With New Fest Section, Sundance Embracing Low & No Budget Movies
by Peter Knegt (September 2, 2009)
The scene at the Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Peter Knegt.
In a move aimed at showcasing more low and no budget films, the Sundance Film Festival has announced the creation of a new section for its upcoming 2010 event. Dubbed “Next,” the section which will feature six to eight narrative feature films, “selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking.” Festival Director John Cooper made the announcement today, citing “the desire to discover and promote filmmakers forging new ways to tell their stories, limited by resources but uninhibited by creativity.” “Less than equals greater than” is apparently the unspoken motto for NEXT. A festival announcement today said that staffers are referring to the section internally with the symbol: <=>. Cooper calls the icon a bit of an homage to Miranda July. The move by Sundance puts the festival in even greater competition for the sort of smaller films by emerging filmmakers that have become common at other American festivals like SXSW, CineVegas and longtime rival Slamdance. The selections for the new section, expected to be limited to American work, will not be in the festival’s official competition but organizers have been discussing the possibility of a prize selected by the filmmakers screening in the new section. As of yesterday, Sundance organizers had already received 4,964 applications and 3,689 films for their 2010 festival. Submissions for the January event still being accepted this month. Adding the new section is the first major move by new festival director John Cooper since being named to the post earlier this year after the departure of Geoff Gilmore. “Programming an event as important to the cultural landscape as Sundance Film Festival, we feel a responsibility both to represent new creative developments in the field and to contextualize films for our Festival goers,” Cooper said in a statement. “Historically, we have done this quite successfully with documentary, and most recently with New Frontier, ‘saving space’ as it were, to support different trends in storytelling. We want filmmakers to feel encouraged and intrigued by this new section of the Festival. We hope to excite audiences as well as inform a budding industry already investing in new models of distribution.”
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Correction to last post:
It is, of course, Larry Clark’s KIDS. Ken(neth) Clark, who did the monumental BBC series CIVILISATION, is quite another kettle of fish.
Re nhpbob’s suggestion that the Next section be based at the Egyptian—what a great idea! As someone who’s attended Sundance since 1987, my head is crammed with memorable viewing experiences in what was once the flagship venue (when the Library was all boarded up, and before the Eccles was built). Super-charged screenings of everything from Todd Haynes’ POISON to Ken Clark’s KIDS to Gaspar Noe’s IRREVERSIBLE—not to mention the first midnight show to ever sell out: Philip R. Ford’s drag extravaganza, VEGAS IN SPACE, which really brought out the Salt Lake City drag queens (among others : =) I LOVE THE EGYPTIAN!!
Hello Tom Whiteside…you made me laugh. You are absolutely right. That is a weird quote. It was a written quote not a verbal one…and I thought I had changed it. I was trying to reference the fact that too many creative choices can be a burden sometimes. Anyway I think you got the drift….but thanks for calling it out. I deserved that. C
And I think they should be programmed at the good ol’ Egyptian Theater, which though it’s the most-photographed exterior of any Sundance venue, has lost its luster somewhat when Premieres and Dramatic Competition (rightly so) moved to larger venues.
Why not put “Next” films at the traditional home of the Sundance Film Festival? (Especially if I work it again this year…) The seating capacity seems just right for low/no-budget films to have a splashy premiere.
This quote does not read well - I don’t think it says what he thinks it does. It’s rather hilarious, actually.
Festival Director John Cooper made the announcement today, citing “the desire to discover and promote filmmakers forging new ways to tell their stories, limited by resources but uninhibited by creativity.”