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Sundance Film Festival

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Sundance Film Festival
2020 Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

Location	Park City, Salt Lake City, Provo, Utah, United States Sundance Resort, Utah, United States
Founded	1978
Founded by	John Earle, Sterling Van Wagenen, Robert Redford
Hosted by	Sundance Institute
Language	English
Website	sundance.org/festival

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 takes place each January in Park City, Utah, Salt Lake City, and at the Sundance Resort, and is the largest independent film festival in the United States. It includes competitive categories, includes documentary and dramatic films, both feature length and short films, in which awards are given, as well as out-of-competition categories for showcasing new films. Mary G. Steiner Egyptian Theatre is one of the festival's oldest and most recognizable venues

Contents

• 1Description
• 2History
  • 2.11978: Utah/US Film Festival
  • 2.21981: US Film and Video Festival
  • 2.31984: Sundance
• 3Spin-offs in other locations
  • 3.1Sundance London (2012– )
  • 3.2Sundance Hong Kong (2014- )
  • 3.3Sundance at BAM
• 4Notability
• 5Growth of the festival
• 6Directors
• 7See also
• 8References
• 9Further reading
• 10External links

Description[edit]

Sundance is the largest independent film festival in the US, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016. It is held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and 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, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres.^{[citation needed]}

History[edit]

1978: Utah/US Film Festival[edit]

Sundance began in Salt Lake City 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, 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

1981: US Film and Video Festival[edit]

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.^{[citation needed]}

1984: Sundance[edit]

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. 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.^{[according to whom?]}

Spin-offs in other locations[edit]

Sundance London (2012– )[edit]

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 26–29 April 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 25–28 April 2013, and sponsored by car-maker Jaguar.

Sundance London 2014 took place on 25–27 April 2014 at the O2 arena; however the 2015 Festival was cancelled in an announcement on 16 January 2015.

Sundance London returned to London from 2–5 June 2016, and again 1–4 June 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, US comedy Corporate Animals, Lulu Wang's The Farewell (which won the Audience Award) and Sophie Hyde's film based on Emma Jane Unsworth's novel about female friendship, Animals.

Sundance Hong Kong (2014- )[edit]

Inaugurated in 2014, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong has taken place in 2016, 2017, 2018 and from 19 September to 1 October 2019. The 2020 event has not been scheduled yet. It is held at The Metroplex in Kowloon Bay each year.

Sundance at BAM[edit]

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[edit]

Many notable independent filmmakers received their big break at Sundance, including Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Todd Field, David O. Russell, Steve James, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Darren Aronofsky, 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, Little Miss Sunshine, Donnie Darko, El Mariachi, Moon, Clerks, Thank You for Smoking, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, The Brothers McMullen, 500 Days of Summer, Napoleon Dynamite, Whiplash, Boyhood, and Get Out.

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) in 2013, Whiplash in 2014, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl in 2015, and The Birth of a Nation in 2016.

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, Netflix, Lionsgate, and Universal.

Growth of the festival[edit]

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, (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^{[citation needed]} 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.

Disability

For the first time ever Sundance Festival had Audio Description (AD) and Assisted Listening Devices (ALD) This was provided for all screening for people who are blind, have low vision, or difficulty hearing. Every event, Sundance staff were able to give individual headsets if requested. American Sign Language was also provided at every Sundance event and Filmmaker Lodge panels. This year, every theater and shuttle had wheel chair accessibility.

This year, Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, is a documentary about Camp Jened in upstate New York in 1951. Camp Jened was a summer camp for teenagers with disabilities. A place where they could feel free and act as they pleased. It wasn’t just a place where they could act up, but also a place where it would help them grow political and progressive. The film continues to show how years later some of the alumni participated in activism, and helped establish legal acts for all disable Americans. Eventually, the camp closed in 1977. Jim LeBrecht, the co-director of the Film, was alumni from Camp Jened, making Sundance history. The Film Crip Camp also won the award for U.S. Documentary Competition in this year’s Sundance Festival Films.

The Crip Camp was not the only film that won an award about a film with people with disabilities that year. The Reason I Jump, directed by Jerry Rothwell. This film was based on a book by Naoki Higashida on his life when he was 13 years old. A young Japanese boy on his life conquest though landscape. As his thought, feeling, impulses, and emotions turbulence all of his decisions, he eventually realized what autism means to him. The film focuses on five different people and their insight of life living with disabilities. This film opens the emotions and reality of people with disabilities. The reason why this film won the for Word Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Festival 2020.

Women

The premiere of, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift's 2020 documentary film: Miss Americana, at the opening night of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and Swift's pre-announced appearance at the festival, caused a great surge in the number of attendees, traction and media coverage, which was new to the normally reserved festival.

Sundance Award Ceremony

At the Sundance Film Festival an award ceremony is held to present awards to independent directors whose films were chosen by a diverse group of film experts as the best. Film award prize winnings are based on regular length films with a 50 min+ airing time and short films with less than 50min. airing time including credits.

The award categories at the ceremony includes: the U.S. Grand Jury Prize is the ranking award which recognizes a film in both the U.S. Dramatic and U.S. Documentary Competitions as the best from the independent film community, The World Cinema Grand Jury which is the highest award for international films recognizes the best dramatic and documentary work in international independent filmmaking that year. These are the two best ranking and highest awards giving out at the ceremony.

The Directing Award honors directors in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and World Cinema Documentary Competition, the Special Jury Awards Jurors give a number of Special Jury Awards recognizing excellence in the craft of filmmaking. Inspired by the Art of Film Weekend, these prizes are chosen by their respective juries as they deem appropriate.

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award will be given to a U.S. Dramatic film for excellence in screenwriting, the Audience Awards are chosen by Festivalgoers themselves through ballots cast at the theaters after screenings. Audience Awards are presented to films in the Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Short film awards are presented to filmmakers for there outstanding vision and creativity. The short film awards include: the Short Film Grand Jury Prize ,Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction ,Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction ,Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction, Short Film Jury Award: Animation, Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting ,and the Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing.

Six juries of film and culture leaders screen all films in their respective sections and jointly decide which standout artistic and story elements to recognize with prizes. The top two best ranking and highest awards are the U.S. Grand Jury Prize( dramatic and documentary) and the World Cinema Grand Jury prize (dramatic and documentary).

Award Ceremony Top 2 Best Ranked & Highest award winners from (2016- 2019)

Best ranking award 2016: U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic & documentary

There were 123 feature-length films were selected for the Sundance Film Festival competition and 72 shorts. In total, 12,793 films were submitted.The top awards for 2016 are:

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg for,Weiner (film) — .With unrestricted access to Anthony Weiner's New York City mayoral campaign, this film reveals the human story behind the scenes of a high-profile political scandal as it unfolds, and offers an unfiltered look at how much today's politics is driven by an appetite for spectacle.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Nate Parker, for The Birth of a Nation (2016 film) — Set against the antebellum South, this story follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. After witnessing countless atrocities against fellow slaves, Nat devises a plan to lead his people to freedom.

Best highest Award 2016 : World Cinema Grand Jury for dramatic & documentary

These outstanding films won the following awards:

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, for Sonita — If 18-year-old Sonita had a say, Michael Jackson and Rihanna would be her parents and she'd be a rapper who tells the story of Afghan women and their fate as child brides. She finds out that her family plans to sell her to an unknown husband for $9,000.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Elite Zexer, for Sand Storm — When their entire lives are shattered, two Bedouin women struggle to change the unchangeable rules, each in her own individual way.

Best ranking award 2017: U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic & documentary

For the 2017 Festival, 113 feature-length films were selected, representing 32 countries and 37 first-time filmmakers, including 20 in competition. These films were selected from 13,782 submissions including 4,068 feature-length films and 8,985 short films. The top awards for 2017 are:

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, for Dina — “Dina” is a portrait of an unconventional romance between characters who “were called different” since birth.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Macon Blair, for I don't feel at home in this world anymore. — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves, alongside her obnoxious neighbor. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.

The Sundance Film Festival wrapped with awards for “I don’t feel at home in this world anymore.” and “Dina,” the grand jury winners in the U.S. dramatic and documentary competitions.

Best highest Award 2017 : World Cinema Grand Jury for dramatic & documentary

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Feras Fayyad, for Last Men in Aleppo After five years of war in Syria, Aleppo’s remaining residents prepare themselves for a siege. Khalid, Subhi and Mahmoud, founding members of The White Helmets, have— remained in the city to help their fellow citizens—and experience daily life, death, struggle and triumph in a city under fire.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Tarik Saleh, for The Nile Hilton Incident — In Cairo, weeks before the 2011 revolution, Police Detective Noredin is working in the infamous Kasr el-Nil Police Station when he is handed the case of a murdered singer. He soon realizes that the investigation concerns the power elite, close to the President’s inner circle.

Best ranking award 2018: U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic & documentary

There were 13,468 film submissions this year, including 3901 feature films, more than half of those international. 122 feature length films were selected for the Festival, representing 29 countries, along with 69 short films from 25 countries; 108 world feature film premieres, and 30 short film world premieres, were included.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Derek Doneen, for The Price of Free (Kailash). — As a young man, Kailash Satyarthi promised himself that he would end child slavery in his lifetime. In the decades since, he has rescued more than eighty thousand children and built a global movement. This intimate and suspenseful film follows one man's journey to do what many believed was impossible.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Desiree Akhavan, for The Miseducation of Cameron Post .— a story about the misguided efforts of Christian fundamentalists to “convert” gay teens to heterosexuality.

Best highest Award 2018: World Cinema Grand Jury for dramatic & documentary

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Talal Derki, for Of Fathers and Sons — Talal Derki returns to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses on Osama and his younger brother Ayman, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up in an Islamic Caliphate.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Tolga Karaçelik, for Butterflies — a beautiful Turkish film about three siblings seeking to bury their father in a setting that is oddly post-Islamic and yet still powerfully religious.

Best ranking award 2019: U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic & documentary

This year’s festival boasted over 14,000 submissions—a new record---over 4000 of which were feature films. The top awards for 2019 are:

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, for One Child Nation. — After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China’s one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Chinonye Chukwu, for Clemency. — Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.

Best highest Award 2019 : World Cinema Grand Jury for dramatic & documentary

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

• Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, for Honeyland. — When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland's basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic

• Joanna Hogg, for The Souvenir. — A shy film student begins finding her voice as an artist while navigating a turbulent courtship with a charismatic but untrustworthy man. She defies her protective mother and concerned friends as she slips deeper and deeper into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship which comes dangerously close to destroying her dreams.

Directors[edit]

• Geoff Gilmore – 1991–2009
• John Cooper – 2009–2020
• Tabitha Jackson – 2020–Present

Women Directors

Ava DuVernay’s is a African American filmmaker. She made history when her film Selma. It was historically accurate and touched the hearts of millions. Although with its accuracy it stirred up conversations throughout the media about politics, race and so on. Ava was the first black woman filmmaker to come out of the Sundance Film Festival successfully. Her work is about black empowerment and she uses her artistry to start waves of movement and to bring light to difficult topics. She furthers in her directorial position by directing the criminal justice documentary 13th and Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time. This made her the highest grossing black woman director in American box office history.

Ekwa Msangi is a Tanzanian American film maker. She created beautiful films and directed them. Her film “Farewell amor” was shown in Sundance Film Festival in 2019.

Notable Documentaries at Sundance

Documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival have been known to explore issues based on the environment, civil rights, as well as popular culture. Some of the best and most notable documentaries at Sundance tend to stimulate the viewer to ask themselves questions about how the world is today and invoke change. Below is a list of recent documentaries shown at the Sundance Film Festival that do just that.

Hooligan Sparrow:

Hooligan Sparrow is the story of Ye Haiyan; a human rights activist in China. This film takes the viewer through a journey of Ye Haiyan as she tries to get justice for six girls who have been kidnapped by their school principal and made them preform sex for money. This documentary, Hooligan Sparrow, is brave to put in one word considering not only was Ye Haiyan in danger the entire time of shooting the documentary, but also the filmmaker herself, Nanfu Wang.

RBG:

This documentary follows the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg starting in her college years going into her life as supreme court justice. Film makers Julie Cohen and Betsy West sit down and interview not only Ginsburg herself, but also people such as her children, husband, and grandchildren. Scenes range from her daily life such as Ginsburg's famous work out routine to Ginburg being shown memes and cartoons made in her image.

Crime and Punishment:

This documentary takes you inside the police force where corruption takes place and hidden quotas for arrests and citations influence good and not so good police officers. Film maker Stephen T. Maing takes the viewer through two story lines; one being about a boy being sent to Rikers Island for more than a year for a crime he did not commit and also through the eyes of ex police officer, Manuel Gomez.

Aquarela:

Aquarela takes you on a journey through ice and water on this planet. Film maker Victor Kossakovsky uses this documentary to follow rescue crews in order to help people who are in danger on icy paths. This documentary is also shot in 96 fps meaning it has excellent visuals as well as fast pace tragic events taking place like cars falling through ice.

Time:

In the documentary, director Garrert Bradley takes the viewer down a rabbit hole of the past and present life of wife and mother Sibil Fox Richardson. Sibil, a former getaway driver in a armed robbery, takes a plea deal and is out of prison in less than three years on parole. Her husband, Robert Richard is then sentenced to 60 years without parole for that same robbery. This documentary combines the home shot footage of Sibil Fox Richardson (aka Fox Rich), her six children, and her husband along with original footage of the Robert Richard's court case.

Coded Bias:

This particular documentary by film maker Shalini Kantayya dispenses how artificial intelligence can be biased towards different genders and races. This documentary features a plethora of AI experts, but most importantly Joy Buolamwini:a researcher at MIT. Buolamwini, after finding software that wouldn't work for African Americans or even female faces, creates the Algorithmic Justice League in order to fix this issue in unjust software.

See also[edit]

• 2003 Sundance Film Festival, 2004 Sundance Film Festival, etc.
• List of Sundance Film Festival award winners
• List of Sundance Film Festival selections
• Sundance Channel

Further reading[edit]

• 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, ISBN 0-9541737-8-3.
• 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[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sundance Film Festival.

• Official website

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