NDBT

In the opening days of this year’s festival, many gloom-and-doom types were quick to characterize it as a ”down year” in the absence of early big-ticket sales, like last year’s $10 million bidding war sparked by Little Miss Sunshine. But yesterday, the skeptics were silenced.

While there’s yet to be a sale with as many zeroes as Sunshine‘s, the past couple of days have witnessed a flurry of mid-range buys, with Fox Searchlight making the biggest splash. The boutique studio, which proved its Sundance shrewdness a couple of years back with Napoleon Dynamite, reportedly shelled out a combined $9 million for two films.

The first was the blue-collar drama Waitress, directed by the late-indie actress Adrienne Shelly, who was killed in New York City late last year — sadly, before she had a chance to find out that her directorial debut had been accepted to the festival. Needless to say, the film, which stars Shelly, Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s Cheryl Hines, and a winning central performance by Felicity‘s Keri Russell, was a sentimental audience favorite before it even unspooled. Searchlight’s second pick-up was the bruise-black thriller Joshua, George Ratliff’s harrowing domestic nightmare about an upper-class Manhattan family ripped apart by a demon-seed child. The film stars Sam Rockwell and The Departed‘s Vera Farmiga.

According to Variety, Warner Independent also got into the buying game, forking over $4 million for Cherie Nowlan’s Australian fractured love story Clubland, while Sony Classics paid $1.8 million for the documentary My Kid Could Paint That — a look at a child art prodigy who some considered to be the next Picasso and others said was just a hoax.

Not all of yesterday’s buzz had to do with commerce, however. Deborah Kempmeier’s Hounddog, a disturbingly bleak (and Elvis-obsessed) southern-gothic drama starring Dakota Fanning, held its premiere Monday night to a packed audience. Fanning’s film had been the center of a storm of controversy before the festival even started due to a scene in which the 12-year-old’s character is raped. Asked if she had any reservations about taking the part, Fanning, showing a maturity beyond her years, recently told The New York Times, ”The bottom line was, I couldn’t not do it. It’s all I could think about.”

YES!!! 3 Sam movies next year! thank the dear lord. Funnily enough – Lena rented Midsummer nights dream this week – Christian Bale and Sam in one movie. How brilliant was that casting director? Sam’s scene still steals the whole show (how’s that for alliteration?).

Today I’ve been working on my itinerary and budget. I have to call Orla tonight, but I’ll be taking off traveling either Saturday or Monday. Have to apply for my NZ visa, my wwoof memberships, and organize everything. And yet I’m watching the colbert report… ah internet streaming…