The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual
film festival organized by the
Sundance Institute. It is the largest
independent film
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...
festival in the United States, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016. It takes place each January in
Park City, Utah;
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
; and at the
Sundance Resort (a ski resort near
Provo, Utah), and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres.
History
1978: Utah/US Film Festival
Sundance began in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
in August 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah. It was founded by
Sterling Van Wagenen
Sterling Gray Van Wagenen (born July 2, 1947) is an American film and stage producer, writer, director, and convicted sex offender. He is a co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and, in association with former brother-in-law Robert Redford, he ...
, head of
Robert Redford's company Wildwood, and John Earle of the
Utah Film Commission. The 1978 festival featured films such as ''
Deliverance'', ''
A Streetcar Named Desire'', ''
Midnight Cowboy'', ''
Mean Streets'', and ''
Sweet Smell of Success''.
The goal of the festival was to showcase American-made films, highlight the potential of independent film, and increase visibility for filmmaking in Utah. The main focus of the event was to conduct a competition for independent American films, present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions, and celebrate the
Frank Capra Award. The festival also highlighted the work of regional filmmakers who worked outside the
Hollywood system.
In 1979, Sterling Van Wagenen left to head up the first-year pilot program of what became the
Sundance Institute, and James W. Ure took over briefly as executive director, followed by Cirina Hampton Catania. More than 60 films were screened at the festival that year, and panels featured many well-known Hollywood filmmakers. Also that year, the first Frank Capra Award went to
Jimmy Stewart. The festival also made a profit for the first time. In 1980, Catania left to pursue a production career in Hollywood.
1981: US Film and Video Festival
In 1981, the festival moved to Park City, Utah, and changed the dates from September to January. The move from late summer to midwinter was done by the executive director Susan Barrell with the cooperation of Hollywood director
Sydney Pollack, who suggested that running a film festival in a ski resort during winter would draw more attention from Hollywood. It was called the US Film and Video Festival.
1984: Sundance
In 1984, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival. Gary Beer and Van Wagenen spearheaded production of the inaugural US Film Festival presented by Sundance Institute (1985), which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby. The branding and marketing transition from the US Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival was managed under the direction of Colleen Allen, Allen Advertising Inc., by appointment of Robert Redford. In 1991, the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redford's character
the Sundance Kid from the film ''
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid''.
The Sundance Film Festival experienced its extraordinary growth in the 1990s, under the leadership of Geoffrey Gilmore and John Cooper, who transformed the venue into the premier festival in the United States, on par of Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Toronto International Film Festival (also known as The Big Five). That crucial era is very well documented in Professor Emanuel Levy's book, Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Cinema (NYU Press, 1999, 2001, 2011), the most comprehensive chronicle of Sundance and the Indie movement over the past four decades.
Spin-offs in other locations
Sundance London (2012– )
UK-based publisher C21 Media first revealed in October 2010 that Robert Redford was planning to bring the Sundance Film Festival to London, and in March the following year, Redford officially announced that Sundance London would be held at
The O2, in London from April 26 to 29, 2012; the first time it has traveled outside the
US.
In a press statement, Redford said, "We are excited to partner with
AEG Europe to bring a particular slice of American culture to life in the inspired setting of The O2, and in this city of such rich cultural history.
..It is our mutual goal to bring to the UK, the very best in current American independent cinema, to introduce the artists responsible for it, and in essence, help build a picture of our country that is broadly reflective of the diversity of voices not always seen in our cultural exports."
The majority of the film screenings, including the festival's premieres, would be held within the
Cineworld cinema at
The O2 entertainment district. The 2013 Sundance London Festival was held April 25–28, 2013, and sponsored by car-maker
Jaguar.
Sundance London 2014 took place on April 25–27, 2014 at the O2 arena; however the 2015 Festival was cancelled in an announcement on January 16, 2015.
Sundance London returned to London from June 2–5, 2016, and again June 1–4, 2017, both at Picturehouse Central in London's West End. The 2018 and 2019 events continued at the same venue.
Films shown at the 2019 event included the controversial dark tale ''
The Nightingale
The common nightingale is a songbird found in Eurasia.
Nightingale may also refer to:
Birds
* Thrush nightingale, a songbird found in Eurasia
* Red-billed leiothrix, a songbird of the Indian Subcontinent
Literature
* "Nightingale" (short sto ...
'', US comedy ''
Corporate Animals
''Corporate Animals'' is a 2019 American comedy horror film directed by Patrick Brice and written by Sam Bain. The film stars Jessica Williams, Karan Soni, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Martha Kelly, Dan Bakkedahl, Calum Worthy, Jennifer Kim, Nasim Pedra ...
'',
Lulu Wang
Lulu Wang (; born February 25, 1983) is a Chinese-born American filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the comedy-drama films '' Posthumous'' (2014) and '' The Farewell'' (2019). For the latter, she received the Independent Spi ...
's ''
The Farewell'' (which won the Audience Award) and
Sophie Hyde's film based on
Emma Jane Unsworth's novel about female friendship, ''
Animals
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...
''.
The 2020 event in London was postponed due to the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was not rescheduled until July 2021.
Sundance Hong Kong (2014–)
Inaugurated in 2014, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong has taken place in 2016, 2017, 2018 and from September 19 to October 1, 2019. It is held at The Metroplex in Kowloon Bay each year.
The 2020 events in London and Hong Kong were postponed due to
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and as of late 2021 has not been rescheduled.
Sundance at BAM
From 2006 through 2008, Sundance Institute collaborated with the
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on a special series of film screenings, performances, panel discussions, and special events bringing the institute's activities and the festival's programming to New York City.
Notability
Many notable independent filmmakers received their big break at Sundance, including
Kevin Smith,
Robert Rodriguez,
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensemb ...
,
Todd Field,
David O. Russell,
Steve James,
Paul Thomas Anderson,
Steven Soderbergh,
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are noted for their surrealistic, melodramatic, and sometimes disturbing elements, often in the form of psychological fiction.
Arono ...
,
James Wan,
Edward Burns, and
Jim Jarmusch. The festival is also responsible for bringing wider attention to such films as ''
Saw'', ''
Garden State'', ''
Super Troopers'', ''
The Blair Witch Project'', ''
Spanking the Monkey'', ''
Reservoir Dogs'', ''
Primer'', ''
In the Bedroom'', ''
Better Luck Tomorrow
''Better Luck Tomorrow'' is a 2002 American crime film, crime-Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Justin Lin. The film is about Asian American overachievers who become bored with their lives and enter a world of petty crime and ma ...
'', ''
Little Miss Sunshine'', ''
Donnie Darko
''Donnie Darko'' is a 2001 American science fiction psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly and produced by Flower Films. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, ...
'', ''
El Mariachi'', ''
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...
'', ''
Clerks'', ''
Thank You for Smoking'', ''
Sex, Lies, and Videotape'', ''
The Brothers McMullen'', ''
500 Days of Summer'', ''
Napoleon Dynamite'', ''
Whiplash'', ''
CODA'', and ''
Boyhood''.
''
Three Seasons'' was the first in festival history to ever receive both the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award, in 1999. Later films that won both awards are: ''
God Grew Tired of Us'' in 2006 (documentary category), ''
Quinceañera'' in 2006 (dramatic category), ''
Precious'' in 2009, ''Fruitvale'' (later retitled ''
Fruitvale Station
''Fruitvale Station'' is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. It is Coogler's feature directorial debut and is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man killed in 2009 by B ...
'') in 2013, ''
Whiplash'' in 2014, ''
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'' in 2015, ''
The Birth of a Nation'' in 2016, ''
Minari'' in 2020, and ''
CODA'' in 2021.
At the
2016 Sundance Film Festival, three films went on to garner eight
Oscar nominations.
''
Manchester by the Sea'' took the lead in Sundance-supported films with six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
The next year, about 40 films were acquired by distributors, among them including
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
,
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
,
Lionsgate, and
Universal.
CODA became the first Sundance film to win an
Oscar for
Best Picture at the
94th Academy Awards.
Growth of the festival
The festival has changed over the decades from a low-profile venue for small-budget, independent creators from outside the Hollywood system to a media extravaganza for Hollywood celebrity actors, paparazzi, and luxury lounges set up by companies not affiliated with Sundance. Festival organizers have tried curbing these activities in recent years, beginning in 2007 with their ongoing Focus On Film campaign.
The 2009 film ''Official Rejection'' documented the experience of small filmmakers trying to get into various festivals in the late 2000s, including Sundance. The film contained several arguments that Sundance had become dominated by large studios and sponsoring corporations. A contrast was made between the 1990s, in which non-famous filmmakers with tiny budget films could get distribution deals from studios like
Miramax Films or
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...
, (like
Kevin Smith's ''Clerks''), and the 2000s, when major stars with multimillion-dollar films (like ''The Butterfly Effect'' with
Ashton Kutcher) dominated the festival. Kevin Smith doubted that ''Clerks'', if made in the late 2000s, would be accepted to Sundance.
Numerous small festivals sprung up around Sundance in the Park City area, including
Slamdance,
Nodance,
Slumdance, It-dance, X-Dance, Lapdance,
Tromadance, The
Park City Film Music Festival, etc., though all except Slamdance are no longer held.
Included in the Sundance changes made in 2010, a new programming category titled "NEXT" (often denoted simply by the characters "<=>", which mean "less is more") was introduced to showcase innovative films that are able to transcend the confines of an independent budget. Another recent addition was the Sundance Film Festival USA program, in which eight of the festival's films are shown in eight different theaters around the United States.
The total economic benefits Sundance brings to Utah is estimated to be $167 million in 2020.
The 44th went virtual for the first time in 2021.
Directors
*
Geoff Gilmore – 1991–2009
*
John Cooper – 2009–2020
*
Tabitha Jackson
Tabitha () is an English feminine given name, originating with (or made popular through) Saint Tabitha, mentioned in the New Testament.
In the Bible
Tabitha or Dorcas is a woman mentioned in the New Testament. The English name is derived from an ...
– 2020–2022
See also
*
List of Sundance Film Festival award winners
*
List of Sundance Film Festival selections
*
Sundance Channel
References
Further reading
* Anderson, John. ''Sundancing: Hanging Out And Listening In At America's Most Important Film Festival''. Harper Paperbacks, 2000.
* Biskind, Peter. ''Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film''. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
* Craig, Benjamin
Sundance – A Festival Virgin's Guide: Surviving and Thriving at America's Most Important Film Festival Cinemagine Media Publishing, 3rd ed., 2016, .
* Levy, Emanuel. Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Cinema. NYU Press, 1999, 1st ed, 2001, 2nd ed 2011,3 ed.
* Smith, Lory. ''Party in a Box: The Story of the Sundance Film Festival ''. Gibbs Smith Publishers, 1999.
*
*
*von Roon, Alexander. "Grass and dark Tunnels: Sundance is a Marketing-Tool for the US Film Industry", Berliner Zeitung 2000.
Sundance Film Festival 1985–1996
Sundance – A Festival Virgin's Guide– full history and how to attend the festival.
External links
*
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Film festivals established in 1978
Film festivals in Utah
Tourist attractions in Summit County, Utah
Tourist attractions in Salt Lake City
Tourist attractions in Weber County, Utah
1978 establishments in Utah
Annual events in Utah