Short Film News (SFN) - Sundance Institute announced 96 short films from U.S. and international filmmakers have been selected to screen at the 25th Sundance Film Festival.

The Festival's short film program comprises 47 U.S shorts and 41 international films from 18 countries. Submissions grew by 10% over last year.

"The shorts program at Sundance has long been a place to discover new talent, and this year's directors are no exception," said John Cooper, Sundance Festival director of programming. "We are seeing very accomplished filmmaking, with some of the most entertaining and engaging films in the Festival."

During the festival, a short film jury awards prizes based on outstanding achievement and merit in U.S. and International Short Filmmaking. The 2009 Short Film Program Awards Ceremony will be held Tuesday, January 20th.

This year's U.S. short films were selected from a record 3,267 submissions. The program includes an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard short story; a comedy about questionable spaghetti recipes; the newest work by an Oscar-nominated filmmaker; a haunting animation about WWI, a documentary portrait on the fascinating short life of the actor who played Fredo in The Godfather; an original recorded monologue of a Harvey Milk speech; and a documentary from the famed director of Weather Underground about one of China's first massive shopping malls.

International shorts include futuristic French computer animation; a funny film about an aspiring magician; a love spat between a penguin and a polar bear; intergalactic space travel and the story of a senior citizen weightlifting champion.

The list of selected short films is available at Sundance Festival's website: http://festival.sundance.org/2009