One of the most ribald, anticipated queer parties at Sundance, the 15-year-old Homos Away From Home rewarded those who remained in Park City as of Thursday night. Recent People's Choice Award winner Liam Sullivan, aka Kelly of “Shoes” fame, was amongst the guests of honor. Alas, I took a redeye home and missed it.

As of Wednesday, things slowed down along Main Street: the swag lounges closed shop, many celebs headed back home, and those simply in town to party – and that’s a significant hunk – evacuated as well.

Openly gay writer Craig Lucas (The Dying Gaul, Longtime Companion) livened things up Thursday at the premiere of Birds of America, which he directed. The Q&A was one of the festival’s funniest (“He should be a comedian!” laughed a young woman behind me). Written by Elyse Friedman, the film is about a dysfunctional trio of adult siblings (de rigeur for Sundance films) played by Matthew Perry, Ben Foster and Ginnifer Goodwin. And barring a supporting character who can be read as bisexual – a neighbor obsessed with Perry - it’s pretty darned straight.

Why did Lucas take up the offer direct a film he didn’t write? “I wanted to do a popular entertainment because I was tired of being poor!” he responded.

One inquisitive male audience member got more than just an answer to his question. “You’re so handsome!” Lucas added, with a high school girl’s giggle and shrug, which drew raucous laughs.

Later, while alone with Lucas, I asked him whether he wanted to inject more gayness into Birds. “No. I didn’t need to put my gay-assed stamp on it!” But he did at least include a very homoerotic moment between Perry and Foster during a joint-sharing scene.

As for his thoughts on Heath Ledger? “As an addict, I see that as an unbelievable tragedy, and a place I and others could go. Like James Dean.”

I caught a few other gay titles in the final stretch. The partly animated feature Half-Life featured a young, gay Asian character whom has an affair with an African-American teacher, much to his religious family’s chagrin.

In Iran, sex changes are legal, but homosexuality is punishable by death. As a result, some gay men and women decide to undergo sexual reassignment procedures. A handful of these individuals are followed in Tanaz Eshaghian’s documentary, Be Like Others. At the Q&A, Tanaz noted that females who become male have an easier time of it, because with a beard they become indistinguishable from genetic men in public, whereas males who become female don’t always pass. She also revealed that she is trying to help one of her protagonists – who ultimately decides to not get the surgery and live as a gay male – escape Iran.

On a lighter note, Slamdance’s I Think We’re Alone Now is about a pair of deluded stalkers of 80s teen pop star Tiffany, one of whom is intersexed. And Slamdance made Thursday magical with a performance from Song Sung Blue’s Thunder, the Patsy Cline impersonator from the documentary about Thunder and her Neil Diamond impersonating partner, Lightning.

My suitcase jam-packed with swag – I can’t wait to wear my Onitsuka Tiger sneakers from the Hollywood Life House - I’m outta here. See you in 2009, Park City!

Bruce LaBruce (R) and his Otto star, Jey Crisfar 

Come early afternoon, Heath Ledger’s death was on everyone’s tongue and phone text display. I was interviewed by a TIME reporter, working on a story that would address the gay response to the loss of Brokeback Mountain’s star. Elsewhere, reactions ran the gamut from shock to gallows humor. “Does this mean he’s not doing press for Batman?” asked one journalist, while another puzzled over how train crash Britney is out surviving her Hollywood peers.

I attended part of the Queer Lounge’s panel, The Advocate Presents Gay Filmmakers and Sexual Provocation, moderated by my The Advocate colleague/film critic, Kyle Buchanan. I sat down with panelist Bruce LaBruce afterwards, to discuss his Sundance feature, Otto: Or, Up With Dead People. The timing was perhaps off, but I asked him which Hollywood star could do with a zombification. “Zac Efron,” he replied. “He already wears enough eyeliner.”

Meanwhile, a few stars paraded through the QL en route to the Corbis Photo booth, including Anjelica Huston and Michael & Virginia Madsen.

A small bit of celebration was called for by the Oscar nomination announcements: one went to Freeheld, a Sundance 2007 short about a cancer-stricken lesbian’s fight to secure survivor benefits for her partner, for Short Documentary.

While Park City isn’t quite a gourmand’s paradise, the annual Stella Artois dinner for media and filmmakers is a coveted event and one of the best meals in town. The four courses, each paired with a Stella beer, were superb (especially the Monkfish with Lobster Risotto).

Film-wise, I caught Pretty Bird, a bizarre, not entirely likable film about an inventor, a schmooze, and an investor who join forces, and implode, while creating a jet pack. One of the three is revealed as gay in the final act, and meets a somewhat stereotypical old Hollywood ending for a gay character. A fact, as I remarked to the TIME reporter, made Ledger’s demise all the more ironic – his Brokeback character managed to avoid an early, tragic death, the norm for gays in cinema of old, but Ledger himself did not.

World of Wonder's Fenton Bailey and Frameline's Michael Lumpkin 

In Park City, Albertsons’ supermarket is the great leveler: stars and plebeians alike, without braving guest lists, swing by and mix it up. My cashier had spotted Jessica Alba and Patrick Stewart amongst others coming through.

There was certainly no shortage of food at Sunday’s Outfest Queer Brunch, which was presented by here! Networks. Expected guest Paris Hilton was a no-show (“she slept in,” I was told – but she did manage to show up at Regent’s party for upcoming release The Hottie and the Nottie, in which she stars, later that eve), but the place was hoppin’ with schmooze, friends, and some disco dancing. Oh – and a brief bite of politics regarding the importance of digitizing queer film and ensuring its permanent survival.

The altitude isn’t the only thing high around here. World of Wonder’s Fenton Bailey and I shared a taxi cab driven by Park City’s most Zen-y drug dealer. After offering us bottles of V8, he very politely asked us if we needed “party favors.” Then he elaborated on what’s on tap, interjecting compliments like, “You guys have positive energy! You’re shining stars!” I was also running late to the Queer Lounge. Oh, he had some other things to offer as well. “If you want I can bring some of my friends, young, beautiful, pure.” As a parting gift, he handed me a Xanax. Fenton was lucky enough to stay in the taxi and head to a second stop, an even longer trip (so to speak) riddled with wrong turns, during which our new friend revealed he was a trauma nurse! Alas, Fenton was way, way late by the time he arrived at his destination to meet WOW partner Randy Barbato, whose energy was not exactly positive by then. They didn’t get Xanax swag, either!

Ah, swag take two. Rex Lee has been making out quite well. He even had himself a facial at the lovely, art-filled St. Ives Sensory Spa & Gallery. “I enjoy facials,” he later told me. “I love being pampered!” And I love the new moisturizing cleansers I managed to take away (this mountain air is drying!).

I ran into Lee at the Queer Lounge’s panel (moderated by The Advocate’s fabulous Anne Stockwell) for HBO’s upcoming WOW production, “When I Knew,” which will air this June. GLBTQ guests could record their own accounts of that pivotal revelation in a QL booth, which will later appear online (as well as accounts shot for the production).

A few queer interest films have been screened over the past couple of days. Sunshine Cleaning, about a couple of sisters who start a crime scene cleanup company, had a lesbian character in Mary Lynn Rajskub (24, Mysterious Skin), but its allegedly filmed lesbian kiss – between Rajskub and Emily Blunt - had been snipped.

Mysteries of Pittsburgh also had quite a lot of its queer content removed, at least from its Michael Chabon source novel. Peter Sarsgaard plays bi again. As for the mystery? It’s a snoozer!

Riechen Lehmkuhl at the Queer Lounge 

After a mellow opening Thursday night at the Sundance Film Festival – with opening film In Bruges – and rowdy shindig at concurrent festival Slamdance, things have sparked to life here in Park City, Utah. Celebs are appearing, much to the delight of paparazzi stalking Main Street – I walked alongside Alan Rickman, who attracted a handful of shutterbugs. Allegedly, Ang Lee was spotted drinking a Gatorade in Albertsons' supermarket. Colin Farell is all over the place. And I ran into High School Musical 2 co-star Kaycee Stroh in the Reaction swag lounge admiring Unstoppable brand "F*ck You" hats. Not that she can wear them just yet. "When I'm no longer with Disney, totally!"

Ah, swag, another "S" word that entails part of the Sundance hubbub. Being that today wasn't a heavy movie day for me – the queer films start bowing on Saturday (including Amy Redford's The Guitar, Isaac Julien's Derek, and Bruce LaBruce's Otto, or Up With Dead People) – I spent time investigating the numerous Main Street swag enclaves.

At the Revaleskin Rejuvenation Lounge I was treated to an EarTherapy consultation, during which my ears were inspected and massaged; Her Native Roots survival kits; cool organic Eco Gear, and of course Revaleskin products, which utilize uber-antioxidant-loaded coffee bean berries. At The Reaction Hospitality Lounge & In Touch Café at STEREO had some primo stuff including Triple Five Soul jackets and new Kenneth Cole scents (sales of which benefit Hope USA and Habitat for Humanity).

Meanwhile, The Queer Lounge opened its doors. And the evening ended with the Outfest Filmmaker Party at the Heineken Lounge, where Eating Out producer Michael J. Shoel told me an Eating Out 3 is in the works, to be co-written by Q. Allan Brocka and EO2 director Philip Bartell … Yes, things have just started and it only gets gayer from here!

Saturday morning kicked off with the press and industry screening of Amy Redford’s The Guitar, in which out actress Saffron Burroughs portrays a milquetoast New Yorker who, after discovering she has terminal cancer, goes credit card happy and has hot lesbian (and bisexual three-way!) sex. I found it entertaining, which seems to be the minority opinion asofar. “I thought it was dishonest,” scoffed a colleague. Well, sure. It’s fiction.

And off to the Queer Lounge for the PlanetOut Short Film Awards shindig. In fact there was a lot of lounging going on over the weekend. The Donnas performed a juicy set on Saturday night as part of the party for Isaac Julien’s Derek, a fantastic documentary/retrospective of the late Derek Jarman’s queer landmark work.

Sundance announced another slew of films on its 2008 slate yesterday (these are the out-of-competition offerings), and it's as depressingly gay-anemic as the list of films in competition, it does at least feature a few legitimitely intriguing gay-related movies.

First and most exciting to me is Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne. The exciting bit is the fact that this is Kalin's first feature film since Swoon, the groundbreaking meditation on the Leopold/Loeb murder case that helped kickstart the queer indie film movement here in the States back in 1992.

Kalin is back in true crime mode, this time tackling the horrific Barbara Daly Baekeland murder in London, 1972. Baekland (Moore), a wealthy socialite, was murdered by her gay only son, Anthony (Redmayne), after seducing him into an incestuous relationship in an attempt to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Sensational subject matter and a fascinating true story, and one that I'm very interested to see tackled by this impressive bunch.

Birds of America, a dysfunctional family comedy directed by prolific gay playwright Craig Lucas (Longtime Companion, The Dying Gaul), has potential for some gay elements, but who knows.

Also rather delicious-sounding is Otto: or, Up With Dead People, the new film by gay cineterrorist Bruce LaBruce (Hustler White, Super 8 1/2). This one follows a "lonely gay zombie searching for love and meaning in contempo Berlin." Okay, I'm so there. Check out the website for some more intriguing (and gruesome) pics.

The Sundance Film Festival just announced the line-up for their big annual blow-out which launches January 17th in Park City, Utah. Alas, there isn't a whole lot of gay again this year. I checked over the listings and the only two things that popped out at me included the film adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and the documentary Derek about director Derek Jarman who died of AIDS in 1994. UPDATE: Our cinephiliac contributor Adam Lubitow spotted UK doc Be Like Others, which is about transgender Iranian men. Also, the U.S. doc American Teen, which follows four high school students in Indiana, has been accused of offering to pay subjects to "act gay" for the film.

As I'm neither a huge fan of documentaries or Derek Jarman, it's Pittsburgh I'm most curious about. Jon Foster (pictured above) plays the bisexual Art Bechstein who falls into a love triangle with a married couple. It's been years since I've read the book, but I recollect loving it and am very interested to see how they handle the gay plot threads.

The movie also stars Mena Suvari, Sienna Miller, and, best of all, Peters Sarsgaard, whom gay fans no doubt remember from his turn in Kinsey. It does give me a bit of pause that the film is directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber who last directed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

There are still some other announcements to come from Sundance and we'll keep you posted! BTW, after the jump I've included the first production diary from the shooting of the film.