Sundance Film Festival 2009, considered worldwide to be the most important window for independent movies, featured two Italians candidates.

 
“One Day in Life” [2] (aka in Italy “Un altro pianeta”),the first feature film by director Stefano Tummolini, was presented with great success at the '08 edition of the Venice Film Festival. The movie is about an ordinary day lived by Salvatore, the main character, in Torvajanica Beach, located near Rome. It is about the strange people he meets, his relationship and his homosexuality.  “When I started shooting this film I had a budget of about 1000 euro and only a week for the principal photography”, Tummolini said. He shot the whole movie with a digital camcorder. “One day in life” was chosen among 1,012 movies in the section “World cinema dramatic” of the festival and competed with another 15.
 

The other Italian movie participating in the competition this year was a documentary produced by RAI (Italian Broadcasting Company). “211: Anna” [3], a portrait of Anna Politkovskaya, the famous Russian journalist known for her reportages on the war in Chechnya and the death of hundreds of children during the Beslan school-hostage crisis. She was found shot in the elevator of her apartment building on October 7, 2006, a date that coincides with the birthday of the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. The title is inspired by the 211 members of the Russian Union of Journalists who have been killed since 1991. This movie, presented for the first time on RAI Italian television, was a contender in the “World Cinema Documentary” section.
 
The Utah US/Film Festival, founded by actor and director Robert Redford in 1978, officially became the Sundance Film Festival in 1985 and is now the most important event dedicated to independent movies and artists who work outside Hollywood. It takes place in Utah, near Park City, and has helped many important filmmakers, such as Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch, jumpstart their careers. 

 
This year marked the festival's 25th edition. Despite the beauty and originality of the Italian movies presented, the jury granted the first prize to "Push" which, based on the novel by Sapphire, was also voted best US dramatic movie.