As indie and art house film enthusiasts gather in Park City, Utah for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival (January 16-26), we’re highlighting several exciting contributions made by the French-speaking filmmaking world.

Stranger By the Lake

Category: Spotlight

Director: Alain Guiraudie

This homoerotic thriller follows one man’s longing for another more powerful and revealed-to-be extremely dangerous man. When the film premiered at Cannes back in May, Guiraudie took home the best directing award in the “Un Certain Regard” section. Showtimes for the movie.

Mr Leos CaraX

Category: World Documentary

Director: Tessa Louise-Salomé

In her first feature-length documentary, Louise-Salomé studies the talented and enigmatic French director Leos Carax, most famous for art house films “The Lovers on the Bridge” and “Holy Motors.” Interviews with Lavant, Kyle Minogue, Harmony Korine, and Juliette Binoche help to shed light on the visionary’s creative process.

Happiness

Category: World Documentary

Director: Thomas Balmès

Following up on his cross-cultural study of newborns in the aptly named “Babies,” Balmès is once again challenging Western ideologies with this look into the life of a Himalayan monk and the escalating effects of television on his remote village.

We Come as Friends

Category: World Documentary

Director: Hubert Sauper

Most recognized for his controversial Oscar award-nominated “Darwin’s Nightmare” set in Tanzania, the French-residing Austrian director has travelled to South Sudan for his latest political documentary to portray the highly unstable climate of the newly independent nation.

Ernest & Celestine

Category: Sundance Kids

Director: Benjamin Renner, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar

Armed with a César for Best Animated Feature and contending at the Oscars in March, this film suitable for ages five and up follows the unlikely friendship between a mouse and a bear, whose two communities maintain a long-standing rivalry. In this English- version premiere, voiceover appearances include Forest Whitaker, Paul Giamatti, Megan Mullally, and Nick Offerman. Showtimes for the movie.

I Origins

Category: Premieres

Director: Mike Cahill’s

In this sci-fi drama, up-and-coming French actress Astrid Bergès-Frisbey plays the beautiful and mysterious love interest to a molecular biologist who must go on a life-risking journey after uncovering a ground-breaking scientific discovery. Bergès-Frisbey may be best recognized by American audiences as the mermaid in the fourth film of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.

Sophie Weiner