Aniston film to kick off 2006 Sundance fest

The January 2006 edition of the Sundance Film Festival will feature documentaries investigating election fraud and the Iraq war, as well as dramatic films that will bring a number of performers back to the festival — including Jennifer Aniston, Ashley Judd, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Paul Giamatti.

Sundance has unveiled the films scheduled to play in its various categories, from the dramatic, documentary and World Cinema competitions to the more star-studded premieres.

In addition to those mentioned above — and, of course, Sundance honcho Robert Redford — celebrities expected to attend the 10-day festival include Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange and musicians Justin Timberlake, Neil Young and the Beastie Boys, all promoting films that are among the 120 features to be shown during the event.

The festival will kick off with "Friends With Money," director Nicole Holofcener's ensemble comedy starring Aniston, Catherine Keener and Frances McDormand. The film will have its premiere on Jan. 19 in Park City's Egyptian Theatre. The next evening, in Salt Lake City's Rose Wagner Theater, director Julian Jarrold's "Kinky Boots" will make its U.S. premiere, a comedy starring Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Dirty Pretty Things," "Serenity").

For the first time, the festival will also feature a Closing Night Premiere — director Nick Cassavettes' "Alpha Dog," which stars Timberlake, Willis and Stone — which will be shown in Park City.

According to festival programming director John Cooper, all three films were among the easier selections and should be real crowd-pleasers. "I think sometimes people forget that one of the goals of the festival is to make sure our audiences have a good time," he said by phone from the Sundance Institute's Los Angeles offices.

Both "Friends With Money" and "Kinky Boots" are comedies, Cooper said, though they have "a real ring of truth to them. That's become a trademark of Sundance films."

Among the dramatic-competition selections is the drama "Come Early Morning," which marks the directing debut of actress Joey Lauren Adams (who starred in the 1997 festival hit "Chasing Amy"). That film stars Judd (who garnered some of her best reviews for her first starring role in the 1993 festival selection "Ruby in Paradise").

Gyllenhaal, who has had two festival successes — "Secretary" in 2002 and "Happy Endings," which was an opening-night premiere at this year's festival — is the star of the prison drama "SherryBaby," which is also in the dramatic competition.

Giamatti, who starred in "American Splendor" at Sundance in 2003, returns in the drama "Hawk is Dying."