Sundance: Richard Linklater's 'Boyhood' Added to Festival Lineup

Filmed over short periods from 2002-13, the movie stars Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater.

Richard Linklater is returning to the Sundance Film Festival.

The director and Sundance mainstay, who last year brought Before Midnight to the festival, will unveil Boyhood at this year's incarnation.

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The festival announced that it will host special preview screenings of the film Jan. 19 at the Eccles Theatre. Filmed over short periods from 2002-13, Boyhood covers 12 years in the life of a family. At the center is Mason, who with his sister Samantha, are taken on an emotional and transcendent journey through the years, from childhood to adulthood. Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater star.

Linklater also wrote the screenplay.

Last year, Sony Pictures Classics acquired domestic and U.K. rights to Linklater's Before Midnight, the final film in his Before trilogy.

With the addition of Boyhood, the 2014 festival will present 121 feature-length films, representing 37 countries and 54 first-time filmmakers, including 35 in competition. These films were selected from 12,218 submissions (72 more than for 2013), including 4,057 feature-length films and 8,161 short films. Of the feature film submissions, 2,014 were from the United States and 2,043 were international. One hundred feature films at the festival will make their world premieres.

The 2014 festival, celebrating its 30th anniversary, runs Jan. 16-26 in and around Park City.

Cinetic Media is repping Boyhood at the festival.

E-mail: Tatiana.Siegel@THR.com

Twitter: @TatianaSiegel27