Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance film festival is ranked as the top film festival in the United States. Here you will find both American and International films that are produced by independent film makers. It was initially introduced as a way for low budget films to get their materials recognized since they couldn’t get their foot in the door in Hollywood.
This has changes dramatically though since the Sundance music festival was introduced in 1978. Today may of Hollywood’s top stars come to the festival. Many of the producers are from sister companies of big Hollywood movie production businesses. However the organization behind the Sundance film festival has been discouraging this because they don’t want it to become another red carpet affair for major stars. They made this point clear at the 2007 film festival by handing out buttons that read Focus on the Film.
Yet the Sundance film festival does give credit where credit is due to various celebrity actors that helped get the festival noticed. Robert Redford who is from Utah where the festival is held is the Chairman for the film festival. Hence the name Sundance film festival came from Redford’s favorite character he has played in his career.
Many of the films in recent years at the Sundance film festival have been offered by subsidiary production companies of larger ones. This has led to some controversy regarding those particular films from such sources even being introduced into the festival. Yet since they separate companies they have been allowed to be part of the Sundance film festival.
It is rumored that there is plenty of work going on behind the scenese though to take the Sundance music festival back to its roots. This means removing the entire Hollywood celebrities and hoopla from the picture. It also means developing strict guidelines for what independent films will be considered. There will be some drawbacks though of doing this including lower attendance and the loss of some of the Sundance film festival sponsors.
If you have a particular film you would like to have offered at the 2008 Sundance film festival now is the time to submit it for review. The early deadline ends August 20th, . The official deadline is September 7th. The 2008 Sundance film festival will be taking place in Park City, Utah from January 17th through the 27th.
