Foreign fare at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival

With the 2009 Sundance Film Festival almost upon us, what are some of the most intriguing films that we should already be looking out for?

Quite frankly, with Sundance, it's almost anyone's guess. The reason being is that Sundance traditionally and, even now, for the most part is the major festival for new directors just starting to appear on the scene with their first or second films.

And this is exciting for discovering new talent; but it does make for some difficulty in deciding which unknown films to spend your time and money on.

Because the American premieres — as well as those English language films in the competition — are going to get more than their share of publicity, let's focus on two categories that have proven — and more and more over the last several years — to be among the most fascinating and eye-opening films at today's international film festivals: the Foreign Feature Film and the Foreign Documentary. (Think of titles like "Il Postino," "Live is Beautiful," and "Cinema Paradiso"— or "Fahrenheit 9/11," "March of the Penguins," and last year's stunning and not-to-be-missed "Man on Wire.")

In the foreign film category, which I personally always find exciting, a first-rate cast is one sign that a film might merit special attention—such as the new Mexican film "Rudo y Cursi," with the ubiquitous-and-always-in-demand Gale Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien," "Motorcycle Diaries," and "Babel") as well as Diego Luna (Sean Penn's partner in the current powerhouse, "Milk").

Also, the very timeliness of a subject is, of course, always a special draw — and the reason I wouldn't want to miss the new Middle Eastern film about the wife of a Palestinian prisoner searching for freedom, although the title alone would be enough to hook me: "Pomegranates and Myrhh."

A great fan of Liam Neeson, I wouldn't want to miss him in "Five Minutes of Heaven," in which two Irishmen from different sides of the ongoing political struggle come to grips with the fact that what has divided Ireland for so long is as potent today as ever.

And well-known French actress Nathalie Baye's latest film is "Cliente: A French Gigolo," in which she plays a woman whose fascination with having trysts with men she meets on the Internet results in a relationship far more complicated than she had bargained for.

In competition this year is the French-Canadian film, "Before Tomorrow," about a resourceful old woman and her young grandson fighting, against all odds, for survival in the Canadian arctic.

From China comes "Dada's Dance," concerning an adopted girl who escapes the advances of her mother's boyfriend to go in serch of her birth mother.