Los angeles – Held each year in Park City, Utah, and backed by actor-director Robert Redford, the Sundance Film Festival (the leading US showcase for independent motion pictures) brings film fans from around the world together to watch the most recent crop of indie titles – like last year’s You Can Count on Me, or Chuck & Buck – and talk about movies, plus enjoy one, big 10-day party.
For the 106 feature films on display this year, however, Sundance is more than just a festival. It is a market for filmmakers, and Hollywood executives regularly show up with fat checkbooks to buy movies for the upcoming year and sew up fresh talent before their names show up in lights.
Top actors and actresses also strap on their snowshoes to promote new movies on the edge of mainstream film. This year’s edition is no exception, with Christine Lahti, star of TV’s former Chicago Hope, kicking off the festival’s opening night with her feature directorial debut, My First Mister.
Samuel L Jackson will be talking up Caveman’s Valentine, about a homeless man caught in a murder plot, and red hot Julia Stiles, whose Save the Last Dance was No. 1 at US box offices last week, will be on hand for The Business of Strangers, centering on a struggle for corporate power.
But the buzz ahead of Sundance centers on transgender films, such as a movie adaptation of the popular stage play Hedwig and the Angry Inch from John Cameron Mitchell. Princesa tells of a Brazilian transgender whose sex change, man-to-woman, raises questions, and a documentary titled Southern Comfort follows the story of a female-to-male transsexual suffering from ovarian cancer.
Among the hot titles, too, are movies like time-traveling adventure Donnie Darko, which uses digital special effects to tell a story. Series 7 takes the cost advantages and compact size of new digital cameras and applies them to its fictional drama about a reality TV show called The Contenders.
The computer effects, digital animation and digital films that are trickling into indies at Sundance have festival goers talking about a new generation of movies and moviemakers.
“We probably haven’t had a festival that is more difficult to typify than this year … it’s an independent world in transition,” said Geoff Gilmore, Sundance co-director.
But Gilmore is quick to add that special effects alone don’t make a good movie, and relatively low-cost digital cameras and editing equipment don’t spawn genius filmmakers.
Advice for the new wave:
Good movies tell good stories, and one of Sundance’s many aims is to bring fresh filmmakers together with the likes of Fine Line Cinema, Miramax Films, Artisan Entertainment and any of the specialty film units of Hollywood’s major studios.
Like last year, distributors are staying relatively low key about what films they are looking at, but writer-director Tom DiCillo’s Double Whammy, about a down-on-his-luck New York City cop starring Denis Leary, seems to be making many lists.
Still, Sundance is where buyers see many films for the first time with real audiences, as opposed to being viewed inside private screening rooms. As a result, hyped-up movies coming into Sundance can fizzle out if audiences don’t respond.
“One never knows until after a few days how the lineup will pan out,” Artisan chief executive Amir Malin.
The original Blair Witch Project, for instance, was bought by Artisan for around $1 million at 1999’s Sundance, but it was not the most talked-about or highest-priced film at the show. Still, it went on to gross over $250 million worldwide.
Blair Witch is one of Sundance’s recent major successes, and for aspiring filmmakers, it’s a rarity. Look at last year’s big buzzmaker, Girlfight, a festival favorite and co-winner of the best drama award. But when it debuted in theatres this fall with huge media hype, it sold a mere $1.5 million worth of tickets, according to Exhibitor Relations Inc.
By contrast, 2000’s other drama co-winner, You Can Count on Me, wasn’t sold to distributors until after the festival ended. Yet, it has won critical praise, Oscar attention, has generated $5 million in box office receipts and is still in theaters.
For first-time filmmakers, probably the best Sundance advice comes from veteran Allison Anders, whose Things Behind the Sun premieres there. “Go for the experience, have a good time and don’t get too competitive,” Anders said.
New Line Cinema is throwing a party for Invisible Circus, cable TV’s Showtime network sponsors one for the premiere of 3 am and Stuff magazine tosses a bash for Super Troopers.
Veteran talent and fresh faces fill the streets of Park City through January 27, when Sundance climaxes with its awards ceremony, and heading into the finale it’s anybody’s guess who will be there when the party hangovers begin to wear off.