Tired of shuffling anemically through the loooooong Gotham shadows of Starz and IFC, the Sundance Channel appears to be busting out with a few new deals that will re-establish it as a mover and shaker (or at least a mover) in indie-film programming.

Variety reports that the network went out on a limb locking up Sundance Festival hotties like Mysterious Skin, Tony Takitani and Loggerheads. In a separate deal, Sundance grabbed a handful of movies handled by British sales agent The Works, including Pearse Elliot's boy-and-his-dog movie The Mighty Celt.

The package includes 16 films in all, but Sundance has yet to reveal when we will be able to indulge our Gregg Araki free-love fix without having to shrink into our seats in a sparsely populated theater. No comment either from Starz, who we imagine must be planning a counterattack involving at least one Hal Hartley movie and a slate lifted from this year's Toronto C-list.