The Sundance Film Festival (January 15-25) continues to thrive in the cold mountain air of its birthplace, Park City, Utah. As most film fanciers know, this prestigious event boasts the largest independent cinema festival in the United States, as well as discovering and fostering new up-and-coming talent (with a few unforgettable parties and free gifts thrown in for good measure). The festival also encourages the public to participate in the advancement of cinema by screening 200 films (out of 9,000 hopeful submissions).

Opening this year's festival is Mary and Max, the debut feature film by Academy Award-winning Australian director Adam Elliot (Harvie Krumpet). It's also the first clay-animated film to win the opening slot at the famous Sundance festival. Mary and Max (featured in the 2008/2009 winter issue of Moving Pictures Magazine) chronicles the 20-year pen-pal friendship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle (voiced by Toni Collette), a lonely 8-year-old girl living in a Melbourne suburb, and Max Horowitz (voiced by Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a 44-year-old obese Jewish man suffering from Asperger's Syndrome in New York City.

As if one film festival isn't enough, Park City also hosts the Slamdance Film Festival on concurrent dates (January 15-23). -Amanda Ondretti

SPECIAL FEATURE
• The Sundance Experience: Attention Shorts Filmmakers
Roberta Marie Munroe, author of How NOT To Make A Short Film: Secrets of a Sundance Programmer, shares the reasons and realities of her how-not-to guide. 
• Ondi Timoner chats with MPM about her docu on Internet pioneer Josh Harris, We Live in Public, icon status and the lure of the "15 minutes."

FROM THE FILMMAKER - SUNDANCE 
• The "Mystery Team" Effort from Dan Eckman, director of Mystery Team 
• Hope for Amreeka from Cherien Dabis, writer/director of Amreeka
• Blaxploitation in the Age of Obama from Scott Sanders, director of Black Dynamite
• "Motherhood Director's Statement" from Katherine Dieckmann, writer/director of Motherhood
• "Site and Sound of the Story: Barking Water" from Sterlin Harjo, writer/director of Barking Water
• "Objectivity, Subjectivity, Truth and Hockey Pucks" from R.J. Cutler, director of The September Issue WINNER, EXCELLENCE IN CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD FOR U.S. DOCUMENTARY
• "Our William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe " from Sarah Kunstler, co-director of William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
• Exposing The Cove: Guerilla Filmmaking Required" from Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove - WINNER, AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST U.S. DOCUMENTARY 
• "Getting to Yes" from Doug Pray, director of Art & Copy
• "Endgame from the Start" from Pete Travis, director of Endgame
• "Composing and Sound Design for Film: The Story is King" from Joachim Horsley, composer, at Sundance with HUG, PAL/SECAM and 'Concerto
• "Finding Light Within Darkness" from Lindsay Lanzillotta, producer of The Vicious Kind

SCREENING AT SUNDANCE... see MPM's reviews and interviews
• Lymelife - interview with director Derick Martini 
• Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech (documentary)
• Boy Interrupted (documentary) 
• Out of Our Minds - spotlight review on MPM's The ShortList

SCREENING AT SLAMDANCE
• Lost Sparrow (documentary)

FROM THE FILMMAKER - SLAMDANCE 
• "Zach Gilford's Sundance Dare" from Dare co-star Zach Gilford
• "How to Sell the Dead" from Glenn McQuaid, writer/director of I Sell the Dead
• "The Tale of City Rats" from William Borthwick, producer of City Rats
• "Change in American Cinema" from Morgan R. Stiff, producer of Mississippi Damned
• "A Quiet Little Marriage - An Unconventional Creation" from Mo Perkins, writer/director of A Quiet Little Marriage
• A Quiet Little Marriage co-stars each share their experience: Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Cy Carter
• "The Hope Behind Heart of Stone" from Beth Toni Kruvant, director/producer of Heart of Stone 
• "Filmmaking Zombie Girl" from Aaron Marshall, Erik Mauck and Justin Johnson, co-directors of Zombie Girl: The Movie

MPM'S SLAMDANCE INTERVIEWS ON VIDEO
• Julie Davis, Matthew Davis and P.J. Byrne - Finding Bliss
• Drake Doremus and Matthew Lillard - Spooner
• Christopher McDonald and Nora Zehetner - Spooner

MPM'S SUNDANCE INTERVIEWS ON VIDEO
• Guillermo del Toro - Rudo y Cursi
• Greg Barker - Sergio
• Duncan Jones - Moon
• John Densmore and Tom DiCillo - When You're Strange
• Ashley Springer and Emmy Rossum - Dare
• Benjamin Bratt and Erika Alexander - La Mission
• Dominic Dierkes, Donald Glover and D.C. Pierson - Mystery Team
• Dan Eckman and Meggie McFadden - Mystery Team
• Bob Goldthwait and Daryl Sabara - World's Greatest Dad
• Charlyne Yi and Nicholas Jasenovec - Paper Heart
• Jake Johnson and Michael Cera - Paper Heart
• Chris Rock, Nia Long and Nelson George - Good Hair
• Alexia Fast - Helen
• Lone Scherfig and Carey Mulligan - An Education
• Jordan Ladd - Grace
• Jason Ritter, Jess Weixler and Jay DiPietro - Peter and Vandy
• Patton Oswalt and Kevin Corrigan - Big Fan
• Frankie Faison, Peter Gallagher and Max Mayer - Adam
• Trudie Styler - Moon
• Sandra Bernhard and Zach Gilford - Dare
• Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne - Adam
• Paul Solet - Grace
• Peter Bratt and Jeremy Ray Valdez - La Mission
• Rodrigo Santoro - I Love You Phillip Morris
• Oliver Hirschbiegel and James Nesbitt - Five Minutes of Heaven

PHOTO GALLERY: 2009 Slamdance MPM Media Lounge 
Glenn McQuaid, Dominic Monaghan, Larry Fessenden,  Brenda Cooney, Mark Harmon, Kaitlin Olson, Blayne Weaver, Dominic Ottersbach, Tricia O'Kelley, Patrick J. Adams, Ryan Devlin.

PHOTO GALLERY: 2009 Sundance MPM Media Lounge (1 of 4)
Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marc Webb, Carey Mulligan, Chris Rock, Nia Long, Nelson Geroge, Laura Harring.

PHOTO GALLERY: 2009 Sundance MPM Media Lounge (2 of 4)
Alexia Fast, Duncan Jones, Trudie Styler, Tom DiCillo, John Densmore,  Rodrigo Santoro,  Jason Ritter, Jess Weixler, Erika Alexander, Benjamin Bratt, Peter Bratt, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Peter Borrego.

PHOTO GALLERY: 2009 Sundance MPM Media Lounge (3 of 4)
Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, Paula Patton, Lee Daniels, Grace Hightower, Donald Glover, D.C Pierson, Dominic Dierkes, Dan Eckman, Meggie McFadden, Hamid Rahmanian, Melissa Hibbard.

PHOTO GALLERY: 2009 Sundance MPM Media Lounge (4 of 4)
Alexie Gilmore, Bob Goldthwait, Daryl Sabara, Henry Simmons, Matt Servitto, Cherien Dabis, Melkar Muallem, Nisreen Faour Ali.