It's time for Sundance, the premier independent film festival that takes over the lovely town of Park City, Utah for a week-and-a-half each year. We have a fabulous mini-guide to help you find all the films in (and out) of competition, a blog of the movies that are generating buzz and the parties that are buzzing and photos from the event (this year and last) from our very good friends at WireImage; they're once again the official photographers of the event.

2008 Sundance Premiere and Event Photos

This photo of Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivia Thirlby presents an rather representative tableau of Sundance, the co-mingling of the commercial and the independent, in the last few years. They're together for the premiere of The Wackness, a much-hyped coming-of-age story here at the festival. So here's Mary-Kate, an actress famous for being a personality (and sometime commodity) and Olivia, an actress who is creating an impressive indie resume (she was quite good in last year's depressing Snow Angels and this year in Juno). Both of them come to Park City hoping to improve their careers and get a few photos taken. And if anyone is getting their photo taken WireImage is the one taking it. As the official photographer of the Sundance Film Festival, WireImage has snapped 'em all, big and small and they have access to the names and faces that make Sundance the must-attend fest of the year. We'll be bringing you the most recent shots from the fest for '08 as well as a chance to look back over some fantastic photo highlights from years past. All that and more in our Road to Sundance Photo Galleries.

I arrived at Sundance on Wednesday afternoon, fresh-faced and ready to sub-in for Keith, who had been way above sea level for almost a week. Encouraged to hit the halls, floors, and streets to see the festival as a whole, it wasn't until that evening when I saw my first film, Be Like Others, a near-complete, often confusing, and nevertheless compelling documentary about the ultimatum faced by homosexuals in Iran. ...more

Find the Films Fast

The mini-guide features the complete line-up (sorry shorts) of feature films screening in the Premieres, American Spectrum, Frontier, Park City at Midnight, Special Screenings, Sundance Collection, Feature Film and World Cinema Competitions categories of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, taking place January 17-26, 2008, in Park City, Utah. For this year 121 feature-length films were selected including 87 world premieres, 14 North American premieres, and 12 U.S. premieres representing 25 countries with 55 first-time filmmakers, including 32 in competition. These films were selected from 3,624 feature film submissions composed of 2,021 U.S. and 1,603 international feature-length films. These numbers represent an increase from last year when 1,852 U.S. and 1,435 international feature-length films were considered. So if you were looking for, say, The Assassination of a High School President starring one of last year's breakout stars Reece Thompson and Yasmine Bleeth-in-training Mischa Barton you look to the mini-guide.