The Wrap are reporting that Sony Pictures Classics is close to picking up the distribution rights to James Ponsoldt's Smashed, the Sundance dramedy starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an alcoholic schoolteacher trying to come to terms with her drinking problems.

The Sundance Film Festival has been over for a few days, and it's been another exciting week and a half for filmmakers, movie lovers and film writers alike as we get a taste of what's in store for the coming year. This year seemed to be much better for movies arriving at the festival looking for buyers, as according to our math, twenty-four movies were picked up for distribution during the festival proper and things certainly seemed far more positive and optimistic about the state of the industry.

That said, we saw roughly 32 films during the festival and nothing really affected us as much as last year's Incendies or Martha Marcy May Marlene, both which ended up in the Weekend Warrior's Top 10. Then again, maybe we were a bit warier of lavishing praise on the films we liked until we had a second chance to see them outside the normally-overenthusiastic festival environment.

ComingSoon.net talks to director Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil) about her new doc West of Memphis, produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, which takes a look at the case of the West Memphis 3 and new evidence discovered in the past ten years meant to fully exonerate them of the crimes they were accused of committing that put them in prison for 18 years.

Stephen Frear's Lay the Favorite, based on the memoir of the same name by Beth Raymer, has been bought by the Weinstein Company for a reported $2.2 million with plans to release it both theatrically and on VOD.

Continuing their string of Sundance pick-ups and bringing their number of purchases to four, Magnolia Pictures has acquired the U.S. distribution rights for Craig Zobel's Compliance and Ry Russo-Young's Nobody Walks as the 2012 Sundance Film Festival came to a close. Indiewire adds that Magnolia has picked up the distribution rights to Julie Delpy's comedy 2 Days in New York, her sequel to 2 Days in Paris, this one co-starring Chris Rock.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival announced the Jury, Audience, NEXT <=> and more at the festival's awards ceremony, hosted by Parker Posey, last night in Park City, Utah. Audience favorites included The Invisible War, The Surrogate, Searching for Sugar Man and Valley of Saints. Sleepwalk With Me received the Best of NEXT <=> Audience Award:

The Sundance Film Festival is often full of surprises, and every once in a while, an independently-made movie with a big name cast shows up in the "Premieres" section without already having distribution. In the case of the festival's Closing Night film, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal's The Words, it managed to score a distribution deal with CBS Films before any audience was able to see it, but it probably shouldn't be too surprising with a cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde, Jeremy Irons and Ben Barnes. ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk to both of the film's writers and directors, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, best known for their work on Disney's TRON: Legacy, as well as most of their primary cast.

Deadline is reporting that ATO Pictures has picked up the rights to distribute James Marsh's political thriller Shadow Dancer, starring Andrea Riseborough as a Northern Irish woman involved with the IRA coerced into becoming an informant by a persuasive MI5 agent, played by Clive Owen.

It's a little surprising that as the Sundance Film Festival has started to wind down for some people, the movies have just gotten better and better, and we're thrilled we've found a lot of nice surprises amongst the movies that were barely on our radar a week ago. Some of the ones discussed here include Ben Lewin's The Surrogate, starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, Michael Mohan's Save the Date, a relationship comedy starring Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie, James Marsh's Shadow Dancer, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal's The Words and lots more.

It's becoming a tradition for ComingSoon.net to sit down late during the Sundance Film Festival to talk to director James Marsh about his latest offering. His previous two Sundance movies were both docs, last year's Project Nim and the Oscar-winning Man on Wire before that. This year, he arrives in Park City with a dramatic feature called Shadow Dancer, adapted by Tom Bradby from his own novel.