AfghanStar Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While much of the indie film community has been focused on SXSW, everyone else kept busy making deals, programming festivals, and releasing trailers. Indie Roundup presents an overview of what's been happening during the past week.

Indies Online. Our friends at SnagFilms announced a deal to provide a portion of of their library to Hulu for online distribution. Best known for offering free clips and TV episodes, Hulu is launching a new documentary film section. The SnagFilms library now features 600 docs available for free streaming. Both services remain US only, which I know is frustrating for our readers in Canada and the rest of the world. However, both services intend to expand to international streaming, which can't come soon enough to really expand the online audience for docs.

Deals. Emma Franz's Intangible Asset #82, which is playing at SXSW, and Ben Addelman and Samar Mallal's Nollywood Babylon, which played at Toronto and Sundance, were both acquired by Fox Lorber HT. Both docs will receive theatrical releases in the second quarter of 2009. [indieWIRE] Senator Entertainment picked up rights to Shana Feste's drama The Greatest, starring Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, and Carey Mulligan. No specific release plans were announced. [indieWIRE] Havana Marking's Afghan Star will arrive in theaters this summer, thanks to Zeitgeist, which acquired rights to the Sundance Audience Award winner. The doc looks at a very popular local version of American Idol in Afghanistan. [indieWIRE]

Box Office. Christine Jeffs' Sunshine Cleaning scored an amazing $54,798 per-screen average at the four theaters in New York and Los Angeles where it opened.

After the jump: Why did Sunshine Cleaning open so well? Plus: the Cleveland International Film Festival opens.

Above: An image from Sin Nombre (click below to enlarge)

In a little under a month from now, Cinematical will once again invade the Sundance Film Festival looking to bring back word on what's shaping up to be a pretty fantastic slate of new movies. But why wait until then to begin exploring some of these flicks -- consider us your one-stop-shop before, during and after the Sundance Film Festival for news, reviews, interviews, images, trailers, clips and posters. Click here for all our Sundance coverage.

Above you will see a brand new image from the buzzed-about dramatic thriller Sin Nombre, directed by the very talented Cary Joji Fukunaga. I've watched at least one of Cary's short films and he's definitely an emerging director who I know we'll see plenty from in the future (trust me -- remember that name). From the Sundance site: "A social-political thriller in the tradition of American film noir, Sin Nombre is set on the border, where Mexico becomes the crucible and the fearsome gangs of today's Mexican countryside, the gauntlet, to freedom. The stories of Sayra, a teenager living in Honduras and hungering for a brighter future, and teen gang members Smiley and Casper, for whom the Mara Salvatrucha is nearly their entire universe, become interlaced on the train to the border, a journey that will determine the future of their lives." Sin Nombre is screening in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section.

Cinematical's coverage of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival is already well underway, as we'll be highlighting a number of films (via images, clips, trailers and posters) for the next month leading up to the festival. This way it gives you at home a chance to become more familiar with the films, to pick and choose your favorites, and then let us know which ones you'd like to see covered here on the site. So, please, feel free to leave comments and help shape our coverage.

Today we have something real cool for you. Cinematical reader DJ S. pieced together this list of available trailers for a whole bunch of Sundance films. Check out the playlist below, then head after the jump for more info on each film. (And yes, we've covered a couple of these before, so please excuse the repeats.) The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 15 through January 25, 2009 in Park City, Utah. For more of Cinematical's Sundance coverage (including a complete list of films screening), go here.