Sundance to Run 73 Shorts

Sundance Film Festival 2006 plans to screen 73 short films in three categories: dramtic, doc, adn animated. They were culled from 4,327 submissions to the festival. This year it runs from Jan. 19-29 in Utah.

Starting Jan. 19, you can also view all of the shorts at teh Sundance online Film Festival at www.sundance.org, and you better believe we'll be reviewing the lot of them, even if I have to pay some additional reviewers cold, hard cash.

The shorts include 42 from the U.S., and 31 from 17 other countries.

Festival Director of Programming John Cooper said, "Short films have always had an important role in cinema and at the Sundance Film Festival. As the tools required to create films have become more accessible, new voices have emerged, and short films are a place to discover some of the most creative and challenging work being done today."

Here's our first list of the Sundance short films:

U.S. SHORT FILMS

Dramatic Shorts

Bugcrush (Director: Carter Smith) -- A small-town high school loner, whose fascination with a dangerously seductive new kid leads him into something much more sinister than he could ever have imagined.

Common Practice (Director: Marcos Efron) -- A young Mexican-American boy in East L.A. whose gift for playing the violin brings his community together.

Dealbreaker (Director: Gwyneth Paltrow and Mary Wigmore) -- A down to earth New Yorker, who is finally able to look past superficial flaws when she finds the right man.

The Debt / USA/Republic of Georgia (Director: Levan Koguashvili) -- Two illegal Georgian immigrants from the former Soviet Union fight for their survival in the streets of Brooklyn, New York.

Divorce Lemonade (Director: Justin Hayward) -- A 13-year-old girl covers for her drunk estranged father.

First Date (Director: Gary Huggins) -- A volatile ex-con will stop at nothing to keep a date with the underage boy he met online.

Fourteen (Director: Nicole Barnette) -- A Mormon girl turns fourteen and her life changes radically.

Gesture Down/I Don't Sing /USA/Mexico (Director: Cedar Sherbert)--A graceful and personal adaptation of the poem "Gesture Down to Guatemala" by the late Native American writer James Welch.

Ha Ha Ha America (Director: Jon Daniel Ligon) -- From China, a translated harangue laughs at the missteps of the USA.

Hello, Thanks (Director: Andrew Blubaugh) -- Filmmaker Andy Blubaugh's year in the personal ads, looking for love but having his true love affair with the words themselves.

Hold Up (Director: Madeleine Olnek) -- A robber who is after more than the money at a corner-store hold up.

La Muerte Es Pequena / USA/Brazil (Director: Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa) -- Two strangers looking for apartments end up alone in the same unit, where personal philosophies and bodies collide.

Lighten Up (Director: John Viener) -- A man deals with becoming a father while driving his friend to the doctor.

Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf (Director: Susan Youssef)--An Arab-American girl who must come to terms with her sexuality while balancing the mores of two different cultures.

Max and Josh (Director: Kathryn Ann Busby) -- Best friends Max and Josh have inane, insane and hilarious arguments, until fate intervenes.

Momma's Boy (Director: John Bryant) -- A young man brings his fiance home for Thanksgiving dinner - bad things happen.

One Sung Hero (Director: Samantha Kurtzman-Counter) -- A 34-year-old copy machine salesperson (by day) who has found her true calling as a Karaoke Missionary.

The Pity Card (Director: Bob Odenkirk) -- Is the best place for a first date really the Holocaust Museum?

Redemptitude (Director: David Zellner) -- A preacher ventures deep into the Australian Outback to save the soul of a man who's abandoned his faith.

Robin's Big Date (Director: James Duffy) -- Can the Boy Wonder tell the girl of his dreams how he feels about her? Not if The Bat-man has anything to say about it.

Transaction (Director: Jacques Thelemaque) -- A cinema verite-style exploration of the shifting dynamic between a seasoned call girl and her first-time client.

You Turned Back And Held My Hand (Director: Gabriela Tollman) -- When do we know the difference between love and sex?

Your Dark Hair Ihsan / USA/Mexico (Director: Tala Hadid) -- A man returns from Europe to his natal city in Northern Africa, and remembers his childhood and the mother he lost as a child.