Sundance Film Festival

The most important film event in the United States, the Sundance Film Festival takes place each January in and around Park City, UT (with theaters in other Utah cities as well). Sundance is a leading showcase for new films, particularly emerging directors, and the key de-facto marketplace for American and international independent movies. It includes competitive sections for American and...Read more international dramatic and documentary films -- feature-length films and short films -- and a group of non-competitive showcase sections, including Premieres, New Frontier, Spotlight, and Park City at Midnight. The festival introduced a new non-competitive section for low- and no-budget narrative films for the 2010 festival, entitled "NEXT." It's said that independent filmmakers set their calendar by Sundance. Indeed, many sync up their production process to match Sundance's deadlines, but -- of the more than 3,700 submissions -- only about 120 features are invited to screen at the festival, setting in motion moves for many to find other festivals to debut a film once the Sundance lineup is set. With a dominant position among U.S. festivals, Sundance annually draws industry, programmers, and journalists from around the world leading to considerable scrutiny of its lineup and event. The sales of films from its roster became a key barometer of the festival's success in the 90s, but the measuring stick is changing as the marketplace and sales process for independent films evolves in light of new business models for movies driven by companies that fall outside of the traditional Hollywood studio system. Festival programmer John Cooper was named the new Director of the Sundance Film Festival, in the wake of the departure of longtime festival director Geoff Gilmore. The event launched an initiative at its 2010 event to bring festival films to YouTube during the event and has expressed a commitment to further develop such approaches. And this year, the Sundance Institute tapped a former studio executive, Keri Putnam (formerly of Miramax), as its new Executive Director.