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Sundance News 01/23/09: Oscar Overlap

By Christopher Campbell posted 10 months ago

Stu at Defamer takes a look at this year’s Oscar nominees that debuted at last year’s Sundance and predicts that An Education will receive Academy Awards recognition one year from now.
One of this year’s Sundance films has already been nominated for an Oscar: the animated short This Way Up.
And one of this year’s Oscar nominees almost wasn’t a Sundance selection: AJ Schnack samples from an IDA interview with Geoffrey Gilmore in which Man on Wire is said to have nearly been rejected.
The Envelope points out three Oscar nominees who are at Sundace this week: Josh Brolin, Melissa Leo and Michael Shannon, the latter of whom stars in The Missing Person.
Four directors/projects have been named winners of this year’s Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards.
Anne Thompson’s summary of this year’s fest notices it was a “time of transition for both Sundance and the industry,” while also quoting manager Michael Sugar, who believes it was a return to the past: “This year’s fest started to recapture the intended spirit. It seemed back to being about the filmmakers.” Also at Variety, Todd McCarthy’s summary notes that An Education and Sin Nombre were the two emblematic films of the fest, and both fit in with the start of the Obama age.
Manohla Dargis’ NY Times summary concentrates heavily on the presence of Sundance hero Steven Soderbergh, whose latest film she didn’t care for.