off because I had so many other films that I hadn't seen yet - and I still have not seen a number of the year's most talked about films (INSIDE JOB, CATFISH, TILLMAN STORY, CLIENT 9, LAST TRAIN HOME and ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE).

But - as evidenced by this intro - talking about these films as we go into October changes the conversation from the stuff I loved in early 2010 to the stuff that should be considered going into awards season.  There's little to do about that other than to plunge forward.

A final caveat - just picking these seven films from the list of great and near-great stuff I saw in 2010 was a challenge in itself.  I could easily include RESTREPO, BUDRUS, MY PERESTROIKA, SPACE TOURISTS and a handful of others.

But thus far, these are the films that have settled in with me for the long haul and these are the films that have made my documentary viewing in 2010 so exceptional:

Perhaps my favorite film of 2010 thus far is Banksy’s EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP – a skillful, note-perfect dissection of art world hype and the often thorny creative process. 

The Horse Race: Oscar Docs - Who's In, Who's Out, Who Might Make the Shortlist

With last week's Oscar qualifying deadline for documentary features, several awards prognosticators have been weighing in with their thoughts on this year's "Doc Race Spectacular": who will be nominated and who will take home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Predicting these things at this point is admittedly a bit wonky.  First we have to see who even gets shortlisted - a tricky prospect at best - and from there, it's still all about the shortlist screenings, the internal jockeying and just who shows up to watch all 15 of the films.

For instance, last year at this time, BURMA VJ, THE COVE and FOOD INC. all looked like relatively sure nominees.  But no one had seen the DANIEL ELLSBERG film and no one could have predicted WHICH WAY HOME would make it all the way to the Kodak Theatre.

The ELLSBERG film, in particular, premiered late (at Toronto) and proceeded to gain speed throughout the process - as older, liberal Academy members, who not-so-coincidently make up the majority of the viewer/voters, rallied around the baby boomer, anti-establishment hero.

So predicting the Doc Feature contest in early September is less about who will get nominated than it is answering the question of who will get shortlisted.  And as we've seen many times in the past several years, getting shortlisted is no certainty - even for films considered to be shoo-ins for a nod.

And this year might bring more complications as so many of today's best documentary filmmakers (and the ones with the most open ideas about what documentary can be - think back to late-80's discussions about "recreations") are actually in the running.  And by "in the running", we mean that they are ineligible from participating in the voting that determines this year's shortlist.  So someone like Alex Gibney, who was on the IDA jury that awarded ANVIL last year, can't vote.  Neither can Laura Poitras, Rachel Grady, Heidi Ewing and a handful of other young guns.

Many Oscar prognosticators seem to be hanging their hats on some of the high profile titles rolling out of the fall festivals, but we hear that only some of the big Toronto titles are trying to qualify this year.  A commenter below notes that Cannes sensation ARMADILLO and Werner Herzog's CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS are both on the Laemmle Theatre schedule for later this month, but you can  probably strike Wiseman's BOXING GYM, Ondi Timoner's buzzy and controversial COOL IT, Gala screening THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN and Errol Morris' TABLOID from this year's contenders. [Note that many recent Oscar nominees that premiered at Toronto - Herzog's ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD and last year's FOOD, INC. among them - waited for the next eligibility year before qualifying.] [ed. note - the above paragraph has been edited to reflect new information.]

The Monday Brief: JOAN RIVERS Opens Big, A Legal Break for Berlinger, Sheffield Moves to June and the P.O.V. Power List

First off, apologies for the break in posting.  Between traveling to New York, working on various projects and the start of the Los Angeles Film Festival, I've found myself starting several posts (including the last two Monday Briefs) only to watch them go unfinished.

Truth is, this summer might be somewhat light in our coverage around these parts, although we're gonna endeavor to stay on track this month to cover two of the year's most important festivals for documentary - LAFF, which launched seemingly successfully in its new downtown digs last Thursday, and Silverdocs, which kicks off tomorrow...

In the interim, there's been a lot of news in the documentary world - shifting dates for a top festival, a legal victory for a noted filmmaker and a list that does what lists tend to do: get people talking.

But the past two weekends, the biggest headlines in the doc world were made by a film that premiered at Sundance...

Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's docu-portrait, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, was the big winner at the specialty box office the past two weekends.  Opening a week ago at 7 theaters (but as indieWIRE noted - on three separate screens at NYC's IFC Center), the film took in an estimated $24,368 - the biggest per theater debut for a doc this year.  In its first weekend, the film took in more than $170K, more than the combined total take of Stern and Sundberg's previous two (critically acclaimed and super serious) docs, THE TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT and THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK.

In its second weekend, the film cooled off only slightly as it expanded to 29 screens, managing a still strong average of just under $8K per screen, bringing its grand total thus far to more than $475K.  According to Peter Knegt's iW piece, IFC Films plans an aggressive rollout for the film, expanding to the top fifty markets by the 4th of July.  It could be the doc of the summer (at the box office at least), and seems likely to become the 4th $1M doc of 2010 (following BABIES, OCEANS and EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP).

Also fairing quite well last weekend was Madeleine Sackler's charter schools documentary THE LOTTERY.  Variance Films released the doc on a single NYC screen to a potent $17K+.  THE LOTTERY screened at this year's Tribeca Film Festival and a handful of top regional fests (Sarasota, IFFBoston, Cleveland among them) before its quick and successful theatrical launch.

This weekend saw the release of another Sundance doc, 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, the first out of the box for Red Flag Releasing.  Released on 16 screens, the film took in an average of more than $3K.

Segueing out of the theatrical box office, news continued to break last week in the Joe Berlinger/Chevron/CRUDE footage case.  And this time the news was good (at least for anyone who cares about documentary)...

A federal appeals court granted Berlinger a temporary stay in the case and will soon rule on his appeal of the lower court judge's decision that he must turn over his raw footage to Chevron.  This means Berlinger won't have to turn over the footage immediately, which would have been the case if the appeals court had denied his petition for a stay.

Berlinger's lawyer, Maura Wogan, told the NY Times that if the court hadn't granted the stay, "(Berlinger) would have been forced to turn over this material before the appeal was heard – he would have, in effect, lost his right to an appeal."

Berlinger will join filmmaker Morgan Spurlock for a special Stranger Than Fiction this Tuesday at NYC's IFC Center.  The event will be a benefit for Berlinger's legal defense fund.

But perhaps the biggest news of the past week was announced with relatively little fanfare.  Confirming rumors that have been circulating for months (we even included them in our festival profile last December), Sheffield Doc/Fest announced that their 2011 edition will be held in early June.  That means two Doc/Fests in Sheffield separated by little more than seven months (they will still hold this year's event the first week of November).

Nearly 200 Top Doc Makers Sign Open Letter of Support for Joe Berlinger

In the aftermath of a judge's ruling that may force filmmaker Joe Berlinger to hand over the outtakes from CRUDE to energy giant Chevron, nearly 200 top documentary filmmakers have signed "an open letter of support", protesting the breadth of the decision by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to allow Chevron to subpeona all of Berlinger's raw footage.

Noting that "it is understood that First Amendment protection of the journalist's privilege is never absolute", the letter goes on to note that "(t)ypically, if such privilege is successfully rebutted in court, a turn-over order demanding a document or other thing is issued..."

"Therefore, it is astounding to us that Judge Kaplan demanded that all of the footage shot during the production of the film be handed over to the attorneys of Chevron, given that the privilege exists primarily to protect against the wholesale exposure of press files to litigant scrutiny...

At the heart of journalism lies the trust between the interviewer and his or her subject.  Individuals who agree to be interviewed by the news media are often putting themselves at great risk, especially in the case of television news and documentary film where the subject's identity and voice are presented in the final report.  If witnesses sense that their entire interviews will be scrutinized by attorneys and examined in courtrooms they will undoubtedly speak less freely.  This ruling surely will have a crippling effect on the work of investigative journalists everywhere, should it stand."

Spearheaded by filmmaker Patrick Creadon and editor Doug Blush (who worked together on WORDPLAY and I.O.U.S.A.), the letter has been signed by a veritable who's who of the documentary community, including at least 20 Oscar winners (among them: Michael Moore, Alex Gibney, Rob Epstein, Barbara Kopple, Peter Davis, Davis Guggenheim, Freida Lee Mock, James Marsh, Louie Psihoyos, Ross Kauffman, Kevin Macdonald, Jessica Yu, Cynthia Wade, Mark Harris, Steven Okazaki and Leon Gast), and even more Oscar nominees (including DA Pennebaker, Morgan Spurlock, Laura Poitras, Kirby Dick, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Jeff Blitz, James Longley, Tia Lessin, Carl Deal, Ellen Kuras, Robert Kenner, Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar, Scott Kennedy, Hupert Sauper, Liz Garbus and Amy Berg) as well as dozens of the community's top filmmakers (Kim Longinotto, Jehane Noujaim, Chris Hegedus, R.J. Cutler, Nick Broomfield, Haskell Wexler, Steve James, Peter Gilbert, Ken Burns, Lucy Walker, Doug Pray and Amir Bar-Lev, among them).

[Full disclosure: I am also a signer on the letter.]

Work began on the letter on Saturday when Creadon reached out to a handful of filmmakers calling for a united community response in support of Berlinger.  A first draft on the letter was completed Sunday, with the IDA joining the effort and working with Creadon and others to finesse the language regarding the case's complex legal issues.  IDA President Eddie Schmidt took the letter to his Board of Directors, which decided to sign the letter en masse to make a statement on behalf of the organization. 

"Advocacy is an area where an organization like IDA can make a difference - and we should try to lead as much as we can," Schmidt told me.  "It seemed important to come out early and instrumentally, and luckily, we have a forward-thinking Board of Directors and an Executive Director who believe in making a stand."

Schmidt said that he was amazed at the support the letter garnered within the community in just a few short days.  "Those names say it all: who can argue with the greatest cinematic arguers of our time?"

In an email exchange, Creadon wrote about his reaction to the news as it broke last Thursday:

"I read the story in the New York Times Saturday morning and was stunned when I realized Joe was likely going to have to turn over all of his footage.  What many outside of our community do not realize is that of all the challenges facing documentary filmmakers, it's often the legal hurdles that prove to be most difficult.  And of course legal difficulties usually lead to big legal bills -- a particularly acute kind of pain that doesn't just hurt the individual but can often hurt that person's family and livelihood."

And earlier today, Blush described the chain of events that unfolded after the judge's decision was announced:

"I've worked on several films with critical interview confidentiality issues, and when I first saw the story Thursday, I was profoundly shaken by its implications.  Patrick called on Friday, and he was on fire.  He proposed bringing together doc community filmmakers around a statement of support, and wrote a first draft.  Since then, with many great suggestions and the incredible tidal wave of signatures, the statement is out there and Joe knows he's not alone in this.  My gratitude goes out to Eddie, the IDA, and this amazing global group of artists, and I believe this can be a first step to amend and increase the vital legal protections for our work."

The full text of the letter after the jump.

Filmmakers and others in the documentary community are invited to add their names to this open letter in the comments section of this post.

The Brief: OCEANS and Bansky Reap Box Office Rewards, THE OATH Caps an Award-Winning April and Tribeca in Progress

We're dead in the middle of the spring festival onslaught, with Tribeca and San Francisco just hitting their mid-points, IFFBoston about to wrap its event and Hot Docs getting ready to kick-off tomorrow.  We went on our own mini-fest-tour earlier this month (Ashland and Sarasota - more on this later, but let's just say our assessment bore out) and we're trying to get our footing before we head up to Toronto next week.  So much is happening, and here's a brief sample in a mid-week brief...

It was a big weekend at the theatrical box office for OCEANS, the new film from Oscar nominated filmmaker Jacques Perrin (WINGED MIGRATION) and distributor Disneynature.  The film took in just over $6M for the weekend, after an Earth Day debut at the top of the charts on Thursday.  That takes the film to $8.4M so far, with expectations that the film will reach the $10M mark by today.  OCEANS took in nearly $5K per screen, which was the best average in the top 10.

Mystery seems to be paying off huge dividends for EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, the curious documentary from the anonymous artist known as Banksy.  The film has taken in an $390,000 from a handful of screens (it expanded from 8 to 11 this weekend) for the best per screen average of any film in release, according to indieWIRE's weekly box office report, which also gives the back story of EXIT's unusual DIY release by sales rep John Sloss and a team that included Richard Abramowitz.

Also from Abramowith, Tom DiCillo's Doors documentary, WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE, took in another $24K in its third weekend, taking that film's total to just under $165,000.

As mentioned, Tribeca is heading for its closing weekend, with much of the doc talk surrounding the unstoppable force that is Alex Gibney.  With two completed films (and a segment of omnibus doc FREAKANOMICS) at this year's fest, Gibney made a huge splash with his not-yet-completed UNTITLED ELIOT SPITZER FILM (we summed up the press coverage here) over the weekend.

But Gibney wasn't the only news at Tribeca.  indieWIRE's Brian Brooks examines a potential controversy in the wake of Deborah Scranton's EARTH MADE OF GLASS.  Cinematical's Christopher Campbell has a review of FREETIME MACHOS (which is also headed to Hot Docs).  And at Movieline, S.T. Vanairsdale has a recap of the Q&A following Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's popular JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK.  POV's Tom Roston finds that the Rivers doc changes his mind about the subject.

As the other April fests start wrapping up, it's worth noting the exceptional run Laura Poitras' THE OATH is having.  It began the month with a Special Jury Prize at Full Frame, and followed that with two Grand Jury notations - at Sarasota and at IFFBoston.  The film is heading to Hot Docs and then to the IFC Center where Zeitgeist will kick off its theatrical run next Friday.  We'll be hosting the LA premiere at Cinefamily on May 18. 

We finally got a chance to see THE OATH In Sarasota and it's a knockout, subtle and brilliant with one of the best scores in a documentary in years.

Two more of our favorite docs of 2010 also scored at Sarasota and Boston.  Josh Fox' GASLAND, which has been getting deserved raves all year, received the Special Jury prize in Sarasota and Jeff Malmberg's terrific, complex MARWENCOL picked up the same award at IFFBoston.  All three films will rank among the best in nonfiction in 2010.

Stuff worth reading:  Yance Ford recaps her experience at Full Frame and considers the once and future festival.  Raphaela Niehausen writes about Steven Soderbergh's appearance at Stranger Than Fiction for his Spalding Gray doc AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE.  Anthony Kaufman considers the "documentary fictions" of the Soderbergh film and the Banksy doc.  Kaufman also writes about the STF screening of Doug Block's latest THE KID GROWS UP.  And completing his doc trifecta, Anthony writes about "art docs" for IFC.com.  And finally, a post over at the IDA's news blog on a recent Supreme Court decision sparks a debate on first ammendment freedoms and animal cruelty.

Sundance 2010: Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern's JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK

The other day I referred to Alex Gibney as "the hardest working man in documentary".  Well, even Gibney may have to take a seat behind Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern.  Since their debut feature, THE TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT, launched at Sundance in 2006, they've completed three more features, including this year's Sundance premiere, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK. 

And if the buzz today at Sundance is any indication, it is likely to be Sundberg and Stern's most high profile film to date.

As the LA Weekly's Karina Longworth notes, it's not exactly a topic that you'd think would be in the filmmaking duo's wheelhouse:

"Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg have made a name for themselves making documentaries (THE TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT, THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK, THE END OF AMERICA) that could be considered works of activism, in which charismatic victims of and witnesses to injustice offer evidence intended to raise not just the viewer's consciousness, but their ire. The pair thus did not seem like the obvious choice to tell the story of Joan Molinsky Rosenberg, the nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn better known as foul-mouthed comedienne/plastic surgery addict Joan Rivers.

Amazingly, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK might be best understood as one of a piece with Stern and Sundberg's activist work. If the entertainment industry ain't exactly Darfur, it still hasn't been an easy road for Rivers, whose boundary-breaking comic creativity will likely be listed low in her obituary, to make room for discussion of her obsession with reinvention. Stern and Sundberg sympathize with the star's plight, and provide an excellent platform for her gut-busting politically incorrect comedy to speak for itself."

Mark Olsen, writing in the LA Times, concurs:

"The Rivers film is a clever mix of the comedian's scabrously relentless stand-up -- barely minutes into the film she has dropped a C-bomb in referring to her own daughter -- while also providing intimate, unguarded glimpses into what makes Rivers tick, what has kept her and her career going for decades.

The film opens with a series of startling close-ups of Rivers' face without makeup, slowly showing as she puts herself together. The message seems clear form the start: This film will examine both the mask and what's behind it."

At Sundance, Rivers talked to ABC News' Sheila Marikar:

"I had nothing to do with (the film)," she said. "It was my best friend's daughter (Stern) [who made the movie.] My career was in the toilet, as usual, so she begged her daughter to do something with me. They followed me around for a year and a half hoping I would die."

Sundance 2010 Competition Slate: New Films from Alex Gibney, Laura Poitras, Davis Guggenheim, Amir Bar-Lev, Lucy Walker, Leon Gast, José Padilha, Stanley Nelson, Jeffrey Blitz, Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern

We now have our first real glimpse of the films we will be thinking and talking about in 2010, as the Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its competition slates for US and world titles.  And as previewed, this year looks to be an all-star barn-burner, with brand new films from a host of Oscar winners (Alex Gibney, Davis Guggenheim, Leon Gast), nominees (Laura Poitras, Jeffrey Blitz, Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady) and from folks who've had big success in Park City with their previous efforts (José Padilha, Amir Bar-Lev, Lucy Walker, Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern).

We'll have much more on these films in the coming days and weeks (and frankly, months), but for now, here's this year's competition line-up, with descriptions furnished by the festival:

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
This year’s 16 films were selected from 862 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.

BHUTTO (Directors: Jessica Hernandez and Johnny O'Hara)
A riveting journey through the life and work of  recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister and a polarizing figure in the Muslim world. World Premiere

CASINO JACK & THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY (Director: Alex Gibney)
A probing investigation into the lies, greed and corruption surrounding D.C. super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his cronies.  World Premiere

FAMILY AFFAIR (Director: Chico Colvard)
An uncompromising documentary that examines resilience, survival and the capacity to accommodate a parent's past crimes in order to satisfy the longing for family. World Premiere

FREEDOM RIDERS (Director: Stanley Nelson)
The story behind a courageous band of civil rights activists called the Freedom Riders who in 1961 creatively challenged segregation in the American South. World Premiere

GAS LAND (Director: Josh Fox)
A cross-country odyssey uncovers toxic streams, dying livestock, flammable sinks and weakening health among rural citizens on the front lines of the natural gas drilling craze. World Premiere

I'M PAT _______ TILLMAN (Director: Amir Bar-Lev)
The story of professional football star and decorated U.S. soldier Pat Tillman, whose family takes on the U.S. government when their beloved son dies in a "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan in 2004. World Premiere

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD (Director: Tamra Davis)
The story of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose work defined, electrified and challenged an era, and whose untimely death at age 27 has made him a cultural icon. World Premiere

JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK (Directors: Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg)
A rare, brutally honest glimpse into the comedic process and private dramas of legendary comedian and pop icon Joan Rivers as she fights tooth and nail to keep her American dream alive. World Premiere

LUCKY (Director: Jeffrey Blitz)
The story of what happens when ordinary people hit the lottery jackpot. World Premiere

MY PERESTROIKA (Director: Robin Hessman)
Intimately tracking the lives of five Muscovites who came of age just as the USSR collapsed and are adjusting to their post-Soviet reality, My Perestroika maps the contours of a nation in profound transition. World Premiere

THE OATH (Director: Laura Poitras)
Filmed in Yemen, The Oath tells the story of two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a course of events that led them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo, and the U.S. Supreme Court. World Premiere

RESTREPO (Directors: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington)
Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's year dug in with the Second Platoon in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys reveals extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of back breaking labor, deadly firefights, and camaraderie as the soldiers painfully push back the Taliban. World Premiere

A SMALL ACT (Director: Jennifer Arnold)
A young Kenyan’s life changes dramatically when his education is sponsored by a Swedish stranger. Years later, he founds his own scholarship program to replicate the kindness he once received. World Premiere

SMASH HIS CAMERA (Director: Leon Gast)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sued him, and Marlon Brando broke his jaw. The story of notorious, reviled paparazzo Ron Galella opens a Pandora's Box of issues from right to privacy, freedom of the press and the ever-growing vortex of celebrity worship. World Premiere

12TH & DELAWARE (Directors: Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing)
The abortion battle continues to rage in unexpected ways on an unassuming corner in America. World Premiere

WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (Director: Davis Guggenheim)
Waiting for Superman examines the crisis of public education in the United States through multiple interlocking stories—from a handful of students and their families whose futures hang in the balance, to the educators and reformers trying to find real and lasting solutions within a dysfunctional system. World Premiere

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
This year’s 12 films were selected from 782 international documentary submissions.

A FILM UNFINISHED / Germany, Israel (Director: Yael Hersonski)
Film reels uncovered in Nazi archives reveal the mechanisms used to stage Warsaw Ghetto life--images which have shaped our view of history. World Premiere

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE / Cambodia, United Kingdom (Directors: Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath)
A young journalist whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge befriends the perpetrators of the Killing Fields genocide, evoking shocking revelations. U.S. Premiere

FIX ME /  France, Palestinian Territories, Switzerland (Director: Raed Andoni)
When Palestinian filmmaker Raed Andoni gets a headache that won't quit, he seeks out help and insight in different forms in his hometown of Ramallah. International Premiere

HIS & HERS / Ireland (Director: Ken Wardrop)
Seventy Irish women offer moving insights into the relationships between women and men. North American Premiere

KICK IN IRAN / Gemany (Director: Fatima Geza Abdollahyan)
The first female professional Taekwondo fighter from Iran to qualify for the Olympic Games struggles for recognition in a society where women still play a subordinate role. World Premiere

LAST TRAIN HOME / Canada (Director: Lixin Fan)
Getting a train ticket in China proves a towering ordeal as a migrant worker family embarks on a journey, along with 200 million other peasants, to reunite with their distant family. U.S. Premiere

THE RED CHAPEL (Det Røde Kapel) / Denmark (Director: Mads Brügger)
A journalist with no scruples, a self-proclaimed spastic, and a comedian travel to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit to challenge one of the world’s most notorious regimes. U.S. Premiere

RUSSIAN LESSONS / Georgia, Germany, Norway (Directors: Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov)
An investigation into Russian actions during the 2008 war in Georgia, revealing the little known story of the ethnic cleansing in the region since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. World Premiere

SECRETS OF THE TRIBE / Brazil (Director: José Padilha)
Is the academic Anthropology community capable of generating real knowledge about mankind? The scandals and the infighting regarding the representation of indigenous Indians in the Amazon Basin seems to indicate that the answer may be a resounding no. World Premiere

SINS OF MY FATHER / Argentina, Colombia (Director: Nicolas Entel)
The life and times of notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar are recounted through the eyes of his son, who fled Colombia to move beyond his father's legacy. North American Premiere

SPACE TOURISTS / Switzerland (Director: Christian Frei)
A humorous and laconic view of the way billionaires depart our planet earth to travel into outer space for fun. North American Premiere

WASTE LAND / United Kingdom (Director: Lucy Walker)
Lives are transformed when international art star Vik Muniz collaborates with garbage pickers in the world's largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro. World Premiere