When the Sundance Film Festival announces its slate of films, two questions always come up: "What got snubbed?" And "What looks good?"

"Snubbed" is in the eye of the beholder. However, Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere was surprised that "Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll," a biopic of '70s rock icon Ian Dury (played by Andy Serkis), wasn't picked. Meanwhile, someone at Movieline.com noticed the Park City at Midnight program was shockingly lacking in zombie movies.

Picking what looks good a month before the festival starts is also problematic. Many of the movies are still being edited -- and what looked good to the programmers in the rough cut may not play so well in the final product.

But with some educated guesswork, I'll make a few early bets. Here are 10 titles I can't wait to see:

"Casino Jack & the United States of Money" » Alex Gibney won an Oscar for the hard-hitting documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," and he took the dry topic of corporate graft and made the riveting "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room." Now he returns with an investigation into the lobbying malfeasance of Jack Abramoff and his pals.

"Howl" » The attraction here is James Franco, playing the young Allen Ginsberg, creating his signature work and then defending it in an obscenity trial. But if it works, it will be because of filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the men behind such iconic documentaries as "The Times of Harvey Milk" and "The Celluloid Closet."

"I'm Pat _______ Tillman" » Any exposure of the story of football star-turned-soldier Pat Tillman, and how the government lied about his death from "friendly fire" in Afghanistan -- is long overdue. Director Amir Bar-Lev ("My Kid Could Paint That") has his work cut out for him.

"Blue Valentine" » Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are likely to burn up the screen in this story of a marriage, told out of sequence. Director Derek Cianfrance won a cinematography award at Sundance '03 for "Quattro Noza," so expect a visually different experience.

"Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" » I'm fascinated by the idea that directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, whose film "The Devil Came on Horseback" exposed the Darfur genocide, could switch gears to make a celebrity profile.

"Welcome to the Rileys" » The casting of Jake Scott's drama is the key: James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos") and Melissa Leo ("Frozen River") as a troubled married couple. Kristen Stewart ("The Twilight Saga: New Moon") is a hooker who crosses their path.

"The Runaways" » Double your Kristen Stewart pleasure, with this biography of the influential '70s all-female rock band that launched Joan Jett's career. Stewart plays Jett, and Dakota Fanning is bandmate Cherie Curie. Even without the reported Stewart/Fanning makeout scene, this screening will attract paparazzi in ridiculous numbers.

"Splice" » It's not often that an Oscar-winning actor stars in a horror movie in the Park City at Midnight program. So seeing Adrien Brody, co-starring with Sarah Polley, in this tale of DNA manipulation gone amok is a must. Also, it's directed by Vincenzo Natali, who made the super-cool '97 horror movie "Cube." (Check out a clip on the movie's web site, www.splicethefilm.com.)

"Son of Babylon" » The first Sundance entry directed by an Iraqi filmmaker, Mohamed Al Daradji's drama of a young Kurdish boy traveling through Iraq with his grandmother to find his father's remains offers a different look at the war-torn nation.

"8: The Mormon Proposition" » The festival's homegrown controversy, as former KTVX reporter Reed Cowan looks at the LDS Church's role in the campaign for California's gay-marriage ban. It is a must-see -- or a must-boycott, depending on your point of view.

Sean P. Means writes the Culture Vulture in daily blog form, at blogs.sltrib.com/vulture