January 2, 2008 - A number of “Made in NY” productions will be featured at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The festival, which runs from January 17-27, 2008, is the premier showcase for US and international independent film and the core program of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981.

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival will include 122 feature-length films, selected from more than 3,600 submissions. Among them are these notable “Made in NY” productions:

August
Director: Austin Chick; Actor: Josh Harnett
August centers on two brothers fighting to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street during August 2001, a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Death in Love
Director/Writer/Producer: Boaz Yakin; Actors: Josh Lucas, Adam Brody, Lukas Haas
Death in Love follows a pair of story lines that revolve around two brothers. One brother must deal with their mother while the other is lost in life until he is befriended by a scam artist.

Funny Games
Directed by Michael Haneke; Actors: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth
Two psychotic young men take a family hostage in their cabin.

The Guitar
Director/ Producer: Amy Redford; Writer/Producer: Amos Poe; Actor: Saffron Burrows
After she is diagnosed with a terminal illness, fired from her thankless job, and abandoned by her boyfriend, a woman blows her savings and pursues her dreams, told she has only two months left to live.

Phoebe In Wonderland
Director/Writer: Daniel Barnz; Actors: Felicity Huffman, Elle Fanning, Bill Pullman
Phoebe is the fantastical tale of a little girl who won’t - or can’t - follow the rules and finds herself increasing confounded by her clashes with the rule-obsessed world around her.

Quid Pro Quo
Director/Writer: Carlos Brooks; Actors: Nick Stahl, Vera Farmiga
A semi-paralyzed radio reporter is sent out to investigate a story that leads him into an odd subculture and on a journey of disturbing self-realization.

The Visitor
Director/Writer: Thomas McCarthy; Actor: Richard Jenkins
A college professor travels to New York to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.

The Wackness
Director/Writer: Jonathan Levine; Actors: Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Josh Peck, Mary-Kate Olsen
Set in 1994, The Wackness centers on a troubled teenage drug dealer and a drug-addled psychiatrist - after the former trades pot for therapy sessions, then falls for the doctor’s daughter.

For more information about the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, visit www.sundance.org/festival.

A scene from The Wackness, starring Ben Kingsley. Photo courtesy of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.