It's Time For SUNDANCE!!! Yippee!!! Harry converses with the stars, charts the bones for his pre-fest picks!

Hey folks, Harry here... Well it's SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL time, and like every year here at AICN, we're anxious to see what emerges from the festival as being the film or films we need to be looking out for, for the rest of the year!

I've been getting a stack of videos sent to me of some of the Sundance Films playing there, and hopefully as the fest unfurls, I'll be chiming in with what I'm seeing back here at home. However, as always the best news will come from Sundance itself... So, if you're out there, headed there or well, ya know seeing the films playing... WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! If you are sending reports from Sundance, please put in the subject line of your email: "SUNDANCE: ______ " the name of the films you're writing in about! And send it to: HARRY@AINTITCOOL.COM! Cool Beans!

Last year, AMERICAN SPLENDOR shined and was buzzed about... and look, we're still talking about the awards that film could run off with! This is where we get the first look at some of the indies, the unknowns, the out of left field, right field and behind the center field fence movies of the year!

What do I think you should be looking out for? Well... here we go with the 21 cards I'd bet on:

in order of their debuts...

First up:

RIDING GIANTS directed by Stacy Peralta. Stacy got off to a great start with DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS which kicked all sorts of ass. This time he's trying to give us the first 'authentic' history of surfing. A documentary? Yup, but one that I promise has to be thrilling and cool. Stacy is a kinetic non-traditional documentarian that makes docs that rock!

GARDEN STATE - directed by Zach Braff... who? Well Zach isn't particularly well known yet. He played Woody Allen's son in MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY, but he did land the voice of CHICKEN LITTLE in the Disney CG film... which means he's most likely very funny. This is his directoral debut and he stars alongside Natalie Portman in addition. It's produced by Danny DeVito and I'm betting that this is a romantic comedy that works. Ian Holm plays his father and well... time will tell.

OVERNIGHT - directed by Mark Brian Smith. Many of you have watched with morbid fascination PROJECT GREENLIGHT - but have you ever been curious what it would look like if the studio didn't control the spin? Well, this documentary covers the rise and fall of Troy Duffy... that overnight miracle guy that struck gold with Miramax, had the Weinsteins buy the bar he had been working at for him and got to write and direct his flick... BOONDOCK SAINTS. Now the film has it's lovers and haters, but apparently through the entire process, Duffy had a pair of friends documenting the entire process and journey... and apparently it went very bad according to the Sundance notes. Documenting how fame and notoriety can change people for the worse. Apparently it just is a brutal documentary that doesn't blink as a friend becomes a completely different person. Can't wait to hear how this plays.

THE BASQUE BALL: SKIN AGAINST STONE - directed by Julio Medem. That last name is the reason to see the film. Julio is an astonishingly powerful filmmaker. His work with SEXO Y LUCIA and THE RED SQUIRREL was amazing. While those were narratives and this is a documentary... His ability to use cinema and images is profoundly moving and give the struggle and passion inherrent to the Basque Conflict in Spain... well, this is a must see.

CARANDIRU - directed by Hector Babenco. We've had a couple of reviews of this film here on AICN, and the word was sterling. This is supposed to be an absolutely brutal prison drama and Brazilian filmmaking is something to be watched and noted. The cast is strong and the true story behind it is mesmerizing.

OPEN WATER - directed by Chris Kentis. Sometimes when you look at a festival program, you have to just gamble. This is one of those. Kentis' first film was a movie called GRIND that starred Billy Crudup back a few years and was pretty mediocre. HOWEVER... OPEN WATER is a different film, and it has a helluva scary situation. A married couple go diving out in the ocean, only to be left behind by the most inconsiderate stupid boat crew ever. This is about their survival and journey through shark-infested waters. It is based on a true story. And apparently it's a rough one. At 79 minutes, it's a tightly told tale, and given we've all heard Quint spin the Indianapolis story enough to know about... the deep blue at night... I wanna see this one now!

LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - directed by Pen-ek Ratanaruang. This film is from Thailand. Is made and starring many people I haven't a clue who are or what they've done. But I know two names. Christopher Doyle is the cinematographer (and he's a genius) and Takashi Miike plays a hitman in it. Sold. The film is apparently a bit surreal, funny and violent. Check It Out!

SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER AND... SPRING - directed by Kim Ki-duk. He's the reason to see it. I loved his film BAD GUY, liked THE ISLE. This flick is supposed to be his best film and at Locarno, it got 15 minutes of applause after it ended. Many folks I know in South Korea tell me this is really something. South Korean film is a force to be reckoned with!

CSI: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA - directed by Kevin Willmott. Generally I am not a big fan of the mockumentary format (FORGOTTEN SILVER and SPINAL TAP being exceptions), but the premise of... "What if the Confederacy won the Civil War" - and being a documentary set now looking back at history and how it would be changed / similar. Well, I find that quite compelling. The shot of Neil Armstrong on the moon with a Confederate Flag behind him is sobering.

THE FIGHT - directed by Barak Goodman A doc putting together all the nuance and history around and about the fight between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. American & German. Black vs White. Democracy vs National Socialism. The battle was to symbolize and back up Hitler's theories. I love fight documentaries, but also Barak directed two other docs that I've enjoyed. THE MERCHANTS OF COOL and SCOTTSBORO: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY. This should be very good!

THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD - directed by Guy Maddin. Guy is a fantastic director. DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY was fantastic, and this film was acclaimed highly by our contributors back at Toronto.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES - directed by Walter Salles. Probably the surest of sure things. Salles is the director of CENTRAL STATION and the producer of CITY OF GOD. Based upon Che Guevara's legendary book. Gael Garcia Bernal as Che. Shot in the U.S., Argentina, Chile and Peru. Expect this to end up being nominated for all sorts of awards this time next year. Gael is the best actor his age. Salles is a tremendous director. This period of Che's life is legendary... well, like the rest of it too for that matter.

THE MACHINIST - directed by Brad Anderson. I liked SESSION 9 quite a bit, and this time with a cast including Christian Bale, who seemingly starved himself for the role, Jennifer Jason Leigh, who I always like... and Michael Ironside, who allows us to live and breathe... well, this is a film about madness and everything I've heard about the film has been very good. So let's hope Bale has once again delivered!

IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL - bizarre animated documentary from the works of a reclusive painter / writer that left behind a 15,000 page book with hundreds of paintings detailing a war on an enormous unknown planet. ... um... Yes, I want to see!

I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD - directed by Mike Hodges. From the original GET CARTER to TERMINAL MAN to FLASH GORDON to CROUPIER, Mike Hodges has been an entertaining and sometimes fantastic filmmaker. I love CROUPIER, and this time he's teamed back up with Clive Owens in a "theoretical thriller" and yeah... that has my attention.

SAW - directed by James Wan. Horror film about two guys that wake up at opposite ends of a tub chained to poles with a dead body in-between them floating in blood spilt by an apparent suicide. Neither has a clue how they got there. These two are played by Cary Elwes and Danny Glover. I'm there.

CHRYSTAL - directed by Ray McKinnon. Starring Billy Bob as a prisoner released after 16 years and a terrible accident while fleeing the law. Don't know much about this, but Billy Bob Thornton as released prisoners... usually means something damn good. Like the write up on this one.

THE DREAMERS - directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Are you kidding? RUN INTO THE THEATER!

D.E.B.S. - directed by Angela Robinson. It has the chance to be the greatest movie of all time. It could also suck the pigmentation off ya. But it is a must see. Trust me.

AZUMI - directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. From the director of VERSUS. The trailer for this I put up a while back was awesome. Must See!

ZATOICHI - directed by Takeshi Kitano. That's really all you need to know, but it's Beat as the greatest blind samurai who ever stalked the screens.

Alright... that's the preview and the titles that I would check out if I was there... Once again... it's always exciting going into Sundance as most of it is new and unheard of... lots of guesses and hopes. Let's see what shows up as being cool, great, mediocre and terrible. Can't wait for those reviews of TIPTOES!