Sundance Announces the Finalists for Dramatic and Documentary Film Competitions

The Sundance Film Festival, the premiere gathering for independent cinema in the United States, has named the finalists for its 2002 dramatic and documentary film competitions with its usual, eclectic mix of new and familiar artists making the cut.

In the drama grouping, the list of 16 entrants includes the aptly titled “Bark,” directed by Kasia Adamik and starring Lisa Kudrow and Hank Azaria in a story about a man who must deal with a wife who suffers from the delusion she is a dog.

Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, returns to Sundance with “Personal Velocity,” starring Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk in a story about three women dealing with difficult romantic relationships.

Documentaries also feature a wide array of 16 films ranging from “Daughter From Danang,” by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco, about an Asian American woman who struggles to understand the ways of her Vietnamese mother, to “Miss America,” an account of the beauty pageant directed by Lisa Ades.

Festival spokesman R.J. Millard said the dramatic competition at Sundance 2002, which runs from Jan. 10 to 20 in the mountain town of Park City, Utah, features many films made on low-cost digital equipment and two movies by Asian filmmakers with all-Asian casts: “Face” and “Better Luck Tomorrow.”