Sundance Film Festival

While guests paused to watch the inauguration Tuesday, buyers and sellers at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah were busy wrapping up several deals. Fox Searchlight grabbed worldwide rights to "Adam," a dramatic competition entry about the relationship between a young woman and a young man who has mild autism. The film, starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne, is scheduled to be released theatrically later this year. Magnolia Pictures acquired worldwide rights to "Humpday," a film also in the festival's dramatic competition.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, 16 students ages 12 to 19 gathered around three fold-out tables in an Echo Park storefront on Alvarado Street. Shelves of film canisters, movie journals and how-to guides lined the bright red and teal walls of the 900-square-foot space. Three teachers and a guest speaker instructed the kids to use an array of wooden blocks, plastic figurines and other knickknacks to build miniature models of their ideal cities. The brainstorming session will eventually culminate in a 16-millimeter student-made film that focuses on urban planning.

Colin FARRELL, with his playboy rep and tabloid infamy, essentially started his career as a Hollywood star. Now he would like to concentrate on something else -- being an actor. "It kind of happened in reverse for me," the Irish-brogued Farrell, 31, said recently in a secluded corner at a luxury-level Beverly Hills hotel. "Sometimes actors ply their trade, their craft, their art for a long, long time, and if they're fortunate enough the opportunity arises, they find success. But for me, I worked a little bit, did a little bit of theater, I did some TV in Ireland, and then all this [freaking stuff]

The cafe is narrow, with a dozen little tables and a gray concrete floor. Nothing too fancy. Nothing too shiny. No espresso poured into designer porcelain with a dusting of organic cacao and a layer of orange-infused, textured milk. No movie stars. Or hardly ever. But Kaldi Coffee & Tea is home to a community of dreamers who share a singular ambition: They want to be part of the movies. Since the silent film era, people have flocked to L.A., seeking stardom. Hollywood may change, but the calculus remains the same.

'2011 Festival' Where: Sundance Channel When: 9:45 p.m. Friday; 9:25 p.m. Saturday; 9:35 p.m. Sunday; 9:35 p.m. Monday; 9:25 p.m. Tuesday; 9:45 p.m. Wednesday; 9:45 p.m. Thursday; 9:45 p.m. Friday; 9:40 p.m. Saturday Rating: Not rated 'White Lightnin" Where: Sundance When: 8 p.m. Sunday and 4:45 a.m. Monday Rating: Not rated 'Unmade Beds' Where: Sundance Channel When: 8 p.m. Wednesday and 1:35 a.m....

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Thursday. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival begins Thursday night. ( Los Angeles Times ) "Hugo" and "Moneyball" were among the best sounding films of last year, according to the Cinema Audio Society. ( Los Angeles Times ) Meanwhile, "Albert Nobbs," "J. Edgar" and "Dancing With the Stars" earned GLAAD Media Award nominations. ( Los Angeles Times ) For the third year in a row, Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious admirer has failed to make a birthday appearance at his grave site, so fans are giving up. ( New York Times )

Park City, Utah, may be an out of the way place in a not ordinarily glamorous state, but for 10 days in January, all roads in the cinema world lead there. Yet it's not simply the sheer volume of movies and fans at the Sundance Film Festival ? this year's 117 features were culled from more than 3,800 submissions ? that keeps up the momentum. It's also that the festival organizers, ever determined to solidify Sundance's position and expand its reach, are not averse to change. Faced with the loss of one of its key venues, the Park City Racquet Club, due to renovations this year, the festival has commandeered the Redstone Theatre a few miles out of town.

Actor Steve Kazee was leaving Broadway's Bernard Jacobs Theatre after a recent preview performance of "Once" when he was accosted by a woman who had just seen the show. Why didn't your character end up with the person he loved? the woman asked him. Couldn't he see they belonged together? "She was saying it to me with some anger, as though I had personally made a wrong decision," Kazee said. "She felt so strongly that these were real people. " That ability to elicit an emotional reaction is the strength - and, producers hope, the saving grace - of "Once," a modest Irish movie that has made an unlikely odyssey from the Sundance Film Festival to a Broadway stage.

At the Sundance Film Festival, celebrities may come and go by luxury SUV, but most folks make their way from theater to theater around Park City, Utah, via a more humble mode of transportation: the free shuttle bus. Which can lead to problems. Though festival organizers try hard, the vagaries of traffic and weather mean the buses are often later and fuller than they are supposed to be. Anxious filmgoers crowd the doors in a frantic attempt to get on and off as quickly as possible, and on the first full day of the festival, at the stop by the Yarrow Hotel, sparks ignited.

This year's Sundance Film Festival didn't produce a blizzard, but it did generate some strong flurries. Spending on movies at the Park City, Utah, film bazaar failed to reach the sky-high levels of 2011 or match the hype that preceded the annual gathering of filmmakers, executives and agents. More than a dozen deals had closed by Friday for an amount totaling about $20 million. Last year, the total dollar amount was upward of $30 million — believed to be among the highest figures in the festival's history.

Actor Steve Kazee was leaving Broadway's Bernard Jacobs Theatre after a recent preview performance of "Once" when he was accosted by a woman who had just seen the show. Why didn't your character end up with the person he loved? the woman asked him. Couldn't he see they belonged together? "She was saying it to me with some anger, as though I had personally made a wrong decision," Kazee said. "She felt so strongly that these were real people. " That ability to elicit an emotional reaction is the strength - and, producers hope, the saving grace - of "Once," a modest Irish movie that has made an unlikely odyssey from the Sundance Film Festival to a Broadway stage.

"Is this really happening?" Nicholas McCarthy asked as he stepped carefully along an icy sidewalk toward the theater. An evening full of red carpets and party people was fading. It was almost midnight on the first Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. His moment had come at last. After more than a decade of pursuing his Hollywood dream, McCarthy, 41, was on his way to the premiere of his first feature film, "The Pact. " His wife, Alexandra, walked beside him. He held her hand.

— Singer-songwriter Erin Barra shelled out around $4,000 to travel to the Sundance Film Festival this month. The 26-year-old had to pay her own way from New York City, plus cover expenses for her tour manager and the two musicians who accompanied her to Utah. She hired a publicist to help her get local press, even though only one of the six shows the Salt Lake City native booked in her home state was a paying gig. "If I can meet somebody out there who puts music into film and we develop a relationship, then the investment of going to Utah could pay off tenfold," said Barra, whose lawyer and business manager also attended the festival on their own dime.

— In his more-than-distinguished career, Frank Langella has become Richard Nixon, Clark Kent's editor Perry White and a count named Dracula. So how did he end up playing a part opposite a robot in a sweltering East Coast summer? The answer is surprisingly simple: "Christopher Walken turned it down. " The resulting picture, the sly and delightful "Robot & Frank," brought the 74-year-old actor to the Sundance Film Festival for the first time. Sitting in a comfortable corner of an Italian restaurant and watching a near blizzard develop outside, Langella added, "I really do believe that all of life is happenstance, careers especially.

This year's Sundance Film Festival didn't produce a blizzard, but it did generate some strong flurries. Spending on movies at the Park City, Utah, film bazaar failed to reach the sky-high levels of 2011 or match the hype that preceded the annual gathering of filmmakers, executives and agents. More than a dozen deals had closed by Friday for an amount totaling about $20 million. Last year, the total dollar amount was upward of $30 million — believed to be among the highest figures in the festival's history.

Stars bundled up. Studio execs forked over cash. Everyone got headaches from altitude (and hangovers). The Sundance Film Festival's opening weekend has come and gone again, leaving a trail of exhausted but excited independent filmmakers and happier, swag-laden celebs. Here's a guide to who partied where in Park City, Utah. Bing Bar: With deep leather couches and three floors of open bars, the Claimjumper Hotel was transformed by search engine Bing to house film junkets, cocktail parties and a performance series that included stand-up from Aziz Ansari and concerts from Cobra Starship, the Civil Wars and the biggest party draw — a 45-minute set from rapper Drake.

The festival market for independent films is again attracting Hollywood's attention after several years in the economic doldrums. Witness the quick deal cut at the Sundance Film Festival by the indie market's resurgent showman, Harvey Weinstein. It was just after 10 one night last week when Weinstein stopped by a dinner to meet producers and sales agents of the film "My Idiot Brother," a dysfunctional-family comedy starring Paul Rudd that had just been shown. By the next day, Weinstein, with help from supermarket mogul Ron Burkle, opened his wallet and spent upwards of $6 million for the right to distribute the film in the U.S. and select foreign countries.

Gina Rodriguez's life has changed since "Filly Brown" was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. Now everyone thinks she's rich and famous. After seeing a recent article about the 27-year-old's starring role in the hip-hop drama, Rodriguez's neighbor hit the actress up for money. "She was like, 'So, I have this project — I really want to be a yoga instructor, and all I need is $10,000 to set up this studio,'" Rodriguez recalled recently, eating some spicy edamame at Sushi Roku on West 3rd Street near the Beverly Center, the restaurant where she worked before quitting to act full-time two years ago. "I was like, 'Baby love, I ain't got no money for you. I can take your class and pay $20 for my sun salutation, but I just don't have it.'" Rodriguez may not be wealthy yet, but her lifestyle has already begun to shift.

Bingham Ray, the co-founder of October Films, one of the top independent film distribution companies of the 1990s, and a former president of United Artists who was a leading force in independent films for more than two decades, died Monday. He was 57. Ray, who was named executive director of the San Francisco Film Society in November, died in a hospital in Provo, Utah, after suffering a stroke last week while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, said Sarah Eaton, a spokeswoman for the family.