Sundance Film Festival

In the last 15 years the power of the Sundance Film Festival has grown to the point that, for many in the independent film world, it has become the Grinch that steals Christmas. Not intentionally, mind you, but its significance clogs postproduction and effects houses, jams sound studios and forces publicity companies and magazine editors to burn the midnight oil in preparation for those chilly 10 days.

While the Festival itself seems to have a sense of maturity appropriate to its age, it is also widening its breadth, attracting even more fans and spawning countless other ancillary festivals. And keeping with the times, this year the partycrashers were the dot-com folks, who threw lavish parties, sponsored seminars, and, most importantly, bought films. The AtomFilms of the world mostly picked up shorts, but a significant new acquistions force emerged in the form of the video retailers. In a new kind of deal, Blockbuster acquired home video rights to titles such as Valerie Breiman’s Love & Sex, ponying up in the deal P&A funds for the film’s eventual theatrical distributor. A new buyer, especially one with deep pockets, is always welcome in the marketplace; it remains to be seen whether U.S. theatrical distributions will warm to the partnership deal proposed by Blockbuster.

But although the parties, screenings and even public buses were more crowded than ever, gone this year were the flamboyant high-noon acquisition showdowns of years past. No doubt the absence of Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein (due to unspecified health problems) helped keep the calm. Indeed, it was widely speculated that both Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight, picked up by Screen Gems, and Nigel Cole’s Saving Grace, bought by Fine Line, would have wound up on the Miramax shelf had Weinstein been there to bid for them. But perhaps it was Miramax’s big buy last year – Happy, Texas for a rumored $10 million – and its modest theatrical performance that calmed the hordes of roving acquisitions executives.

Instead, this year the Festival returned to its classic formula: small, quirky films by new directors–films like actor and playwright Jon Shear’s debut, Urbania; Miguel Arteta’s Chuck & Buck; Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me; Raymond DeFelitta’s Two Family House; and, above all, Girlfight, a feminist Rocky in both content and production. The sense of how much had changed was brought home at the awards ceremony by Documentary Competition juror Jon Else, who in 1981 had won the first Documentary Prize for The Day after Trinity: Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb. Pointing to the front row of jostling cameramen, he recalled how that row had originally been crowded with filmmakers sitting on the floor with buckets of fried chicken between their legs.

Yet despite this transition from "extra crispy" to "Hollywood Extra," the Festival stays stubbornly the same, a big block party for the independent film community. – Peter Bowen

Berlin International Film Festival by Noah Cowan
International Film Festival Rotterdam by Noah Cowan
Sundance Film Festival by Peter Bowen
South by Southwest Film Festival by Josh Zeman
Sarajevo Film Festival by Scott Macaulay
International Festival of Latin American Cinema by Laura Kern
Hollywood Black Film Festival by Moira Griffin