The 2008 Sundance Film Festival today announced its full line-up of films in competition at the festival, which runs from January 17 - January 27, 2008 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Sundance and Ogden, Utah. 121 feature-length films were selected from the 3,624 submissions, with roughly 55% of those coming from the United States. Some of the highlights including new documentaries about Patti Smith, Roman Polanski and Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (the latter by Alex Gibney, who directed "Enron: The Smartest Men in the Room"). Some of the dramatic features of interest include "Sugar", a new movie from the "Half Nelson" directing duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Clark Gregg's adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke" starring Sam Rockwell, Rawson Marshall Thurber's adaptation of Michael Chabon's "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and many films from first-time filmmakers, including a number with big stars like Amy Adams, Maria Bello, Ben Kingsley, Sienna Miller and others, all of whom should be up in Park City for the festival.

The complete press release from the festival including the complete list of movies in competition follows the jump.

My original predictions are here in case you want to compare them. Not too many changes since last time, as I've only seen a few more contenders, but there was a pretty major shake-up going on in the actress category when it was rumored that Cate Blanchett was being moved to the Lead Actress category, taking her away from being the frontrunner in the supporting category. That rumor was squashed in less than 24 hours.

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Still a tough race to predict without having seen a few key movies that won't screen until later this week and next week, but I do think there are at least three of the five movies I picked that will find enough dedicated fans to keep them going through the long haul. Right now, I can't say there's any sort of frontrunner and those last two slots are likely to change on a weekly basis, but Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has been finding many fans, maybe enough to move into that fourth slot, and it's very much the type of Oscar fare that's done very well at the awards despite being in another language.

The Kite Runner (Paramount Vantage)
Atonement (Focus)
No Country for Old Men (Miramax)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax)
American Gangster (Universal)

Alts: 3:10 to Yuma, Sweeney Todd, Into the Wild, Once, Charlie Wilson's War

About a month ago, we posted Part 1 of a very lengthy and verbose overview of some of the movies vying for awards that have been released earlier this year or have been playing festivals. Something happened along the way where the second part, which was supposed to come out a week later, got delayed to the point where some of the movies "being released soon" have actually come out already, plus there were also two major oversights left out of our festival coverage which will be covered here.

To wrap things up, at least for now, we'll take a look at the movies that are either in theatres now or coming out soon, plus a few that have not been seen by that many people yet that either will surprise or disappoint if they don't live up to their lofty expectations.

But first, check out our updated predictions.

Greetings and welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly guide to the weekend's new movies, where we're just barely recovering from the always rough Thanksgiving weekend. Thankfully, there's only one new movie in wide release this weekend, a rarity in this day and age. That movie is Joby Harold's medical thriller Awake (MGM/The Weinstein Company), starring Hayden Christiansen and Jessica Alba. Although it might offer a bit of morbid curiosity to a handful of moviegoers looking for something new to see this weekend, the generally vapid weekend after Thanksgiving won't have very much thriving business to offer, and it's likely to be struck by the same ennui that most post-Thanksgiving openers receive. It won't help that it's likely to be overshadowed by last week's big hits like Disney's Enchanted and Sony/Screen Gems' This Christmas, both which should sustain their positions despite expectedly large post-holiday drops.

This Week's Predictions -

1. Enchanted (Disney) - $17.5 million -50%

2. This Christmas (Sony/Screen Gems) - $8.8 million -51%

3. Beowulf (Paramount) - $8.5 million - 48%

4. Awake (The Weinstein Company) - $7.2 million N/A

5. Hitman (20th Century Fox) - $5.8 million -55%

6. Bee Movie (DreamWorks) - $5.5 million -53%

7. Fred Claus (Warner Bros.) - $5.1 million -52%

8. No Country for Old Men (Miramax) - $5.0 million -38%

9. American Gangster (Universal) - $4.9 million -45%

10. August Rush (Warner Bros.) - $4.7 million -51%

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

Two new movies dominated the Thanksgiving weekend, bringing in more business than the other new movies combined: Disney's Enchanted, a combination of animation and live action starring Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey, and Sony/Screen Gems' ensemble holiday film This Christmas.

While Enchanted went into the weekend as the projected victor by opening in over 3,600 theaters, its estimated five-day take of $50 million surpassed most expectations, as it becomes the second-highest grossing movie to open over Thanksgiving weekend after Disney's own Toy Story 2 in 1999. The fantasy-comedy opened with over $8 million on Wednesday, itself the second-highest gross for the day before Thanksgiving, and after grossing another $6.5 million on Thursday, it would go onto make $35.5 million over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, the sixth largest amount grossed in that time frame.

This Christmas opened in the fewest theaters of the new openers, just over 1800, yet it claimed the largest per-theatre average in the top 10, averaging over $10,000 in the three days, compared to Enchanted's $9,472, to bring in $27.1 million in its first five days and $18.6 million over the three-day weekend, a definitive second place win.

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, where we're getting our predictions in by the skin of our teeth!

The year is almost over but Thanksgiving weekend starts another distinct phase of the holiday season where studios start putting their best foot forward in hopes of their movies sticking around through Christmas and New Year's where a lot of money can be made. Of course, this doesn't always happen since most people have five completely free days to see any of the new movies in theatres they may want to see, which tends to make the Thanksgiving releases more frontloaded than normal. Thanksgiving weekend is also a great time for those who don't go to movies often to get the whole family together and catch up on movies they may have missed.

While that will certainly help movies like Bee Movie and Fred Claus this weekend, it seems very likely that Disney's latest family film, Enchanted, a combination live action and animated movie starring Amy Adams… (we'll take a pause here to swoon)… will take advantage of how long the other two movies have already been in theatres to offer holiday shoppers, particularly families with small children and young girls, an obvious choice this weekend. It won't hurt either that it's opening in significantly more theatres than any of the other new movies this weekend.

Still, the most interesting battle of the weekend will likely be between the R-rated "adult movies", both of which may be the first choice among teen and older males, couples without kids and the non-family crowd, even as they also will both have to compete with the huge buzz backing the Coen Brothers' long-awaited No Country for Old Men which will expand nationwide on Wednesday. Thanksgiving weekend has rarely been a good weekend to release a non-family movie with only a few exceptions, and having three potentially strong movies each with their own draw could essentially dilute the market keeping any of them from having as big an opening as they may have in other weekends.

Luc Besson took the popular video game Hitman (20th Century Fox) and turned it into an action vehicle for Timothy Olyphant (Live Free or Die Hard), which will hope to entice the younger male fanbase of the games, but it's likely that Frank Darabont's latest movie Stephen King's The Mist (Dimension Films), which has generated a lot of early buzz, will win out over the weekend merely because it will have more appeal to older audiences and women. Either way, both movies might be hurt by the presence of the other, and Hitman is likely to do a lot of its business on Wednesday and Thursday and not so much over the weekend.

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, where we're slightly humiliated by how poorly all of last weekend's movies did compared to our predictions, but we're right back on the proverbial horse with the pre-Thanksgiving weekend which has always seen a boost in the box office. With that in mind, Robert Zemeckis' third animated film to use performance capture technology (Paramount), featuring the likes of Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins donning the blue sensored pajamas, should have a fairly decent opening helped by a simultaneous release into IMAX and 3D venues. Unlike most other animated movies, this is a PG-13 movie for the teen and older adults who'll be familiar with the epic poem or just want to get some needed action and adventure to kick off their holiday season, but it will probably skew more male just by its nature.

Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman try their hands at kiddie fare in Zach Helm's Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (Fox Walden), a wacky G-Rated fantasy that should be a strong draw for the youngest kids looking for pretty colors and magical toys in the weeks before Santa comes, though parents might be turned off by what looks like another movie starring a decent actor acting annoying ala Mike Myers in The Cat in the Hat.

Hoping to find some of the coveted Oprah Book Club audience, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera (New Line) is brought to the big screen by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) with Spanish star Javier Bardem, and though it should be a strong draw for Latin audiences, the fact it's not in Spanish might be considered sacrilege, and it might prove to have been better as a limited release even with a moderate theatre count. One should expect Javier Bardem's other movie No Country for Old Men (Miramax) from the Coen Brothers to make its first appearance in the top 10 and depending on how many theatres it expands into, it stands a good chance to beat Love in the Time of Cholera despite being in significantly fewer theatres.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

There was a shake-up in the Top 2 films at the box office, but it didn't come in the form of either of the star-studded debuts, as both Fred Claus (Warner Bros.) starring Vince Vaughn and Lions for Lambs (United Artists) starring Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep failed to beat either of last week's big openers. And yet, this weekend, the top spot went to DreamWorks' animated Bee Movie, which moved into the #1 position with an estimated $26 million. Its $72 million gross is still a long way from its $150 million production budget, but it brings it closer to the $80 million made by Ridley Scott's American Gangster (Universal) after ten days, as it dropped 44% with $24.3 million in its second weekend.

The family holiday comedy Fred Claus underperformed with $19.2 million in 3,603 theatres, settling for third, although the holiday themes guarantee that it will maintain strong business over the next month and a half.

Tom Cruise and Robert Redford teamed for the political drama Lions for Lambs (United Artists) but their combined star power with that of Meryl Streep failed to make more than $6.7 million in 2,215 theatres as it opened in fourth place.

My pal Gitesh at Box Office Guru was nice enough to remind me that Monday is Veteran's Day, which means no school and less of a drop for the family and kids movies on Sunday. That and an enhanced theatre count of over 3,600 for Warner Bros.' Fred Clause means that it's likely to make closer than $30 million, although it's still going to be splitting up a lot of its potential family business with DreamWorks' Bee Movie and will be relying more on the obligatory holiday film legs. The other two new movies, both opening in less than 2,300 theatres, will end up closer to the middle and bottom of the Top 10 with very specific audiences and not nearly the marketing budget for Fred Claus.

This Week's Predictions -

1. Fred Claus (Warner Bros.) - $28.6 million N/A (up $1.4 million)

2. American Gangster (Universal) - $23.0 million -47% (up .3 million)

3. Bee Movie (DreamWorks/Paramount) - $22.6 million -41% (up .5 million)

4. Lions for Lambs (United Artists/MGM) - $10.2 million N/A (same)

5. Dan in Real Life (Disney/Touchstone) - $5.2 million - 34% (down .1)

6. Saw IV (Lionsgate) - $5.0 million -52% (same)

7. P2 (Summit Entertainment) - $2.8 million N/A (up .1 million)

8. The Game Plan (Disney) - $2.4 million – 38% (down .1 million)

9. After Dark Horrorfest 2007 (After Dark Films) - $2.1 million N/A (same)

10. Martian Child (New Line) - $2.0 million (same)

After an amazing kick off to November and the holiday movie season, we get the first actual holiday movie of the season, the first of many actually, and that is the Warner Bros. holiday comedy Fred Claus (Warner Bros.), which will have to take on DreamWorks' Bee Movie for the family audiences in its second weekend, though it should still come out in the lead thanks to the draw of its stars Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti and the general desire around this time of year to start thinking about the holidays and everything they represent.

The political war drama Lions for Lambs (United Artists/MGM) has the benefits of a strong cast including box office superstar (and co-producer) Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, and that should keep it suffering a similar fate as New Line's recent global thriller bomb Rendition, though the nature of the movie might polarize audiences too much to do much business in the Red States, even as it does well in major cities from those who've already seen Ridley Scott's American Gangster.

Hoping to find a few horror fans weeks after Halloween with movies like Saw IV and 30 Days of Night starting to trail off, new indie distributor Summit Entertainment releases the thriller P2 produced by The Hills Have Eyes' Alexandre Aja, but to many, it will look a bit too much like the After Dark bomb Captivity and it'll have to compete with that distributor's annual After Dark Horrorfest 2007, which will be just as much or more of a draw to horror fans even though the fest can only be seen in 330 theatres nationwide. Expect there to be a bit of a logjam at the bottom of the top 10 between the horror fest, last week's Martian Child and the vampire flick 30 Days of Night.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

Going into the weekend, two new movies were vying for $40 million opening, mirroring last year when George Miller's Happy Feet took on the James Bond relaunch Casino Royale. This weekend, director Ridley Scott's R-rated crime drama American Gangster (Universal) proved that putting two bonafide box office stars into a movie with a strong premise can get a lot of people into theatres, and Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe helped American Gangster win the weekend over DreamWorks' animated Bee Movie from the mind of Jerry Seinfeld, which had to settle for second place despite opening in 900 more theatres.

After an impressive opening day of nearly $16 million, American Gangster grossed an estimated $46.3 million over the weekend, averaging more than $15,000 per theatre, while Bee Movie didn't quite make its projected $40 million, instead averaging less than $10,000 in 3,928 theatres to gross $39.1 million its opening weekend. American Gangster becomes the biggest opening movie for both Washington and Crowe, as well as the second highest opening movie for Scott after the 2001 Silence of the Lambs sequel, Hannibal.

Call me crazy but despite the flack I got earlier in the week for what some considered a high prediction for Ridley Scott's American Gangster, and even though the actual theatre count is 100 less than my earlier projection, I still think that the movie is going to be seen as the kind of must-see event movie that far surpasses expectations. The only thing keeping me from making a prediction in the $50 - 60 million range ala 8 Mile really is the running time and the piracy issue. I personally don't feel that saying Denzel Washington movies only makes so much money is a viable argument because his movies do make a lot because he's popular and put him in a crime drama ala The Departed can only appeal to an even larger audience.

DreamWorks' animated Bee Movie is also getting about 200 more theatres than I projected, so I've increased my prediction of that to just over $40 million, although I don't think it will be strong enough to withstand the coming movies. Either way, we have two guaranteed $100 million movies opening this weekend, the first since the summer.

New Line's drama Martian Child still isn't looking very strong and with even fewer theatres than projected, $5 million might be a struggle.

Updated Predictions -

1. American Gangster (Universal) - $45.1 million N/A (up $2.7 million!)

2. Bee Movie (DreamWorks/Paramount) - $40.3 million N/A (up $1.6 million!)

3. Saw IV (Lionsgate) - $13.8 million -57% (down .2 million)

4. Dan in Real Life (Disney/Touchstone) - $7.5 million -37% (up .1 million)

5. Martian Child (New Line) - $4.9 million N/A (down .4 million)

6. The Game Plan (Disney) - $3.6 million -43% (up .1 million)

7. 30 Days of Night (Sony) - $3.2 million -53% (same)

8. Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.) - $3.1 million -37% (same)

9. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? (Lionsgate) - $2.9 million -48% (same)

10. Gone Baby Gone (Miramax) - $2.4 million -38% (same)

After the jump, you can read a brief preview of next week's column.

In past years, I've waited until mid-December to post the Oscar Warrior's first predictions even though I've played around with the various categories much earlier, but I'm feeling a bit more confident this year even though there are still a few movies I haven't seen. Here's how things are shaping up so far in terms of the nominations (listed in no particular order):

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Still a tough race to predict without having seen a few key movies that won't screen until next month, but I do think there are at least three of the five movies I picked that will find enough dedicated fans to make it through the long haul.

The Kite Runner (Paramount Vantage)
Atonement (Focus)
No Country for Old Men (Miramax)
Into the Wild (Paramount Vantage)
3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate)

Alts: Sweeney Todd, Charlie Wilson's War, There Will Be Blood, American Gangster