Cat videos are hitting the big time! This year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, will include the debut of several high-profile flicks, with A-list stars including Demi Moore, Ethan Hawke, Amy Poehler, and Dakota Fanning. It will also feature, for the first time ever, a festival within the festival devoted entirely to everyone's secret Internet obsession: cute cats.
90210 actress and longtime cat lover AnnaLynne McCord is hosting the feline-friendly festival, appropriately named "Catdance," on Jan. 19. She'll introduce five original cat-inspired films, one of which will be the winner of a $10,000 prize from Fresh Step. She'll also debut a limited-edition cat-inspired hat to benefit the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).
"Initially I got involved because I was hoping to snag a lifetime supply of cat litter — that stuff is expensive!" McCord joked to Us Weekly. "But seriously, I'm an adoring mother of one very fat, furry, happy rescue kitty, and I have mothered multiple others throughout my life."
More than she can count off the top of her head, in fact. "I've had so many," she told Us. "They've all been strays, and I am happy to love them as long as I'm blessed with their presence. I've lost some to cancer, others to old age, but that's the thing about cats — you never stop loving them, because they're so unconditional, and once you gain their trust, they never stop loving you."
These days, the 25-year-old actress has her hands full with one cat in particular — an orange-and-white kitten named Christopher Buni. She's also busy filming the last few episodes of 90210, and she recently returned from a trip to Cambodia to visit the Somaly Mam Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to combat sexual slavery around the world.
"It was one of the most remarkable trips I've had there," she told Us of the holiday visit. "[The girls I work with] are all survivors who have gone through…an extensive rehabilitation and education program and are now working as staff to fight human trafficking. They are truly incredible women…so basically I spent my holiday with all of my heroes. I can't think of anything greater!"
