The Sundance Film Festival premiere of Happy Endings opens the festival tonight, but for thousands of people getting on airplanes at 7AM earlier this morning the festival has already begun. When you arrive at the airport you have to sit through the normal process of checking your bags, getting you e-ticket, and making your way through security; however, when you arrive at the gate waiting for your flight, you start to recognize faces of the people who you saw last year at the festival. The real festival begins at the airport. People start talking business. What projects they have gotten into the festival this year, or what projects they submitted but got turned down! This year’s submission process was harder to be accepted than if you were applying to USC’s graduate film program.
After you hand out business cards to new and old friends you get to board the plane to head to Salt Lake City, Utah. You can tell who is going to Utah to Ski and who is going to attend Sundance just by looking at them. First class sits the returning filmmakers who have had a successful film over the last few years, back in coach sits the first time producers, and directors, who can barely afford to attend the festival, but the hopes of signing a six-figure distribution deal is worth the $200 Delta plane ticket (Delta offered discounts this year to film festival attendee’s).
The first time filmgoers who are just film lovers ask all of the questions like “Do I need to rent a car?”, “where is my condo?”, “Is it hard to get into the screenings?” You do not need a rent a car you can share a cab ride into park city for $50, if your condo is near Main Street or on the trolley stops you will not need to rent a car. The films always sell out early as thousands of moviegoers are trying to purchase tickets to all of the best movies; tickets are even selling for over $100 on eBay to the most popular premieres. The truth is that the tickets will sell out but there is always about a 10% or 15% no show at the door, so if you wait in the stand by lines you will most likely to get in if you are with in the front 20 – 35 people in the line. Sundance is only as difficult as you make it. If you are here for a vacation enjoy, and if you’re here for business enjoy!
For films that have been accepted at this years festival, many of the major film exec’s already know what films they are going to make bids on. Screeners have already been sent out, and meetings have been in the works for weeks. The next 10 days will debut many first time filmmakers, and will either make or break people’s careers in the industry. One semi-positive review in Variety and a distribution deal by Fox Searchlight could make someone the next hot Hollywood player.
What low budget feature films will be the next “Napoleon Dynamite” or “Open Water” and what documentaries will follow in the footsteps of “The Corporation” or “Super-Size Me”?
