MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
Steve Zeitchik is in Park City, Utah, racing from theater to theater as a film writer for the L.A. Times. And he joins us now to tell us about what he's seen and what he can't wait to see. Steve, welcome back to the program.
STEVE ZEITCHIK: Thank you very much.
NORRIS: Let's start with documentaries, if you don't mind. There are a number of very strong films have already premiered. Can you walk us through what you think might be most promising?
ZEITCHIK: Oprah Winfrey has purchased it. She's going to air it on her network, and it's another one of these films that everybody's talking about here.
NORRIS: One other film I want to ask you about that everyone seems to be talking about and is getting a lot of buzz is the bio about the puppeteer behind the "Sesame Street" character Elmo.
ZEITCHIK: So really a good spectrum of docs.
NORRIS: Any documentaries or films that sort of take on stories that are front and center in the news and might really take off out of the festival simply because of that?
ZEITCHIK: And to that, he actually asked these big brands, the Hyatts of the world and the JetBlues, to actually sponsor his movie. So it's a movie critiquing product placement that's sponsored by product placement, and I think because marketing is so omnipresent in our lives, I think that's a movie that's going to be a big hit.
NORRIS: The festival offers an enormous platform for very small movies. We certainly saw that with a film like "Winter's Bone," which received some nominations today. It premiered there last year. Is there a "Winter's Bone" that seems to be emerging this year, a film that everyone's talking about that's going to get, you know, enough sort of wind in its sails that it'll move out of the festival and perhaps do great things?
ZEITCHIK: So we'll see if there's another "Winter's Bone" in the mix, but certainly "Like Crazy" is the one to watch.
NORRIS: Steve Zeitchik, good to talk to you.
ZEITCHIK: Same here. Thank you, Michele.
NORRIS: That's Steve Zeitchik. He writes about film for the L.A. Times.