Sundance Film Festival unveils its 2010 lineup

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival will boast documentary features about world leaders, terrorists and soldiers, profiles of well-known artists and comedians, as well as other nonfiction and dramatic films with big-name actors.

On Wednesday, the festival announced the slate of 64 films that will play in its dramatic and documentary competitions, which include both United States and World Cinema categories. (The more star-studded premiere films and other, non-competition features will be unveiled Thursday.)

Highlights of the dramatic competition include "Welcome to the Rileys," an unconventional relationship drama; "Howl," a biographical piece about writer Allen Ginsberg; and a drama directed by actor Mark Ruffalo ("Sympathy for Delicious").

Those films star James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart, James Franco and Orlando Bloom, respectively.

Other dramatic-competition selections feature returning Sundance favorites America Ferrera ("The Dry Land"), Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Hesher"), and Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams ("Blue Valentine").

Documentary-competition features include new films by Sundance alums Amir Bar-Lev (an as-yet-untitled profile of slain athlete and soldier Pat Tillman), Jeffrey Blitz ("Lucky"), David Guggenheim ("Waiting for Superman") and Alex Gibney ("Casino Jack & The United States of Money").

Also, comedienne/talk show host Joan Rivers is profiled in "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child" looks at the untimely death of the artist, and Leon Gast's "Smash His Camera" spans the career of Ron Galella, the so-called "king" of the paparazzi.

Sundance's programming staff selected the slate of competition films from more than 3,700 submissions. Festival director John Cooper and director of programming Trevor Groth said the process was difficult, as always.

Cooper also said that the programming committee spent considerable time with the filmmakers this year and that programmers discovered "some incredible talent" in that process.

"This is an exciting festival that we hope will invigorate the independent film community," he said.

Competition films are eligible for both Grand Jury and audience-voted awards, in a variety of technical and other categories.