"Happy Endings," Don Roos' envelope-pushing, intricately structured comic drama that intertwines characters from many stories, will open the 2005 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 20 in Park City.

The Lions Gate release stars Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tom Arnold, Laura Dern and Jason Ritter. Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore calls this world premiere "the perfect film to open the festival because it examines the many layers of relation ships in American families and changes in family values in the sense that it's not all red states vs. blue states. Things are more complicated than that."

Opening night in Salt Lake City on Jan. 21 features the world premiere of "On a Clear Day," a World Cinema Dramatic Competition film, directed by U.K. director Gaby Dellal and starting Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn. As befits the more conservative crowd that attends the Salt Lake City screenings, the film is, in Gilmore's words, "mainstream but really touching. It's going to get bought and do well in the market place."

Screening midfestival as the Centerpiece Premiere is "Lackawanna Blues," an HBO telefilm directed by famed New York stage director George C. Wolfe, written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and starring an ensemble cast headed by S. Epatha Merkerson, Louis Gossett Jr., Delroy Lindo, Liev Schreiber, Rosie Perez, Terrence Howard, Jimmy Smits and Macy Gray.

"Wolfe has a kinetic style you wouldn't expect from a stage director," Gilmore said. "He uses his camera inside of dance sequences in a spontaneous and explosive way."

Overall, Gilmore is higher than ever over his 2005 lineup. "We have a terrific group of premieres, maybe the best we've ever had," Gilmore said.

The festival will screen a total of 120 feature films, including 87 world premieres, nine North American premieres and 19 U.S. premieres.

In addition to premieres, the festival presents work in the more adventuresome categories of American Spectrum, Frontier and Park City at Midnight. "In many ways, the films in these sections represent the outer limits of independent filmmaking and the films we've chosen definitely illustrate a range of work--from formal experimental work to broader genre pieces," director of programming John Cooper said.

These might be films, Cooper and Gilmore acknowledged, that challenge and even divide audiences. The new wave of comedies can be especially challenging, Gilmore noted. He added that often he fails to understand what his young son finds funny in movies. "More than ever, there is a generational split in comedy," he said.

One potentially controversial film could be "Inside Deep Throat," a documentary about the legacy of the most famous American porn movie of all time, "Deep Throat," comes from Universal and producer Brian Grazer. "The film looks at the production of that film, the milieu in which it was made and how 'Deep Throat' changed the porn industry," Gilmore said. He pointed out that Harry Reems, the star of the film, is now a reformed alcoholic who lives in Park City.

The selection of short films accepted for 2005 Sundance will be announced Monday....