The 2008 Sundance Film Festival is officially underway.

The 27th annual festival kicked off last night in Park City, Utah with the world premiere of “In Bruges,” a dark comedy starring Ralph Fiennes and Colin Farrell, and written by award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh.

But that’s just the beginning. Another 120 feature-length films will be screened during the 11-day festival, which showcases independent projects from all over the globe.

Twelve Canadian projects will be screened this year. Among the homegrown offerings are “Smile,” a short from past Sundance winner Julia Kwan, and “Madame Tutli-Putli,” an animated tale by artists Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.

Canadian documentaries in the festival include “Up the Yangtze” and “The Women of Brukman and Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma.”

Canadian actor Sandra Oh is one of the judges set to pick the 2008 Sundance award winners. Other judges include actor Diego Luna, and directors Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino.

Awards will be given to jury and crowd favourites on Jan. 26.






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