Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2006 >> Premieres
This section is dedicated to celebrating independent filmmakers out of competition. This year it features 17 films, with Little Miss Sunshine, The Illusionist and Thank You For Smoking going on to be the biggest of the mainstream hits.
View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Frontier, Independent Feature Film Competition: Documentary, Independent Feature Film Competition: Dramatic, Park City At Midnight, Spectrum, Sundance Collection, World Cinema Competition: Documentary, World Cinema Competition: Dramatic
The Illusionist and The Night Listener
Alpha Dog
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Nick Cassavetes; Writer: Nick Cassavetes; Stars: Emile Hirsch, Fernando Vargas, Vincent Kartheiser, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Bruce Willis, Matthew Barry, Heather Wahlquist, Alex Solowitz, Alec Vigil, Harry Dean Stanton)
The party-hearty lifestyle of bored Californian rich kids is rocked to the core when a botched drug deal has tragic consequences.
World Premiere
Art School Confidential
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Terry Zwigoff; Writer: Daniel Clowes; Stars: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar, Ethan Suplee, Joel Moore, Nick Swardson, Anjelica Huston, Adam Scott, Jack Ong)
An artist learns to adapt his vision to the world around him.
World Premiere
Cargo
(Country: Spain, UK, Sweden; Year: 2006; Director: Clive Gordon; Writer: Paul Laverty; Stars: Peter Mullan, Daniel Bruhl, Luis Tosar, Samuli Edelmann, Gary Lewis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ricky Grover, Koen Balcaen, Christopher Fairbank, Carlos Blanco, Lois Soaxe, Jan Willem)
Madness and murder on a dilapidated cargo ship.
World Premiere
The Darwin Awards
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Finn Taylor; Writer: Finn Taylor; Stars: David Arquette, Ty Burrell, Josh Charles, Kevin Dunn, Nora Dunn, Joseph Fiennes, Judah Friedlander, Lukas Haas, Tom Hollander, Brad Hunt, Juliette Lewis)
World Premiere
Based on stories from the website that gives plaudits to those who "accidentally kill themselves in really stupid ways"
Don't Come Knocking
(Country: France/Germany/US; Year: 2005; Director: Wim Wenders; Writer: Sam Shepard, based on a story by Sam Shepard and Wim Wenders; Stars: Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann, Sarah Polley, Fairuza Balk, Eva Marie Saint, Rachel Amondson, Mike Butters, Emy Coligado, Majandra Delfino)
Nostalgia for the old times as age resurrects emotions and lost lovers for a legendary film star.
North American Premiere
Friends With Money and Cargo
Friends With Money
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Nicole Holofcener; Writer: Nicole Holofcener; Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack, Simon McBurney, Jason Isaacs, Scott Caan, Ty Burrell, Bob Stephenson, Greg Germann, Romy Rosemont, Tim Sharp, Hailey Noelle Johnson, Jenn Fee, Jake Cherry, Marin Hinkle)
The effect money has on the friendship of four women.
Opening night gala. World Premiere
The Illusionist
(Country: Czech Republic/US; Year: 2006; Director: Neil Burger; Writer: Neil Burger, based on a short story by Steven Millhauser; Stars: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell, Edward Marsan, Jake Wood, Tom Fisher, Aaron Johnson, Eleanor Tomlinson, Karl Johnson)
A dangerous love story infused by the magic of assumed reality.
World Premiere
Kinky Boots
(Country: UK; Year: 2005; Director: Julian Jarrold; Writer: Geoff Deane, Tim Firth; Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton, Nick Frost, Sarah Jane Potts, Jemima Rooper, Linda Bassett)
Shoemaker opts for drastic footwear design in a bid save family business.
North American Premiere
A Little Trip To Heaven
(Country: US, Iceland; Year: 2005; Director: Baltasar Kormakur; Writer: Baltasar Kormakur; Stars: Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles, Jeremy Renner, Peter Coyote, Alfred Harmsworth)
An insurance investigator probes the suspicious death of a conman whose sister and dodgy hubby inherit $1million after his demise.
US Premiere
Little Miss Sunshine
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris; Writer: Michael Arndt; Stars: Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Marc Turtletaub, Beth Grant, Jill Talley, Brenda Canela)
A dysfunctional family's road trip to a beauty pageant.
World Premiere
The Science Of Sleep and The Secret Life Of Words
Lucky Number Slevin
(Country: Germany, US; Year: 2006; Director: Paul McGuigan; Writer: Jason Smilovic; Stars: Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Michael Rubenfeld, Peter Outerbridge, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Chamberlin, Dorian Missick, Mykelti Williamson)
A case of mistaken identity in a fast-paced gangster milieu.
World Premiere
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Jonathan Demme; Stars: Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Ben Keith, Spooner Oldham, Rick Rosas, Karl T. Himmel, Chad Cromwell, Wayne Jackson, Pegi Young, Grant Boatwright, Diana DeWitt)
World Premiere
Film shot over a two-night performance by Young in Nashville.
The Night Listener
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Patrick Stettner; Writer: Armistead Maupin, Terry Anderson, Patrick Stettner; Stars: Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Joe Morton, Bobby Cannavale, Rory Culkin, Sandra Oh)
A radio show host is drawn into a mystery surrounding a dying boy.
World Premiere
The Secret Life Of Words (La Vida Secreta De Las Palabras)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2005; Director: Isabel Coixet; Writer: Isabel Coixet; Stars: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, Julie Christie, Javier Cámara, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Steven Mackintosh, Eddie Marsan)
A friendship evolves between a volunteer nurse on an oil rig and a burn victim.
North American Premiere
The Science Of Sleep (La Science Des Rêves)
(Country: France/Italy; Year: 2006; Director: Michel Gondry; Writer: Michel Gondry; Stars: Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat, Miou-Miou, Pierre Vaneck, Emma de Caunes, Aurélia Petit, Sacha Bourdo, Stéphane Metzger, Alain de Moyencourt, Inigo Lezzi)
A man's mind goes into over-drive as he tries to woo the woman of his dreams.
World Premiere
Kinky Boots and Little Miss Sunshine
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Kirby Dick; Writer: Kirby Dick, Eddie Schmidt)
An exposé about the US film ratings board.
World Premiere
Thank You For Smoking
(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Jason Reitman; Writer: Jason Reitman, based on the novel by Christopher Buckley; Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, David Koechner, Rob Lowe, William H Macy, JK Simmons, Robert Duvall, Kim Dickens)
Satire on smoking and spin.
US Premiere
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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