Sundance Film Festival announced selections for 2014 Premieres

Yesterday, The Sundance Film Festival announced its 30^th anniversary lineup of premieres for 2014. The 17 films, both features and documentaries, will include new projects from stars like Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd and Michael Fassbender, among many others.

Frank is one of the films that features Fassbender and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a comedy about an avant-garde rock band. Poehler and Rudd will appear in David Wain's satirical romantic comedy called They Came Together. Poehler's Parks and Recreation costar Nick Offerman will also appear in a piece that looks at his popular one-man show, particular at New York City's Town Hall. David Cross takes the role of writer and director for a film about delusional dreamers living in upstate New York called Hits.

It's nice to see some promising comedies in the mix for the festival, but as expected there are some more poignant dramas thrown in as well. Ryan Reynolds stars in a film directed by Marjane Satrapi called The Voices, which tells the story of a disturbed factory work who interacts with an evil talking cat. William H. Macy, in his directorial debut, shares the story of a man who starts a rock band after finding a box of his deceased son's music in Rudderless.

Documentary choices for the festival include a story about student activists in Mississipi in 1964 called Freedom Summer. Other choices include a film about Roger Ebert, the Penn State pedophilia scandal, Mitt Romney's presidential run and a film about George Takai.

On the Sundance website, festival director John Cooper shared a bit about the process of choosing films and how it has changed over the years. "We've seen independent film become a very vital part of the cultural landscape," Cooper said. "It's become an accepted art form, an accepted form of creative expression. These factors and others are improving the quality and originality of work being made in independent film, and that made our selection process this year particularly rigorous." 

Variety has the full list of premiere films with brief descriptions.