SUNDANCE - A FESTIVAL VIRGIN'S GUIDE
History of the Sundance Film Festival
History, Part 5
Sundance 1998 went ahead in Park City as planned, the solution to overcrowding woes coming in the form of a more streamlined approach to the event's organisation and the completion of the 1,300-seat Eccles Center, which alleviated the crunch in screening space. The crowds were still there - the Park Record's Tom Clyde noted that the town was full of "people with a clear vision for film, but only a vague notion of winter at 7,000 feet" - and the phone network still crashed from time to time, but that didn't seem to bother most festival attendees, who were there simply to enjoy the films. The telephone system was eventually beefed up for the Winter Olympics in 2002.
The films in 1998 included Vincent Gallo's debut Buffalo 66, Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, Peter Howitt's Sliding Doors, and Darren Aronofsky's Pi. Controversy also surrounded Nick Broomfield's documentary Kurt and Courtney, which was dropped from the festival in the face of legal threats by Courtney Love, allegedly over music rights. Slamdance also decided to pass, so perhaps with less to lose (and more to gain) than the others, upstart alternative festival Slamdunk agreed to screen the film. The lawsuit never materialised.
If the charge levelled by some that Sundance in the '90s had become more about the hype than the films is to be believed, then it was fitting that the 1999 festival bought a climax to the excitement that had never been witnessed before and has never been repeated. While the festival quietly celebrated its 21st anniversary, Blair Witch mania broke out of the fabled midnight screenings, and the film went on to become the most successful independent release of all time, grossing more than $140 million in the U.S. alone. If El Mariachi had revitalised the DIY filmmaking ethic six years before, the success of The Blair Witch Project dragged it fully into the spotlight. But the 1999 festival went beyond the hype surrounding Blair Witch. Doug Liman also presented Go, his follow-up to indie hit Swingers, and the German film Run Lola Run went down well with festivalgoers, bagging the World Cinema Audience Award.
With the turn of the new millennium, the relentless hype machine that surrounded the Sundance Film Festival in the 1990s seemed to have finally run out of steam. It was going to be very difficult to match the excitement of the 1999 event, and instead of trying, the festival showed its maturity with a move back in the direction of its roots - concentrating more on the films than the hype surrounding them. Many of the memorable films in the 2000 program focused on strong character-driven stories, including Miguel Arteta's Chuck & Buck, Karyn Kusama's Girlfight, which won the Grand Jury Prize, Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me, and Jenniphr Goodman's The Tao of Steve. Kevin Spacey was also honoured at the 2000 festival with the Tribute to Independent Vision.
The 11th festival under the Sundance moniker continued along the path laid down the previous year. The hype was kept under control, and the 2001 event focused firmly on the films and filmmakers. Christopher Nolan's striking debut Memento was a treat for festival audiences, but a number of other films were also well received, including Scott McGehee and David Siegel's The Deep End, John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Henry Bean's The Believer, which won the Grand Jury Prize, and Todd Field's In the Bedroom (which earned several Academy Award nominations later in the year). On the documentary side, Stacy Peralta's ode to the skateboarding days of his friends' youth, Dogtown and Z-Boys, also made a splash (picking up the Audience Award), and in recognition of the independent spirit in filmmakers who were producing works for online distribution, the first Sundance Online Film Festival hit the Web.
In February 2002, the juggernaut that is the Winter Olympic Games rolled into Park City, and Sundance kicked off early to make room for the massive event. Although Salt Lake City was the official Olympic host, more than a third of the events were held in the Park City area. Perhaps spurred on by the size of the upcoming event, the 2002 festival presented a record 120 feature films to eager audiences, in addition to one of the widest selections of non-film events (such as panels and music performances) seen in Park City for years. Memorable films included Gary Winick's Tadpole, Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity, which won the Grand Jury Prize, and Patricia Cardoso's crowd pleaser Real Women Have Curves (unsurprisingly the dramatic Audience Award winner).
Today, the Sundance Film Festival continues to be the pre-eminent event of its type in America and is considered one of the top five film festivals in the world (alongside Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and Berlin). Although the arrival of the new millennium has bought fresh challenges for the festival management, such as overzealous, non-affiliated corporate brands attempting to cash in on the publicity and an increasingly blurred line between studio and independent films, the festival remains firmly focused on showcasing the talents of America's independent filmmakers. Sundance is also trying to position itself to become, according to current director Geoffrey Gilmore, a "launch pad for English-language films." The festival continues to set attendance records (nearly 39,000 visitors in 2004), and submissions remain as high as ever (more than 5,870 in 2004) as the next generation of filmmakers try hard to get a piece of the Sundance dream.
Further reading on the Sundance Film Festival »