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LOS ANGELES - Ben Affleck, rapper 50 Cent, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" co-stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, and Canadians Sarah Polley, Kiefer Sutherland and Ryan Reynolds are taking their acts to the Sundance Film Festival.
They are among the stars of big-name premieres announced Thursday for Robert Redford's independent-film showcase that runs Jan. 21-31 in Park City, Utah.
Stewart and Fanning team up for Canadian director Floria Sigismondi's "The Runaways," a portrait of rocker Joan Jett as she formed her band in the 1970s.
Stewart also stars in the Sundance entry "Welcome to the Rileys," one of 16 films announced Wednesday for the festival's U.S. dramatic competition.
The festival's premieres section includes 13 films screening out of competition, among them "The Company Men," a corporate-downsizing tale starring Affleck, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello and Tommy Lee Jones. It was written and directed by Emmy-winning TV producer John Wells, whose credits include "The West Wing" and "ER."
50 Cent appears in the crime drama "Twelve," the closing night film with Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts and Sutherland from director Joel Schumacher ("Batman Forever," "The Phantom of the Opera").
Montreal's Elias Koteas appears in "The Killer Inside Me" alongside Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba.
Toronto author Naomi Klein is set to attend the fest in support of Michael Winterbottom's film, "Shock Doctrine," based on her book about how free-market policies promote crises for economic gain.
Katie Holmes joins John C. Reilly and Kevin Kline for the gigolo story "The Extra Man," directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, whose "American Splendor" won the grand jury prize for U.S. dramas at Sundance in 2003.
Canadians figure most prominently in the "Park City at Midnight" section, a showcase of horror and wild comedies.
They include the sci-fi horror film, "Splice," starring Polley and Adrien Brody, and helmed by "Cube" director Vincenzo Natali. The Canada/France co-production centres on young genetic engineers whose radical DNA experiments create startling new hybrids.
Also screening after dark is "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil," a U.K./Canada co-venture from director Eli Craig about redneck pals who are mistaken for killers and the Canadian horror "7 Days (Les 7 jours du Talion)," directed by Daniel Grou, about a doctor that sets out on a brutal plan to avenge his daughter's rape and murder.
Meanwhile, Reynolds stars in the Spain/USA co-production "Buried," about a U.S. contractor working in Iraq who awakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin and Shawn Ashmore and Kevin Zegers star in "Frozen" as skiers that are mistakenly stranded on a chairlift.
The documentary lineup features a daring entry for the festival that takes place in the heartland of the Mormon church. Reed Cowan's "8: The Mormon Proposition" examines the church's support of California's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage.
The world documentary category also includes Canada's "Last Train Home," directed by Lixin Fan, about a Chinese migrant family trying to get a train ticket that will reunite them with other relatives.
Among actors directing films are "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier, whose documentary "Teenage Paparazzo" premieres at Sundance. The film is an exploration of celebrity culture, inspired by a 13-year-old boy who snapped a photo of Grenier.
Philip Seymour Hoffman makes his directing debut with the Sundance premiere "Jack Goes Boating," in which he stars with Amy Ryan in a story of romance and betrayal involving two New York couples.
Alongside such Hollywood regulars, Sundance is adding a section called Next, featuring eight films shot on ultra low budgets of less than $500,000, mostly made by unknown filmmakers and actors.
"We're a discovery festival, but we're not just about the discovery of films. We're about the discovery of talent," said festival director John Cooper. "We wanted to make sure talent wasn't getting past us because they're working in a low-budget form."
Among the Next titles are Linas Phillips' "Bass Ackwards," following a man on a road trip after a bad relationship with a married woman; Sultan Sharrief's "Bilal's Stand," about a Muslim teen in Detroit coping with family strife while angling for a college scholarship; and Katie Aselton's "The Freebie," in which she stars with Dax Shepard in the tale of a married couple who decide to grant each other a one-night stand with someone else.
Canada's "Grown Up Movie Star," directed and written by Adriana Maggs, was one of 14 films chosen to compete in the international feature section. It's about a teenage girl determined to grow up fast after her mother runs away to become a movie star.
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On the Net: Sundance 2010, http://festival.sundance.org/2010
