One of the most anticipated or perhaps ‘the most anticipated’ film festival for documentary makers, the Sundance Film Festival takes place annually in the state of Utah, US. Considered as ‘the Cannes of documentaries’, Sundance is the largest independent film festival that is held in January in Park City, Ogden, Salt Lake City and the Sundance Resort.
It is a premier showcase for new works of American and international independent film makers as well as North American buyers and audiences with even the Oscar winners and nominees wanting their movies showcased at this extravagant event. Unlike other film festivals, the focus here is on watching the films rather than just attending the panels and parties, albeit there are those too. Also, whatever is showcased at the Sundance Film Festival, will soon be screened across many, if not all the other film festivals.
The documentaries at this festival are considered to be far superior which automatically generates a lot of press and also helps garner reviews, which if good, can help a great deal in boosting the documentary’s distribution chances. Sundance is known for taking care of its film makers where being invited to the Sundance family tends to be a long-term relationship that can give higher gains over the years.
The festival features ‘Competition’ section for US documentaries(16 entries) and dramatics (16 entries), international documentaries (12 entries) and dramatics, short films and animations. Apart from the Competition, the ‘Out of Competition’ section features showcases such as the Premiers Presented by Entertainment Weekly, Documentary Premieres, Spotlight, NEXT, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight and From the Collection.
Numerous independent film makers such as Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith and others received their big break at Sundance. Also, Sundance was responsible for bringing wider attention for movies like, The Blair Witch Project, Little Miss Sunshine, Saw, etc.
The festival was founded by Sterling Van Wagenen, Cirina Hampton Catania and John Earle in the August of 1978 in Salt Lake City as the Utah/US Film Festival in order to attract more filmmakers to the state. In 1985, the Sundance Institute took over the management of the festival and in 1991 renamed it to the Sundance Film Festival in honor of Robert Redford’s character of ‘The Sundance Kid’ from ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’.
From a low-profile venue for small budget – independent film makers outside of Hollywood, the Sundance Film Festival has changed into a media extravaganza that not only attracts hordes of media, Hollywood celebrities and paparazzi but also attracts the luxury lounges set up by companies not affiliated to the festival. In recent years Sundance has tried to curb such activities (luxury lounges) and launched the ‘Focus on Film’ campaign to counteract the effects.