THE ARTS | Reshaping ideas, expressing identity
10 June 2008
Sundance—Supporting the Work of Independent Filmmakers Worldwide
The Sundance Film Festival and its sponsor, the Sundance Institute, offer support and exposure to independent filmmakers from around the globe.
The 10-day Sundance Film Festival, one of the most respected film festivals in the United States, is presented annually in January in the snowy mountains of Park City, Utah. Originally conceived as a showcase for movies by emerging independent filmmakers, Sundance has grown to include panel discussions, youth programs, online exhibition, and live music. More than 45,000 people from around the world attend the festival each year. Since it began in 1985, several American and international independent films that opened at Sundance have gone on to receive numerous Academy Award nominations and Oscars. The growing prestige of the festival attracts international celebrities to attend the screenings. The quality of the work shown has encouraged many to act in and direct independent films, often at salaries well below Hollywood standards.
Jury prizes and audience awards are announced on the last day of the festival in documentary and dramatic categories for both American and international films. Jurors are respected, working artists in the film industry. Awards are given for screenwriting, acting, directing, and cinematography, in addition to special awards. Not all films showcased at the festival are entered into competition; some are selected for special premieres or screenings to attract the attention of distributors, and several short films are screened in different categories and can also be viewed online at the Sundance Film Festival Web site at http://festival.sundance.org/2007/.
In 2007, 64 American and international films in dramatic and documentary genres were screened at Sundance, and five dramas made by American directors featured characters speaking mainly in Spanish, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese, or Muskogee (an American Indian language). Most of the more than 3,000 feature films submitted for consideration focused on global issues. Companies with a major presence at Sundance include France's Gaumont, Celluloid Dreams, and Wild Bunch; Germany's Bavaria Film International; Denmark's Trust Film Sales; and Fortissimo Films, an international company with offices in Amsterdam, London, Sydney, and Hong Kong. Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore has been widely quoted as saying that the Sundance Film Festival consciously made a move to increase its international focus when it introduced competitive prizes for non-American features and documentaries in 2005.
The film festival is sponsored by the Sundance Institute, which was founded in 1981 by the award-winning actor and director Robert Redford and is also located in Park City. The institute is important not only because it exhibits films that are daring and cutting-edge in both style and subject matter, but because it provides a vast international marketplace for small and large distributors and sales companies to acquire independent films for exhibition on movie screens around the world.
The Sundance Institute sponsors numerous year-round screenings and programs that support the work of independent filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights, and theater artists. The documentary film program encourages the exploration of innovative nonfiction storytelling and promotes the exhibition of documentary films to increasingly broader audiences. Each year about 25 emerging filmmakers from the United States and abroad participate in the institute's popular feature film program, which supports independent projects through its screenwriters' and filmmakers' labs and its post-production project. The program also provides ongoing creative and practical advice and financial support through fellowship opportunities. The film music program brings emerging composers to the institute, and the theater program nurtures the diversity of artistic expression among theater artists and supports original and creative work. The institute also maintains an independent film collection at the University of California, Los Angeles.
From the June 2007 edition of eJournal USA.
