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Sundance Film Festival Overview

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The Sundance Film Festival is a film celebration that takes place annually in the state of Utah. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as the Sundance Resort, the festival is the premier showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival is comprised of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature-length and short films, and a group of non-competitive showcase sections.

Sundance began in Salt Lake City in 1978 as the Utah/U.S. Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to the state of Utah. The original goal of the festival’s founders was to display strictly American-made films, highlight what the potential of independent film could be, and to increase visibility for filmmaking in Utah. At the time, the main focus of the event was to conduct a competition for independent American films and to celebrate the work of “regional” filmmakers who worked outside the Hollywood system.

In 1981, the Sundance Film Festival moved to Park City and changed from being held in September to January. The move from late summer to mid-winter was reportedly done on the advice of famous Hollywood director Sydney Pollack, who suggested that running a film festival in a ski resort during winter would draw more attention from Hollywood. In 1984-85, the well-established Sundance Institute took over management of the U.S. Film Festival and changed the name to Sundance, after Robert Redford’s character from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Redford has played a central role in the background of the event, being one of the primary founders of the Sundance Film Festival. His involvement helped bring greater awareness and received unprecedented support responses from major Hollywood studios.

Many independent filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Edward Burns, and others had their big break at the Sundance Film Festival. It has also been responsible for bringing wider attention to lower-budget films such as Saw, Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, and Napoleon Dynamite which then became very mainstream successful quickly after.

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 that are not affiliated with Sundance.

The Sundance Institute has announced that a new section has been added for the 2010 festival. Dubbed “NEXT”, the section will present six to eight films which have been selected for their innovative work in low and no-budget filmmaking. It is intended to allow films born of, what festival director John Cooper calls “creative impatience”, to connect to audiences, industry, and the press.

To request a quote for a Sundance Film Festival package or to discover more of what On Point can do for you and your private party, contact us today at 713-227-8888 to speak with one of our executive travel consultants. You can also call our Travel Agent Hotline at 800-809-1277 or email us at info@onpointevents.com.

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