Sundance Fest Has Shorts List For Competition

A total of 86 short films from 3,389 submissions have been selected to screen at next month's Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

Some of those films — 53 of which are American — will compete for a new jury prize in international short filmmaking introduced for the 2004 fest. International short films less than 30 minutes are eligible for the prize. American short films of less than 30 minutes are eligible for a jury prize in American Short Filmmaking.

Notable entries in the short categories include Andrew Jarecki's "Just a Clown," David LaChappelle's "Krumped," Guinevere Turner's "Hummer," Hank Azaria's "Nobody's Perfect," Bryan Buckley's "Krug," Chris Hinton's "Nibbles," Larry Kennar's "Spokane," Ilya Chaiken's "100 Lovers of Jesus Reynolds" and Sherman Alexie's "49?"

Narrative and documentary short films will be presented before a feature-length film, while others will be seen as part of a Short Film Program (in the Frontier category) and in the Native Forum.

"As a whole, the festival's commitment to international films is continuing to evolve and expand, and we're thrilled to introduce the Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking for the first time," Sundance senior programmer Trevor Groth said. "This year, a staggering number of short films from all over the world were submitted — indicating that the short form is gaining recognition and momentum."

The festival runs Jan. 15-25. A complete list of the 2004 Sundance entries can be found at www.sundance.org.