Sundance lineup will include directorial debuts of Hayek, Dillon

As usual, the lineup for January’s Sundance Film Festival is star-heavy, reflecting both the eagerness of Hollywood players to stretch in indie films and the difficulty of getting indie films financed and shot without big-name stars aboard. Names appearing on the marquee at the Park City, Utah-based festival will include Mel Gibson, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Kirsten Dunst, Morgan Freeman, Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, Jessica Lange, Holly Hunter, and Penélope Cruz, according to the festival lineup announced Monday. Big names will be behind the camera as well, with the festival featuring the directing debuts of Salma Hayek and Matt Dillon.

Hayek’s ”The Maldonado Miracle” tells the story of a small town that claims to have a bleeding statue of Jesus. Ruben Blades and Peter Fonda star. Dillon directs and stars in ”City of Ghosts,” about a con man in Cambodia. Both films will show out of competition in the ”American Showcase” portion of the festival.

Among those films competing for dramatic awards are some of the most talked-about indie productions of the past year. They include ”Party Monster,” Macaulay Culkin’s comeback film about club-kid/murderer Michael Alig; ”Pieces of April,” with Katie Holmes nervously preparing for Thanksgiving; ”The Cooler,” about a luckless gambler played by William H. Macy; ”All the Real Girls,” director David Gordon Green’s (”George Washington”) sophomore effort; ”American Splendor,” which stars Paul Giamatti as cartoonist Harvey Pekar; and ”The United States of Leland,” starring Ryan Gosling as a teen killer, with Spacey and Don Cheadle costarring.

More films are to be announced Wednesday. The festival runs Jan. 16-26.