Winona Ryder, Nolte to compete at Sundance

updated 6:12 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Films featuring Winona Ryder, Nick Nolte, Anjelica Huston and Paul Giamatti will be among those competing for top honors at the Sundance Film Festival.

The lineup announced Tuesday for Sundance, the nation’s main showcase for independent film, also included documentaries on writer Hunter S. Thompson, musician Patti Smith and filmmakers Roman Polanski and Derek Jarman.

Taking place Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Utah, Sundance has chosen 16 films in its dramatic competition for American fictional films, including director Geoff Haley’s “The Last Word,” starring Ryder, Wes Bentley and Ray Romano in a romance about a reclusive writer who crafts suicide notes for other people.

Also competing in a lineup heavy on tales of families at odds: Rawson Thurber’s “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” with Nolte, Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard and Jon Foster in the story of a young man with a gangster father who embarks on a soul-searching summer after college; Clark Gregg’s “Choke” with Huston and Sam Rockwell in a mother-and-son tale; and Paul Schneider’s “Pretty Bird” with Giamatti and Billy Crudup in a dark comic narrative of entrepreneurs trying to invent a rocket belt.

Another entry in the U.S. dramatic competition: Christine Jeffs’ “Sunshine Cleaning,” the story of an enterprising mother and her reluctant sister who try their hand at the crime-scene cleanup business. It stars Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin and Amy Redford, daughter of Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford.

Slideshow   The week in celebrity sightings Lindsay Lohan steps into the light for an event in West Hollywood, Eva Longoria is honored by Latino organization, Kelly Osbourne is on time and more. more photos

The 16 documentaries in the U.S. competition feature Alex Gibney’s “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” a portrait of the iconoclastic writer known for a bottomless narcotics appetite; “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” Marina Zenovich’s examination of the Academy Award-winning director of “The Pianist” and “Chinatown” who fled the United States in 1978 over child-sex charges; and “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” Steven Sebring’s study of the music icon who rose to fame in the 1970s.

The world-documentary competition for films from outside the United States includes Isaac Julien’s “Derek Jarman,” a look at the work of the British experimental filmmaker.

Other Sundance documentaries include Edet Belzberg’s “An American Soldier,” which examines U.S. Army recruitment tactics; Patrick Creadon’s “I.O.U.S.A.,” an exploration of America’s fiscal straits; and Jackie Reem Salloum’s “Slingshot Hip Hop,” a chronicle of Palestinians using protest rap in the struggle with Israel.

MORE FROM MOVIES

Movies Section Front

Doom spells dollars at box office for ‘2012’ Bacall, Corman receive early Oscars   ‘Mormon Proposition’ looks at Prop. 8 debate ‘Gidget’ director Paul Wendkos dies at age 84 There’s no saving campy ‘Women In Trouble’ End is near as Hollywood does the apocalypse 10 failed doomsday predictions Enter the world of ‘Twilight’ & ‘New Moon’ Disney’s first black princess: So what, kids say Film honors defense attorney William Kunstler Movies Section Front   Add Movies headlines to your news reader: