Once again, the Sundance Film Festival has left an indelible mark on the filmmaking world, bringing together talents and films spanning from coast to coast, country to country, low budget to fully funded, nonfiction to narrative, for 10 unforgettable days.
As sporadic snowflakes descended upon Utah’s mountainous Park City reminding visitors of their splendorous surroundings, so too did beauty arrive at the fest’s door in the form of raw, passionate filmmaking.
Reaching a receptive audience was the goal–as was getting press, creating buzz, and locking down distribution deals, of course. This year, the festival featured a record 2,000-plus films from both brand-new indie directors and such noted filmmakers as Oliver Stone, Jim Sheridan, Thomas Vinterberg, Neil Labute, Lisa Cholodenko, Keith Gordon, Alan Rudolph, Michael Polish, and Campbell Scott, to name a few.
Sundance 2003 also boasted the directorial debut of two actors: Matt Dillon (Drugstore Cowboy, To Die For) with his film City of Ghosts, and 2003 Golden Globe nominee Salma Hayek with The Maldonado Miracle. Both pictures were included in the American Spectrum category. In that same category was Sam Neve’s Cry Funny Happy, in which Amy Redford–the daughter of Sundance Fest co-founder Robert Redford–made her acting debut.
The big winners were the Grand Jury prize winning films American Splendor, directed by Shari Springer-Berman and Bob Pulcini, and Capturing the Friedmans, directed by Andrew Jarecki. Both films address family dysfunction and emotional bifurcation as they explore the psychological terrain of home life for two families. American Splendor sketches the life of misfit comic book writer Harvey Pekar with stars Paul Giamatti (Planet of the Apes, Big Fat Liar) and Hope Davis (About Schmidt). Friedmans is a documentary about a family rocked by the shocking arrest of a father and son.
Winner of the coveted audience award for dramatic feature was The Station Agent, directed by Tom McCarthy, which follows the humorous, touching story of an unlikely trio who discover that sometimes solitude is better spent together. Miramax scooped up that film, which won the coveted audience award for dramatic feature, mid-fest, with plans to release it in English-speaking territories and Italy.
Other crowd pleasers included Peter Hedges’ Pieces of April, starring Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) and Katie Holmes, which United Artists beat out every other major buyer to pick up for $3.5 million–the festival’s biggest sale.
Also a hit was directing award winner Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen, starring Holly Hunter as a single mom whose teenage daughter spins out of control in her goal to become popular. Thirteen was picked up by Fox Searchlight.
Multi-tasking veteran actress Patricia Clarkson (High Art) turned out to be the hardest working belle of the ball. She was recognized with three special jury prizes for outstanding performance in three dramas: The Station Agent, Pieces of April and David Gordon Green’s All the Real Girls.
Sundance also offered an illustrious documentary lineup that included a festival favorite co-helmed by Richard LaGravenese and the notable, late Ted Demme titled A Decade Under the Influence. A love letter to 1970s filmmaking, the doc won over the audience from its first jam-packed screening. Director Stanley Nelson accepted a jury prize for his nonfiction piece, The Murder of Emmet Till.
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s Party Monster brought to life the ice-cold murder story surrounding infamous Disco 2000 club kid Michael Alig and his victim Angel Melendez. The Macaulay Culkin/Seth Green starrer is based on the book Party Monster written by club-kid-turned-author James St. James, and it certainly became a monster of a hit. Word spread like wildfire across the festival when it was discovered that outrageously high-priced tickets to the screening were selling on eBay, prompting anxious ticket holders to stand in line hours before the show.
Met with a standing ovation on its first screening, audiences and fans warmly reinforced the notion that the “party” was where it’s at, and that proved true for the rest of the fest.
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The makers of Party Monster threw their bash the same night as HBO, ICM and InStyle, giving partygoers some tough choices. Chloe Sevigny was seen out and about with James St. James. John Leguizamo, Gina Gershon, Andy Garcia and Jessica Lange all made their respective ways to several nighttime events. That dynamic duo, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, headed over to party with Matt Damon at the Project Greenlight event.
Killer Films, IFC and Cinetic Media all sponsored and hosted fetes attended by a wide range of movers, shakers, hangers-on and folks simply looking to have a good time. Even corporate sponsors outdid themselves this year with lavish party favors such as the Kenneth Cole totes carrying Nautica down jackets and free Crunch gym memberships handed out at the Sundance Channel bash.
The list of stars who stopped by Sundance was longer and more eclectic than the Golden Globes and the Indie Spirit Awards combined. An unending celebrity parade included the likes of such established Hollywood and indie notables as Kevin Spacey, Christian Slater, Stanley Tucci, Morgan Freeman,Penelope Cruz, Andy Dick, William H Macy, Dustin Hoffman and Sean Penn. Even Britney Spears showed up.
That star wattage notwithstanding, Variety reports that this festival was, as some agents and execs called it, a “solidly independent” move away from what some have viewed as an increasingly commercial and celebrity-mired event. Said UTA agent and indie specialist Howard Cohen to the trade, “I think it’s a classic Sundance year. There are some interesting new voices and it seems it’s back to basics in terms of independent film…there is definitely more serious content this year and more classic indie drama than in other years.”
Fine Line Features and Newmarket were vying to acquire American Splendor from HBO Films, and there were offers on Summit Entertainment’s Dot the I, ContentFilm’s Party Monster, MPCA’s Bookies and Thomas Vinterberg‘s It’s All About Love.” Overall, however, there were fewer deals, and many distributors left Sundance empty-handed, Variety reports.
Looks like we’ll just have to wait and see which will prove to be Sundance 2003’s In the Bedroom or The Good Girl.
