Sundance Film Festival
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Sundance, the Indie Showcase
While Cannes is the word that comes to mind when people think of filmmaking glitz and glamour, anyone looking for cutting edge independent movies will always think Sundance Film Festival.
The Sundance Film Festival is held annually for ten days in January in Park City, Utah. (Cannes has beaches, Park City has skiing. Dress accordingly.)
The Festival has numerous tracks, but the headliner attraction is the Independent Feature Film Competition, which gives awards for dramatic and documentary films.
It All Began...
Sundance wasn't always Sundance. It was originally the UTAH/U.S. Film Festival, and the first festival was held in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1978. Long-time Utah resident Robert Redford chaired the inaugural Board of Directors.
After several years in Salt Lake City, the Festival moved to Park City in 1981, and the time was changed to January – the theory being that holding a film festival in a ski resort in January would make it more likely to get big name Hollywood attendance.
In 1985, Festival management was taken over by Redford's Sundance Institute, and the festival officially became The Sundance Film Festival.
Each year the Festival has expanded, offering more tracks and more films within each track.
Notable Sundance films
Winning prizes is nice, but the real issue at Sundance for filmmakers is to generate buzz and catch the attention of major studios and distributors. And the Sundance Film Festival has been the fairy godmother for a number of indie film Cinderellas.
Notable films making their names at Sundance include the Coen brothers' debut of Blood Simple in 1985, Steven Soderburgh's debut film sex, lies, and videotape in 1989, Michael Moore's documentary Roger & Me in 1990, Quentin Tarantino's debut Reservoir Dogs in 1992, and Kevin Smith's Clerks in 1994. And the 1999 Festival will always be remembered for the hysteria surrounding The Blair Witch Project.
Sundance Film Festival Organization
The Sundance Film Festival is organized into a number of different tracks:
- The primary attaction is the Independent Feature Film Competition. It is restricted to independent American-made films, and awards prizes for feature-length dramas and documentaries.
- American Spectrum is non-competitive, and is a means by which American filmmakers can present their work to the public.
- Frontier highlights experimental films from any country.
- World Cinema features movies from non-American filmmakers.
Attending Sundance
Attending Sundance is not easy, simply because it's so popular and crowded. But it is doable. And unlike some other festivals (*cough*, Cannes), the Sundance Film Festival is open to everyone. Around 30% of the attendees are industry professionals. The rest are 'civilians', movie lovers who come to be the first to see the movies everyone will soon be talking about, as well as some quality celebrity watching.
Sundance is very flexible. You can get a festival pass, or you can get tickets for just the movies you want to see, or you can save money with a multi-ticket package. The hardest part (besides the standing in line, which can be arduous for the movies with the most buzz) will be deciding among the hundreds of offerings.
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