Comic-book movie triumphs at Sundance
American Splendor, a biopic of the comic-book author Harvey Pekar, scooped the grand jury prize at the Sundance film festival, which wrapped up yesterday.
Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, the film was acclaimed for its blend of live action, animation and documentary footage. Paul (Storytelling) Giamatti stars as the true-life American eccentric who has been dubbed "the Lenny Bruce of comics" by critics.
The other big winner at the festival was Tom McCarthy's magic-realist drama The Station Agent, about a dwarf who takes up residence in a disused New Jersey train depot. The picture won the audience award and also caught the attention of visiting buyers from Miramax, who snapped up the rights for an impressive $1.5m (just over £900,000).
The prize for best documentary went to Andrew Jarecki's Capturing the Friedmans, studying the stresses put on a Long Island family when the husband is accused of child abuse. Elsewhere, Catherine Hardwicke was named best director for her rites-of-passage drama Thirteen.
Meanwhile, the festival's tumult of off-screen controversy came courtesy of Britney Spears, visiting Sundance in order to furnish her movie credentials. According to reports, however, the songbird succeeded only in enraging Sundance boss Robert Redford.
During her attendance of a screening of the Holly Hunter picture, Levity, Britney and her entourage apparently chattered loudly throughout the film and fielded frequent calls on their mobile phones. Eventually they left, en masse, long before the final credits. An eyewitness observed Redford's disgusted response: "If looks could kill, Britney would be the deadest pop star in the world."