LOS ANGELES (AFP) — French directors Josiane Balasko, Benoit Delepine and Gustave de Kervern will show their films at the 2009 Sundance festival in Utah, according to organizers of the independent movie showcase.
Balasko's "Cliente" -- dubbed "A French Gigolo" in English -- about a 50-something woman who makes a habit of having sex with young men she finds on Internet sites, is one of 16 films in the festival's World Cinema Dramatic Competition, alongside Delepine's and Kervern's "Louise Michel."
The latter stars Yolande Moreau as one of a group of disgruntled factory workers who hire a hit man to knock off the executive behind their factory's abrupt closure.
Also in the foreign category is "Zion Ve Achiv" ("Zion and His Brother") by the French-Israeli director and screenwriter Eran Merav, about how the disappearance of a young boy causes a rift between two brothers in a working-class Tel Aviv family.
Some 118 feature films and documentaries from 21 countries will be shown January 15-25 at the 25th annual Sundance Film Festival, founded by US actor and director Robert Redford.
In total, 87 films will make their world premiere at Sundance, according to organizers who said they whittled their choices down from 3,661 submissions, including 1,756 international films.
"This year's films are not narrowly defined. Instead we have a blurring of genres, a crossing of boundaries: geographic, generational, socio-economic," festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said in a statement.
Sixty-four of the films will be presented in competition, 16 in each of four categories: US dramatic and documentary, and international dramatic and documentary.
The last category is peppered with political themes, such as those in "211:Anna," an Italian film about Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya's life-threatening reporting about the Chechen conflict; a Danish film about Burmese journalists documenting unrest in their country; and a French-American movie on North Korean defectors.
Others explore the life of the shah of Iran's widow in exile from the Islamic revolution, honor killings in tribal regions of Kurdistan, and Tibetan resistance in the face of Chinese occupation.
US selections are equally eclectic, whether they be about rock and roll, with "When You're Strange," the first feature documentary about one of America's most influential bands, The Doors; the steady sickening of the world's oceans, with "The Cove;" or the oil-related environmental disaster in the Amazon, with "Crude."
Sundance will also debut US comedian Chris Rock's documentary "Good Hair," about African-American hairstyles, and "The September Issue," about life with Vogue fashion magazine editor Anna Wintour.
The annual festival has become a prime event for producers and representatives of major Hollywood studios seeking to snatch up the next sleeper or blockbuster.
Films such as "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Hamlet 2" have profited from the Sundance springboard in recent years.
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