With all my hub-bubbing about Sundance this week, I somehow completely forgot about the existence of Slamdance. This is particularly shameful on my part, since it was Slamdance (along with SXSW) that deigned to screen What I Like About You, my sole produced screenwriting credit to date. True, I may have wanted to forget that particular screening, which took place in a stuffy, uncomfortable room ill-suited to facilitating the gales of hearty laughter the film so richly deserved. (That’s my theory anyway, and I’m sticking to it). But that’s neither here nor there. I’m not sure Slamdance still has the alterna-buzz it once did, but clearly it’s still going strong – and while it’s much harder to predict what might be worth seeing with so much unknown talent involved, why should that stop me? So here we go with five movies to check out in a stuffy little room in the Treasure Mountain Inn:

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We’ve seen more than our share of zombie movies in recent years (and someday I’ll get around to tell you my own zombie movie story, so there’s something to live for), but as the documentary Zombie Girl: The Movie will show when it debuts at Slamdance on January 16th, Emily Hagins’ Pathogen is a little different. That’s because Hagins was twelve years old when she made it.

“Most twelve-year-olds are busy with friends, homework, and online chatting,” according to the helpful press release that just arrived via email. “But film obsessed Emily Hagins spends her time writing and directing a feature-length zombie movie, starring her young friends and classmates. ZOMBIE GIRL: THE MOVIE documents the exhilarating and heartbreaking two years it took her to shoot, edit, and world premiere the film to a sold out audience in Austin, Texas. Encouraged by famous friends and fans - including Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), who she corresponds with in third grade, and journalist Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News fame, ZOMBIE GIRL: THE MOVIE traces Emily’s remarkable vision and youthful will to succeed.”

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It’s all over except for the long lines at security in the Salt Lake City airport. The awards were handed out last night by a jury featuring Quentin Tarantino and Marcia Gay Harden, and the top honors went to a couple of politically-charged pictures that flew under the radar for most of the festival. The grand jury prize for drama went to Frozen River, writer-director Courtney Hunt’s film about two women smuggling immigrants across the Canadian border. The top prize for documentaries went to Trouble the Water, about New Orleans families struggling in the aftermath of Katrina.

But that’s not all.

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The 2008 Sundance Film Festival kicks off tonight in Park City, Utah with the world premiere of In Bruges. The directorial debut of playwright Martin McDonough, it’s the story of two London hit men (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) cooling their heels in the titular Belgian city. For the Independent, it’s the harbinger of a new British invasion, as the first of 23 UK-made films to play this year’s fest.

This year’s Sundance crop is expected to be lighter in sprit than the 2007 edition, according to the New York Times, “offering more comedy and optimism than last year’s batch, which contained many darkly hued films about the Iraq war.”

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