Politics on Film’s 2009 Audience Award Winner, The Response, is on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s short list for Best Live-Action Short.

The Response, which opened the 2009 festival at a sold-out screening at the E Street Theater, was produced by Maryland native Sig Libowitz and stars Kate Mulgrew, Peter Reigert and Aasif Mandvi. Politics on Film was thrilled to welcome the entire cast to the inaugural festival, where they participated in a discussion with audience members following the screening.

Academy voting will take place throughout January, and the five nominees will be announced February 2.

The Response joins nine other semi-finalists from around the world. Read the Academy press release here: http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2009/20091204.html

As film festivals go, it is hard to argue with the fact that Sundance is among the most prestigious and influential. So it’s worth checking out what films with a political bent they have selected for screening in January 2010.

This year’s line-up includes several entries Washington is already buzzing about, including “Casino Jack and the United States of Money” – not the Kevin Spacey feature vehicle also titled “Casino Jack”, but a documentary about the notorious influence peddler. Participant is distributing the film and already has a corresponding campaign web site urging citizens to be more informed by reading other web sites like The Center for Responsive Politics and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Also scheduled is “I am Pat ____ Tillman”, the story of the pro football star who traded in his NFL career for service in the military. Another doc tackling the topic of war is “Restrepo”, directed by best-selling author Sebastian Junger (A Perfect Storm) and Tim Hetherington. The pair spent a year with the Second Platoon in Afghanistan.

Others in the documentary category include “12^th and Delaware”, focusing on abortion, and “Waiting for Superman”, examining public education in the United States, and “Freedom Riders”, the story behind a group of civil rights activists’ 1961 challenge of segregation in the South.

Docs looking at politics outside the United States include “Bhutto”, a biographic film of the life of recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto; “The Oath”, filmed in Yemen about two men’s journey through Afghanistan, 9/11, Guantanamo and the U.S. Supreme Court; and “My Perestroika”, about post-Soviet life in Russia.

The Narrative feature category also includes “The Dry Land”, about a U.S. soldier’s return home to Texas, and starring America Ferrera and Wilmer Valderrama; and “Night Catches Us”, about a man returning to his race-torn Philadelphia neighborhood in 1978.