Sundance Features

PROGRAM DIRECTOR TREVOR GROTH INTRODUCES US TO NEXT | By Alicia Van Couvering

One of the biggest premieres at Sundance this year doesn’t involve a star-studded premiere party or the unspooling of a glossy 35mm print: it’s an entirely new section of programming: , pronounced “Next” by those not brave enough to type or say the symbol. Director of programming Trevor Groth has been involved with the festival for 25 years, and points out that the symbol actually means “Less Than Equals Greater Than,” which alludes to the fact that all Next films were made for very small budgets — at least under $500,000 but in most cases much, much less than that. […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2010 Sundance Features
WHEN DOES PLAN B BECOME PLAN A? | By Anthony Kaufman

This is Anthony Kaufman’s Industry Beat column from our 2010 Winter issue. Old distribution models die hard. Everyone knows about the passing of that once-established indie film paradigm: Make a movie, show it at a festival, sell it to a distributor, get it booked in theaters, watch it find a home on DVD and cable — and then somewhere down the line, after all the release expenses are recovered, maybe even rake in a few bucks. And yet, when talking to filmmakers and sales reps heading into this year’s Sundance, it’s shocking how few are following new distribution strategies. Submarine […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2010 Sundance Features
“ART AND COPY”‘S DOUG PRAY By Alicia Van Couvering

Documentarian Doug Pray has made films about grafitti artists (Infamy), an iterant surfing family (Surfwise), Seattle punk scene (Hype!) Hip Hop DJ’s (Scratch) and truckers (Big Rig), and now, with Art & Copy, he profiles the living legends of corporate advertising. Advertising has a complicated relationship to filmmaking — for one thing, many feature and documentary directors make a living doing commercials. The men and women profiled in Pray’s film have been responsible for most revolutionary campaigns of the ad business — VW’s “Lemon” and “Think Small” were by George Lois, who also provoked controversy with his Esquire Covers and […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2009 Sundance Features
“MOON” director, Duncan Jones

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 23, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] Moon was a challenge to write. There were a set of pretty stringent criteria that we had come up with for ourselves in order to give us the best chance of getting the film made. I had to keep in mind a very limited budget, keep the cast as small as possible, write something that would best be done in a controlled, studio environment all while utilizing a very specific set of visual effects that would maximize production value for minimum cost. All that, and we didn’t want […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 23, 2009 Sundance Features
AGAINST THE CURRENT’S PETER CALLAHAN By Alicia Van Couvering

Peter Callahan’s Againt the Current is road movie that takes place in a vehicle that “couldn’t out-run a turtle.” It’s a story about Paul Thompson (Joseph Fiennes), a man in his mid-30’s who is still grieving for his wife five years after her death. Emotionally adrift, Thompson decides to make it literal by enlisting his best friend (Justin Kirk) to man a boat as he swims the entire length of the Hudson River. The pair are joined by a pretty, single barfly named Liz, played by Elizabeth Reaser, and they all stop briefly at Liz’s Rhinebeck house, where her mother […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2009 Sundance Features
“IN THE LOOP” co-writer-director, Armando Iannucci

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Thursday, Jan. 22, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I wanted to tell a comic story with a fast, screwball structure but set in the real world and that feels genuine and convincing at every moment. It was inspired by the real-life story that’s kept the world gobsmacked for the past five years: a U.S. President (using and abusing a UK Prime Minister) who mounts an ill-thought-through military invasion in the Middle East that looks like it’s been planned on the back of a cigarette packet. I wasn’t interested in portraying those high up in power, but […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 22, 2009 Sundance Features
“MOTHERHOOD” writer-director, Katherine Dieckmann

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, Jan. 21, 9:30 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I started out writing Motherhood from a place of frustration with contemporary movies because I couldn’t think of a single one that dealt nearly exclusively in a complicated, human, reasonably authentic way with the subject of what it’s like to be a mother. Moms in the movies tend to be neglectful, embarrassing, screwballs, alcoholics, bitches, or monsters of controlling will, which may be true of some mothers some of the time, but certainly not all mothers all of the time. As a serious fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 21, 2009 Sundance Features
SLAMDANCE: “ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE UNDEAD'”S JORDAN GALLAND By Alicia Van Couvering

Up there with Snakes On A Plane in the pantheon of catchy titles, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead is a horror-comedy about Hamlet and the Holy Grail premiering in Slamdance this year. The movie stars Jake Hoffman, Devon Aoki, Jeremy Sisto, John Ventimiglia, Ralph Maccio and Waris Ahluwalia and was only the second East Coast feature film to use the Red camera. The film’s director, Jordan Galland, is a New York-bred renaissance man with deep and varied interests. At age eighteen, Jordan Galland started a band, Dopo Yume, which toured the world with Cibo Matto and Rufus Wainwright, and he […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2009 Sundance Features
“THE MISSING PERSON”‘S NOAH BUSCHEL By Alicia Van Couvering

Noah Buschel’s The Missing Person stars Michael Shannon, last seen as the asylum-bound neighbor in Revolutionary Road, and if Sam Mendes had directed this film, he might have played it straight, disregarding the minefield of clichés to pay reverent homage to The Long Goodbye; Buschel knows what a bold move it is to make a noir in 2007, so he subverts the genre with un-ironic simplicity and a few tall guys hitting their heads on the ceiling. We meet Shannon’s character in his dungeon-like Chicago apartment. His cell phone is ringing; he’s a PI; he’s offered a lot of money […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2009 Sundance Features
“ROUGH AUNTIES” director, Kim Longinotto

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 19, 8:30 pm — Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City] I’m trying to tell a story as simply as possible. I want the experience of watching the film to be like watching a fiction film so that you feel like you are there and things are happening around you. The editor, Ollie Huddleston, tries to use just one or two shots in each scene so that there’s not a lot of cutting and it flows smoothly. I want the film to be an emotional journey for the audience, one that feels as unexpected and as vivid […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2009 Sundance Features

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.