Films in next month's Sundance Film Festival's competitive categories feature such stars as Sarah Silverman, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman.

Silverman shows her dramatic side as a mom falling apart in the US film I Smile Back. Fassbender appears in a drama from New Zealand called Slow West. Ejiofor and Pine share the screen in the American tale Z for Zachariah. Kidman stars in the Australian film Strangerland. set to play on the festival's opening day: Jan. 22, 2015.

Festival organisers revealed the slate of films Wednesday by American and international directors that will be in competition at the independent-film showcase.

US Dramatic Competition will include films such as The Bronze, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The D Train, among others.

Among the many movies, the US Documentary Competition will include Finders Keepers, Western, Welcome to Leith, How to Dance in Ohio.

Sundance selections compete in US and world dramatic and documentary categories.

The festival will run between 21 and 31 January 2015.