03/12/2012 - One German production with a Texan name and three intriguing co-productions will be running in the 29th edition of the first big festival of the year

The 29th Sundance Film Festival (January 17–27 2013) has announced its selections at a press conference, and one lucky German production has made the cut: Bastian Günther's Houston will have its world premiere in the World Dramatic Competition. This Lichtblick Media production starring Ulrich Tukur (photo) marks the first time in four years that a German director's work is featured in the main competition.

The World Dramatic Competition also includes Srdan Golubovic's Circles, a big East-European co-production involving Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion, and Alicia Scherson's The Future, a film shot in Italian and Spanish and starring Rutger Hauer which Pandora coproduced with Chilian, Italian and Spanish partners.

Georgian director Tinatin Gurchiani's The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear, co-produced by Alethea and TTFilm, will have its North American premiere in the World Documentary Competition.

The Sundance Film Festival, organised in Park City, Utah, by the Sundance Institute – which was founded by Robert Redford in 1981 – is regarded as the most important North American festival in the independent sector and a launch pad for up-and-coming directors.

The last German entry in the World Dramatic Competition was Oskar Röhler's Lulu andJimi in 2008. In 2007, the festival invited The Wave by Dennis Gansel and Veit Helmer's Absurdistan. The films selected in the other sections will be announced by December, 4.