2010 Sundance Film Festival

AUDIENCE AWARD: U.S. DOCUMENTARY, Presented by Honda For a nation that proudly declared it would leave no child behind, America continues to do so at alarming rates. Despite increased spending and politicians’ promises, our buckling public-education system, once the best in the world, routinely forsakes the education of millions of children. Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems. However, embracing the belief that good teachers make good schools, and ultimately questioning the role of unions in maintaining the status quo, Guggenheim offers hope by exploring innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind. Film Contact Michael Agulnek Paramount Pictures 323 956 5704 Michael_agulnek@paramount.com

WINTER'S BONE Deep in the Ozark Mountains, clans live by a code of conduct that no one dares defy—until an intrepid teenage girl has no other choice. When Ree Dolly's crystal-meth-making father skips bail and goes missing, her family home is on the line. Unless she finds him, she and her young siblings and disabled mother face destitution. In a heroic quest, Ree traverses the county to confront her kin, break their silent collusion, and bring her father home. With thrilling tension, Winter’s Bone depicts an archetypal rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood. Only this time, the young warrior is a girl. As our heroine braves immoveable obstacles, she redefines the notion of family loyalty and, in the process, discovers her own power. The spare precision of Debra Granik’s direction is effortlessly profound. Stunningly genuine performances and exquisite visual details capture the textures and rhythms of a world where the mythic and the naturalistic intermingle.

WORLD CINEMA AUDIENCE AWARD: DOCUMENTARY Brazilian artist Vik Muniz creates photographic images of people using found materials from the places where they live and work. His "Sugar Children" series portrays the images of deprived children of Caribbean plantation workers using the sugar from their surroundings. When acclaimed filmmaker Lucy Walker trains her camera on Muniz, he is cultivating a new idea for a project. He knows the material he wants to use—garbage—but who will be the subject of the new series of works? Waste Land is a wonderfully resonant documentary that chronicles Muniz's journey to Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. He collaborates with an eclectic band of catadores, or self-designated pickers of recyclable materials, and photographs these inspiring characters as they recycle their lives and society’s garbage. Walker gains fantastic access to the entire process and, in doing so, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the dignity that can be found in personal determination.

Trauma transforms us. Years after their teenage daughter’s death, Lois and Doug Riley, an upstanding Indiana couple, are frozen by estranging grief. She isolates herself in their immaculate suburban home. He philanders with a local waitress, anesthetizing pain with easy passion. When he loses his mistress to cancer, Doug, beset by further heartache, escapes to New Orleans on a business trip. Compelled by urgencies he doesn’t understand, he insinuates himself into the life of an underage hooker, becoming her platonic guardian. Meanwhile, Lois summons all of her remaining force to overcome agoraphobia and venture south to reclaim her marriage. Exacting performances from three consummate actors (James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, and Kristen Stewart) infuse this emotionally raw, gently humorous drama with penetrating humanity. Director Jake Scott’s uncompromising film refuses to flinch from difficult moments or tie neat bows around its characters. Instead, it reveals how taking risks and leaving our comfort zone can become a profound path to healing the human heart. Film Contact Maresa Pullman, Scott Free Productions Phone: (310) 360-2258 Email: maresa@scottfree.com

Documentary Spotlight If you’re a basketball fan, you know that one of the great NBA rivalries in the mid-1990s was between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. In classic David-meets-Goliath style, the two teams faced off in thrilling seven-game battles during the 1994 and 1995 playoffs. In Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks, Dan Klores focuses on the Pacers’ master showman, Reggie Miller, who was as skilled at three-pointers as he was at trash talking. Not only did he antagonize the Knicks; he antagonized a whole city and relished every minute of it—just ask Spike Lee. Winning Time entertains on many levels: it goes beyond the action on the court and delves into the psychology of the game. By deftly weaving humorous interviews with exciting archival footage, Klores has created a film that appeals to both the die-hard fan and someone who has never seen a game. Film Contact Tom Piechura, 42West Phone: (212) 277-7552 Email: tom.piechura@42west.net

WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD GRAND JURY PRIZE: DRAMATIC Deep in the Ozark Mountains, clans live by a code of conduct that no one dares defy—until an intrepid teenage girl has no other choice. When Ree Dolly's crystal-meth-making father skips bail and goes missing, her family home is on the line. Unless she finds him, she and her young siblings and disabled mother face destitution. In a heroic quest, Ree traverses the county to confront her kin, break their silent collusion, and bring her father home. With thrilling tension, Winter’s Bone depicts an archetypal rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood. Only this time, the young warrior is a girl. As our heroine braves immoveable obstacles, she redefines the notion of family loyalty and, in the process, discovers her own power. The spare precision of Debra Granik’s direction is effortlessly profound. Stunningly genuine performances and exquisite visual details capture the textures and rhythms of a world where the mythic and the naturalistic intermingle. Film Contact Anne Rosellini, Down to the Bone Productions Email: arosellini@bway.net

Nigel recently had his wisdom teeth removed. Film Contact Don Hertzfeldt, Bitter Films Email: bitterfilms@hotmail.com

In her feature-film debut, renowned visual artist Shirin Neshat offers an exquisitely crafted view of Iran in 1953, when a British- and American-backed coup removed the democratically elected government. Adapted from the novel by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur, the film weaves together the stories of five individual women during those traumatic days, whose experiences are shaped by their faith and the social structures in place. With a camera that floats effortlessly through the lives of the women and the beautiful countryside of Iran, Neshat explores the social, political, and psychological dimensions of her characters as they meet in a metaphorical garden, where they can exist and reflect while the complex intellectual and religious forces shaping their world linger in the air around them. Looking at Iran from Neshat’s point of view allows us to see the larger picture and realize that the human community resembles different organs of one body, created from a common essence. Film Contact Olimpia Pont Cháfer Email: olimpia@coproductionoffice.eu

Multimedia artist Gina Czarnecki explores the convergence of sensuality, biology, dance, and cinema in her mesmerizing single-channel installations. In these pieces developed in collaboration with biotechnologists, computer programmers, dancers, and sound artists, Czarnecki crafts gorgeously textural, digital meditations on the human form in motion: gazing across scale, blurring the boundaries between the mass and the cellular, and investigating what is possible when nature ends and the technologically manipulated begins. Cell Mass N2 2006 United Kingdom Video installation with 5.1 Surround Producer: Forma Supported by Arts Council England Sound: Fennesz Infected 2001 United Kingdom Single-channel video with two-channel sound 8 minutes Producer: Forma Supported by Arts Council England Sound: Fennesz Nascent United Kingdom 2005 Single-channel video with two-channel sound 10 minutes Producer: Forma Coproducer: Australian Dance Theatre Supported by Arts Council England Commissioned by Forma and Adelaide Film Festival Sound: Fennesz Film Contact Forma Arts and Media Phone: +44 (0) 207 456 7820 Email: info@forma.org.uk