Sundance woos world's budding filmmakers

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - When Amin Matalqa made his first feature film in his native Jordan, he got some local attention, but when his "Captain Abu Raed" earned a spot at the Sundance Film Festival, the director saw his ticket into U.S. movie theaters.

Matalqa's first feature, about an airport janitor who fuels a group of kids' dreams for a better life by pretending to be a pilot, is one of the 16 films in Sundance's World Cinema competition for dramatic films chosen from more than 1,600 submissions.

"There are only a few places where you can go and make that bridge to the next level, and Sundance is definitely one of them," Matalqa, 31, told Reuters. "Everyone is there."

Sundance is the premiere U.S. independent film festival for up-and-coming filmmakers working outside Hollywood's studios. Four years ago, event organizers launched a competition for foreign filmmakers to give the festival a greater global scope and spotlight world cinema for U.S. audiences.

"Sundance has been a place for showcasing new American independent film, but one of the things we are proudest of has been our focus on international film," said Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore at this week's opening.

One of the recent success stories of this outward reach is low-budget Irish music film "Once," which competed here last year, won an audience award, and has raked in nearly $10 million at U.S. box offices, or almost twice its overseas haul.

At the 2008 festival, which runs from January 17-27 in the western U.S. ski resort of Park City, films from 35 countries will play, both in and out of competition.

"We are attracting really exciting films to this competition," said senior programmer Caroline Libresco. "Each film stands on its own and reflects a director who we think the American film industry will be delighted to be introduced to."

CROSSING BORDERS

This year, Sundance audiences will see a rare feature from Panama, "The Wind and the Water," which looks at an indigenous population and how youth cope with encroaching development.

Middle East countries earned the spotlight with a large contingent of films and two competition entries depicting events from the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.

Israel's "Strangers" tells of an impossible love between an Israeli kibbutznik and a Palestinian in Europe, and Lebanon's "Under the Bombs" traces a woman's journey as she searches for a missing sister and son.

Far more peaceful is "Megane," a minimalist and quiet Japanese film of women seeking balance on a beautiful beach.

Typically Sundance organizers distance themselves from the market aspects of a film festival, but for the first time this year, the festival has organized a meeting between foreign filmmakers and 25 U.S. film distributors to help open North American theater doors for world cinema.

Buyers may pick up a film or remake rights, or find a director to work with in the future.

"We are not pretending to be the Berlin Film Festival or Cannes," said Libresco, noting two of the top global events where industry executives gather to buy and sell movie rights.

"What can we can offer these filmmakers is a rapt American industry audience," she said.

For Matalqa, the exposure has already worked. "As soon as it was announced we were in Sundance, we got inquiries from everyone and their brothers, all the major players," he said.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Vicki Allen)