blogs.sltrib.com - Sundance Film Festival Coverage from The Salt Lake Tribune

No SchmoozeDance

After five years of showing Jewish-themed movies and providing a gathering place for Jewish filmgoers, SchmoozeDance is no more.

A call by the Tribune's David Burger to Temple Har Shalom in Park City today confirmed that the event, launched in 2003, is not taking place in 2009.

One reason: Temple Har Shalom will be an official venue for the Sundance Film Festival, listed in the festival's guide as the 267-seat Temple Theatre. (The film schedule is blank for a few hours on the festival's two Friday nights, for Shabbat service.)

What's worth seeing?

This weekend is when Utahns who bought individual tickets for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival get to pick their screenings (after the ticket-package holders did their selections this week).

Now comes the age-0ld question: Hey, Mr. Movie Critic, what are the good movies I should try to see?

My answer is always this: Your guess is as good as mine.

I can tell you what movies will have substantial buzz attached to them, regardless of their quality. Here are five movies, in alphabetical order, that people will be talking about before they premiere:

"Adventureland" (Premieres) - The director of "Superbad," Greg Mottola, teamed with the female star of "Twilight," Kristen Stewart. Even though it's hitting theaters in March, there will be plenty of interest at the festival.
"Big Fan" (U.S. Dramatic competition) - A dramatic turn for comedian Patton Oswalt, who plays a New York Giants fan who's assaulted by his favorite player (Michael Rapoport), this drama also marks the directorial debut of Robert Siegel, hot off his screenplay for "The Wrestler."
"Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" (U.S. Dramatic competition, pictured) - The writer-director of this dark drama is John Krasinski, better known as mild-mannered Jim from NBC's "The Office." The source material is a book by David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in September.
"Paper Heart" (U.S. Dramatic competition) - This semi-documentary romance, featuring Michael Cera ("Superbad") and his real-life girlfriend Charlene Yi ("Knocked Up"), was generating heat in Hollywood before Sundance announced the movie's inclusion on the festival slate.
"The September Issue" (U.S. Documentary competition; also Salt Lake City Gala film) - R.J. Cutler's inside look at Vogue magazine and its imperious editor Anna Wintour will be a hot ticket. The fur-loving Wintour's expected appearance in Utah - and the annual gathering of PETA protesters - should make for some fireworks outside the theater.

As for general advice, think about this: Premieres will probably get released soon enough, so go for something really obscure that you're likely never to see come this way again.

The tale of the hat

When last I wrote of Jeffrey Wells, the longtime movie-industry journalist and writer of the Hollywood Elsewhere blog, he had found lodging in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival - but was still upset that his old lodging at the Star Hotel was booked out from under him, even though Wells had left his cowboy hat (pictured at left) as a good-faith indicator that he would return.

(Yeah, I know, in the real world people leave their credit-card numbers to book a room, but there's something romantic - in a creepy sort of way - about Wells' hat gesture.)

Here's the punchline: According to Wells' latest (and, he swears, his last) post on the subject, the Star Hotel's proprietor got rather freaked out by all this Internet attention - so she told Wells she sent his hat to the Park City Police Department, and he can pick it up there.

Meanwhile, the comments on Wells' blog over this incident have produced insight, a fine cowboy poem and a pitch for Wells to star in his own reality show.

Slamdance music?

In celebration of its 15th anniversary, the Slamdance Film Festival is launching its first "Slamdance Underground Music vs. Film Tour" that will cross the country and land in Park City for three performances during the festival.

Included in those three performances is the Jan. 15 "Housewarming Party" at the Star Bar, the first day of the festival (which coincides with the Sundance Film Festival.

The music selections will be "focused on intellectual, chilled out hip hop and experimental blues," a Slamdance press release announced. Headliners are hip hop group Pseudo Slang and The Woes, described as a "stew of Delta Blues and early country, of bluegrass and New Orleans marching band music." Boy, I wish I could craft descriptions like the Slamdance PR people.

The tour lifts off Dec. 31 in Brooklyn, and wraps up in Tennessee on Jan. 28.

The Park City dates are:
1. Jan. 15, 10 p.m., The Star Bar, Park City
2. Jan. 16, 5 p.m., Park City (venue TBD)
3. Jan. 17, 5 p.m., Park City (venue TBD)

Here's The Woes in a very dark room:

Here's a track from Pseudo Slang:

-- David Burger

Sundance history, preserved

The documentary that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival has been added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

"Water and Power," Pat O'Neill's experimental look at Los Angeles - juxtaposing urban scenes of the city's downtown with images of the rural Owens Valley, where the city gets its water supply - was one of 25 films added to the registry on Tuesday.

It's not the first Sundance movie to make it to the National Film Registry. Jim Jarmusch's 1984 debut "Stranger Than Paradise," Ross McElwee's self-referential 1986 documentary "Sherman's March," Steven Soderbergh's 1989 classic "sex, lies and videotape," Julie Dash's 1991 African-American drama "Daughters of the Dust," and the 1994 basketball documentary "Hoop Dreams" were already on the list.

A 'Winning' addition

Sundance organizers on Monday added another movie to the 2009 slate: "The Winning Season."

It's a comedy written and directed by James C. Strouse - whose last two movies, the Iraq War drama "Grace Is Gone" and the slacker dramedy "Lonesome Jim" (which Strouse wrote for director Steve Buscemi), played at Sundance.

The movie stars Sam Rockwell (whose recent Sundance credits include "Joshua," "Choke" and "Snow Angels") as a washed-up basketball coach who gets a shot at redemption by leading his local high-school girl's team - whose members include Emma Roberts (Julia's niece, soon to be seen in "Hotel For Dogs") and teen Sundance alums Shareeka Epps (“Half Nelson”) and Emily Rios (“Quinceañera”).

Being a last-minute entry to Sundance can have its advantages. At Sundance '08, the raucous comedy "Hamlet 2" was a late arrival - and left with a $10 million distribution deal with Fox Searchlight, the largest deal in Sundance history.

Piling on

Many's the time someone walks out of a Sundance Film Festival screening and says, "What a load of crap!" (or words to that effect).

The Polish Brothers - the men who gave us "The Astronaut Farmer," "Northfork" and "Twin Falls Idaho" - are practically daring audiences to do that with their new movie, "Manure," which debuts Tuesday, Jan. 20, at the Eccles Theatre in the Premieres section of Sundance '09.

The movie centers on the struggle for control of a manure company, between a slick fertilizer rep (Kyle MacLachlan) and the founder's estranged daughter (Tea Leoni, pictured) - who must turn to the firm's top salesman (Billy Bob Thornton) for help.

Here's a teaser trailer for "Manure," which is as enigmatic as you would expect from the Polish brothers:

Post-Christmas viewing

If you're sick of Christmas, and have a taste for movie gore, you might get a kick out of this trailer for Jason Eisener's short film "Treevenge" (playing at Sundance, ahead of the Norwegian zombie movie "Dead Snow" in the Park City at Midnight program). Definitely not safe for work.

Will blog for lodging

Somebody has to step up here, because Sundance wouldn't be Sundance without Jeffrey Wells there to kvetch about it.

The esteemed movie-industry journalist, and proprietor of the blog Hollywood Elsewhere, reports that his usual room at Park City's Star Hotel has been booked out from under him - even though he left his cowboy hat "as a token of my intention to return the following year. A cowboy hat left behind means you're a true-blue guy!"

Wells is now scrambling to find lodging, and will accept a room-share arrangement if necessary.

Wells has his limits, though: "Park City or nothing. In fact, Park City proper or nothing. I would rather stay in New York and never go there than stay in some outer s---ty area like Kimball Jct. or Heber City or the Canyons."

UPDATE: Wells reports Monday on his Hollywood Elsewhere blog that he has found lodging in Park City. The only problem? He can't check in until Friday, Jan. 16 - and Wells arrives on Wednesday, the 14th. Meanwhile, Wells' readers/commenters have gone to town on him and his cowboy-hat economics.

The shadow festival

You pre-register months in advance, order tickets online weeks in advance, and stand in line for hours for the chance to be in the first audience to see a much-buzzed-about movie at the Sundance Film Festival.

Too bad you're not really the first audience to see it.

As The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik wrote in today's edition of the industry trade paper, many prospective buyers have probably watched the movie - through bootlegged DVDs.

Some of the Sundance '09 titles reportedly making the rounds: "Paper Heart," the semi-documentary romance starring Michael Cera; "Shrink," a drama starring Kevin Spacey (pictured); the immigration drama "Amreeka"'; and Bobcat Goldthwait's comedy "World's Greatest Dad," starring Robin Williams.

Like anything in Hollywood, bootlegged screeners are a tradeable commodity and a sign of status. You're not somebody unless you've already seen what everybody else is dying to see.

But the people selling the movies at Sundance are sounding the alarms about this underground trade.

"There are films where it could virtually kill the market for a movie," Cinetic Media chief John Sloss told Zeitchik. "From our perspective, this is war, and you're at your peril if you don't treat it that way."

Labels: Distribution

Lying awake at night

Karina Longworth, the razor-sharp opinionator on Spout.blog, raises an interesting issue in this guest post on Filmmaker magazine's blog: What about the movies that get into Sundance, but then don't get out?

She begins by reflecting on Steven Soderbergh, whose debut "sex, lies and videotape" marks its 20th anniversary with a special screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

"Almost ten years ago, circa 'Erin Brockovich,' I remember lying awake one night worrying about Steven Soderbergh's career," Longworth writes. She wondered if Soderbergh would ever be able to get back to quirky, personal movies.

Now, with four hours of "Che" opening in New York and slowly rolling out across the country next year, Longworth has her answer.

But now there's a new dilemma keeping Longworth awake: "Now, I lie awake at night worrying if people who are making films as personal and indifferent to Hollywood commericalism as those by Gerardo Naranjo, Matthew Newton and Frank V. Ross will ever get to have a career anything like Steven Soderbergh's - because before we can even wonder if they'll ever get to prove their mettle through the moderately-budgeted studio films which lead to the franchise blockbusters which result in the clout necessary to mount completely uncompromising 4.5 hour dream projects, we have to wonder if they'll ever see success on the level of the million-dollar Sundance sale."

Confessions of a publicist

For some, the Sundance Film Festival is 11 days of movie magic. For others, not so much.

Consider this blog post by Mona Elyafi, a Hollywood publicist: "While the festival has seemingly become a Mecca for the myriad wannabes who unanimously fool themselves into believing that some Jesus Christ will jump start their pending fabulously famous acting career, for the likes of moi – slightly sarcastic entertainment publicist -- it is as hellishly painful as Jesus’ own crucifixion."

Elyafi describes the horrors of guiding not-quite A-list celebs through Sundance's "beauty lounges," being turned away at the door by smiling blonde women with clipboards with vague (and never fulfilled) promises to have merchandise shipped to her clients back in Cali.

But, in her trashing of shallow celebrity (and burning a bridge or two by dissing David Schwimmer and Scott Wolf), Elyafi does recount a glorious moment of an accidental celebrity
encounter with none other than shock-rocker Alice Cooper.

"As big of a fiasco as Sundance can be," Elyafi concludes, "it obviously also can deliver some of the most memorable moments in a lifetime. In the end the extravaganza becomes absolutely worthwhile but only when the real stars dance like no one is watching."

Labels: Gifting suites, publicists

"Leaner, meaner" Sundance?

What if they gave a film festival and no one in the industry showed up?

That's the fear surrounding the Sundance Film Festival next month, as independent distributors fall by the wayside.

In an analysis in Daily Variety, writers Dade Hayes and Michael Jones survey the current landscape - a bit of a desolate one, with recent staff cuts at two distributors (Peace Arch and First Look), a Chapter 11 filing for Yari Film Group's release arm, and the shuttering of the long-struggling distributor ThinkFilm.

This comes at the end of a year in which Paramount cut back on its Paramount Vantage division, while Warner Bros. shut down two indie divisions - Warner Independent and Picturehouse - and cut back a third, New Line Cinema.

There's also a question of whether industry reporters will make it to Park City. An item in the New York Post's Page Six column says The Hollywood Reporter, one of the two major trade papers in Tinseltown, may not be able to send writers to cover the festival because the paper's expense accounts are frozen.

Things are tough all over.

Rockin' on Lower Main

Fans of good music won't have to shlepp all the way up Main Street at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The Music Cafe - which in past years has headquartered at the Star Bar at the top of Old Main - is relocating to a temporary building space between 7th and 9th in Lower Main, amid the Shops at The Village.

Among the acts playing at the Music Cafe: '60s rockers Chad & Jeremy, country star Wynonna Judd, John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, and singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata (pictured).

Providing the look

A Salt Lake City company is providing its design prowess - and experience that ranges from the Salt Lake Olympics to the Super Bowl - to the Sundance Film Festival.

Infinite Scale Design Group made its reputation (as this KSL report notes) in 2002, wrapping Salt Lake City skyscrapers in giant murals during the Winter Olympics. That got the attention of the NFL, and now the firm is working on its fifth Super Bowl.

Between now and February, Infinite Scale has six major projects in the pipeline: The Orange Bowl, the BCS Championship, Sundance, the NHL All-Star Game, the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500.

Inside dish

Here's a blog you may want to keep an eye on: Dashtosomewhere's Weblog, written by one Brittney Sheffield, a 25-year-old Oklahoma native and restless traveler who's working at the Sundance Film Festival.

So far, Brittney has just gotten started learning the Sundance ropes. But the cool perk is getting vouchers to see festival movies. So far Brittney has picked six movies: "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," "Big Fan," "Shrink," "Humpday," "Spring Breakdown" and "The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle."

The hardest ticket to get, according to Brittney, is "The September Issue," R.J. Cutler's documentary about Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

Sorry, wrong festival

You know a film festival has a reputation as one of the world's premiere movie events when it gets credit for movies it didn't play.

Consider this quote from the Australian newspaper The Age, in a glowing profile of "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle:

" 'Slumdog Millionaire' made its mark at the last Sundance Film Festival, where its zingy style must have stood out among the drabs and check-shirt sagas of American indie cinema."

Only problem: "Slumdog Millionaire" didn't play at Sundance. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

Will the economy crash the party?

Less than a month until the Sundance Film Festival starts, and all most of us can do is speculate.

Will the films be any good? Will one film break out as a mainstream success story? Will it snow?

And this year, a more pressing question: Will the lousy economy have any effect on the party atmosphere in Park City?

Not so much, according to The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik, who reports that many companies who sponsor the festival - as well as the "ambush marketers" who piggyback on the festival's success - will still be in attendance, attracting stars such as Paris Hilton (pictured here at a party at Sundance '08).

Some sponsors are cutting costs, though. Entertainment Weekly will shelve its annual gala party, and Delta and Stella Artois are cutting back, too. But even where sponsors have dropped out of Sundance - Volkswagen is the most notable example - someone comes along to take up the slack (in this case, Honda).

Labels: parties

A death in the family

One of the most talked-about documentaries at last year's Sundance Film Festival was "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*," Christopher Bell's illuminating look at steroid use in professional sports - a topic close to home for Bell, a former steroid user whose brothers also bulked up on the stuff.

Now comes news that Bell's brother Michael, a k a "Mad Dog," has died at the age of 37.

The movie profiled Michael's attempts to break into the world of professional wrestling - for which, he believed, he needed to use steroids to build muscle. His failures in wrestling, the movie shows, led to years of drug and alcohol abuse.

A dozen for the lab

The Sundance Institute has chosen the 12 scripts whose writers will gather for the January Screenwriters' Lab, just before the Sundance Film Festival begins in Park City.

IndieWire has the complete list here. The one that seems the most exciting is "Howl," a hybrid of narrative and documentary about Allen Ginsberg's landmark poem - and the resulting obscenity trial in 1957. The movie will be co-written and co-directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, makers of the Oscar-winning documentary "Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt."

The play's the thing

People often think of the Sundance Institute only as the group that puts together the Sundance Film Festival. But the institute's efforts to foster independent voices goes beyond the festival - and even beyond film.

This week, the Sundance Institute is convening a three-day conference on new play development in New York. The groups participating, according to Daily Variety, are focused on developing new plays - through stage readings or writing grants, for example.

Philip Himberg, artistic director of Sundance's theater program, said, "to date, no forum has existed for leaders in this area to come together." Himberg added that the institute's long-term goal with conferences like this is to encourage more new works in New York and in the country's regional theaters.

Labels: plays

A tale of two festivals

They are less than 400 miles apart. They both take place in former mining towns converted into ritzy ski destinations. They both draw thousands of film fanatics and celebrities.

So why are the Sundance Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival so different?

That was the topic for conversation Monday at the International Film Festival Summit in Las Vegas. At a panel discussion moderated by Daily Variety's Anne Thompson (and written up in Variety's festival blog, The Circuit), Sundance senior programmer Trevor Groth and Telluride co-director Gary Meyer talked about the differences.

Telluride doesn't have a competition, like Sundance does, but Telluride has become a launching pad for movies angling for Oscars. In past years, "Brokeback Mountain," "Walk the Line" and "Capote" all debuted at Telluride - and Meyer said those movies "really transformed" Telluride.

Groth said Sundance founder Robert Redford "would be happy not to have a film competition," but foreign filmmakers were attracted by the chance to compete. Groth said some smaller, riskier films - he cited "The Blair Witch Project" as an example - do better in the non-competitive programs (like Park City at Midnight, or Spectrum) then in the high-pressure competition slates.

One thing both festivals have in common: Complaints last year from industry execs that there wasn't enough marketable product.

"In Bruges" gets its props

Most of the world forgot about "In Bruges," the opening-night film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, not long after its opening in February (when it made a paltry $8 million over its run).

But the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association remembered. They awarded Martin McDonagh's little hitman comedy with three Golden Globe nominations - one for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) and two for lead actors Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell.

"I didn't see it coming! Not even as a dark horse," Farrell told The Los Angeles Times.

Hyped for the horror

The horror fan website Bloody Disgusting is excited for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, particularly the really gory parts.

The site this week touted the first photos from the Park City at Midnight entry "Grace." It stars Jordan Ladd as a pregnant woman whose child dies before birth. When the mom decides to carry to full-term, the baby is born alive - or undead, or something.

More photos, none of them gory, are here.

Queer Lounge goes on

Presence is publicity - the only way to get your point across is being seen.

That's what's keeping the Queer Lounge - a focal point for gay and lesbian filmmakers - in business at the Sundance Film Festival, in spite of talk of gays boycotting Sundance and all things Utah because of the Mormon church's support of California's gay-marriage ban.

"For many [LGBT] filmmakers, Sundance is their single most important opportunity to ensure their stories about our community reach a broad audience," Neil G. Giuliano, president of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, told The Salt Lake Tribune's Christopher Smart. "And they are not in a position to stay away from that opportunity. ... We continue the Queer Lounge with a desire not to be rendered silent or invisible."

Labels: boycott

'Doonesbury' at Sundance?

First it was Lisa Simpson. Now Alex Doonesbury, daughter of Mike Doonesbury in Garry Trudeau's comic strip "Doonesbury," is the latest cartoon character entering her movie in the Sundance Film Festival.

Here's the story so far:

Cooper's dilemma

Today's Culture Vulture column (in the dead-tree Salt Lake Tribune) examines the whole foofooraw over California's Prop. 8 - the ban on same-sex marriage - and the calls for a boycott of the Sundance Film Festival through a unique perspective: That of the festival's programming director, John Cooper.

Cooper - who married his partner of 19 years while it was still legal - is also one of thousands of California gays and lesbians whose marriages are in legal jeopardy because of Prop. 8.

But Cooper also is determined to make Sundance a success, and a great experience for the filmmakers who bring their work to it.

"I'm not going to go in and damage this festival -- or more importantly damage an experience a filmmaker might have -- for talk of boycott," he said.

96 shorts

Sundance has announced its slate of short films - 96 of them, including works directed by actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Stop-Loss") and Brady Corbet ("Funny Games"), animators Bill Plympton ("Your Face") and Don Hertzfeldt ("Everything Will Be OK") and Oscar-winning documentarian Jessica Yu ("Breathing Lessons").

The two interesting things about the shorts program:

Ten of the shorts will be available for free download on iTunes.
For the first time, the shorts competition winners will be announced in a separate ceremony, on Tuesday, Jan. 20. (Previously, the shorts winners were announced during the big-enchilada Awards Night on the festival's final Saturday - where they were usually ignored as the feature winners were announced.)

Slamdance's slate

The Slamdance Film Festival, Sundance's pesky kid brother, has announced the 29 titles on its feature-film slate.

Slamdance runs Jan. 15-23 at the Treasure Mountain Inn, up Old Main Street in Park City - concurrent with Sundance's festivities.

The opening-night film, "I Sell the Dead" (pictured above), is a horror thriller that boasts some decent Hollywood bonafides: Stars Ron Perlman ("Hellboy") and Dominic Monaghan ("The Lord of the Rings," "Lost"), and cult-horror faves Angus Scrimm ("Phantasm") and Larry Fessenden ("Wendigo").

For ticket information and schedules, go here.

(Photo: Glass Eye Pix)

Scheduling conflict

Actor Alan Cumming will skip Sundance - and the premiere of his new movie, "Dare" - because it's the same week as another event he wants to attend: Barack Obama's inaugural.

And, yes, the fact that Cumming is gay has something to do with his choice.

Cumming told The New York Post's Page Six column that Obama is "someone who I believe will make America a place where gay people will be respected and given true equality."

The Page Six writer cites Cumming's choice as another sign that a proposed boycott of the Sundance Film Festival - by gay activists mad at Utah for being home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members backed the gay-marriage ban Prop. 8 in California - is gaining traction.

The local angle

Every movie in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival is important to somebody.

For proof, check out this sampling of news items from around the world, each one spotlighting "the local angle" from the slate of Sundance films announced last week:

In The Japan Times, the highlight is "The Cove," a documentary about the annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins in a Japanese harbor village.
The Canadian press (such as this clip from the Calgary Herald) is talking up four films from the country up north: Documentaries "Nollywood Babylon" and "Prom Night in Mississippi," and dramatic entries "Victoria Day" and "Before Tomorrow."
The Jerusalem Post reports on the one Israeli film in the World Cinema Dramatic competition, "Zion and His Brother."
A movie made in Kansas, "The Only Good Indian" got a writeup in The Wichita Eagle.
The folks who run the website Adoring Amber Heard, dedicated to their favorite young actress ("Pineapple Express," "Never Back Down") and former Maxim cover girl (at left), are excited for "The Informers."
The web site Zombie Nation is touting the Norwegian horror movie "Dead Snow," playing in the Park City at Midnight program, about a college ski trip overrun by Nazi zombies.

The Cinemark question

The talk about a boycott of the Sundance Film Festival has, for the most part, died down.

Most people have acknowledged that lashing out against Utah because the LDS Church urged its members donated millions to the anti-gay Prop. 8 in California may not be an effective strategy - and punishing Sundance, an event that has championed Queer Cinema virtually from the beginning, is hurting friends more than the opposition.

There is one subset of a Sundance-related boycott still gestating: A call to boycott the Cinemark theater chain - including Park City's Holiday Village Cinemas - because Cinemark CEO Alan Stock (a Mormon raised in Roy, Utah) donated $9,999 to the Yes on 8 campaign.

Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore told The New York Times that Sundance wouldn't pull out of the Holiday Village - "we don't have an alternative," he said - but the festival would be careful not to schedule any movie to play only at the Holiday Village.

This isn't much of a logistical change - the U.S. documentary competition has most of its screenings at the Holiday Village, but each film usually gets another screening at either the Library Center or Prospector Square. The biggest alteration may be for the World Cinema Documentary competition, and the Shorts and Frontier programs.

Labels: boycott, Geoffrey Gilmore

The non-competition slate

Here they are, 54 more titles for Sundance '09 - including the Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Park City at Midnight programs.

Possibly the strangest idea on the list: The Norwegian "Dark Snow," about a ski trip that starts with beer and sex — and ends with zombie Nazis.

A letter to the filmmakers

IndieWire's Eugene Hernandez has sage advice for filmmakers, those who got into Sundance and those who didn't.

The upshot to both camps: Now the real work begins.

For those who got in, the work involves navigating the choppy waters of film-distribution deals - in a market that, Hernandez says, "probably won't be as robust for big on-site acquisitions" as past years.

For those who didn't get in - a larger group, considering some 3,600 films were submitted for 118 slots - Hernandez says it's time to start working the festival circuit, to get their films some attention at places that don't have snow and crowded streets.

Labels: Distribution

The competition slate: Insta-analysis

Here's what some industry observers are saying about the competition slate for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival:

In The New York Times, Michael Cieply warns of heart-tugging: "If things turn out as expected, festivalgoers will have more to cry about than the room prices at Sundance next year."
Daily Variety's Todd McCarthy notes "a noticeable generational shift" and quotes festival director Geoffrey Gilmore, who says the lineup shows "an awareness of the world that wasn’t there a dozen years ago. It comes from the Internet, from a realization that America is not cut off from the rest of the world."
Anthony Breznican at USA Today opines: "The comedies are dark, and the dramas are even darker."
Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere trumpets three documentaries that intrigue him: "When You're Strange," "The September Issue" and "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe."
Cinematical's Erik Davis picks as his highlights: "Art & Copy," "Good Hair," "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," "Paper Heart," "Cold Souls" and "An Education."
Karina Longworth at Spout.blog is hot for "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," "Paper Heart," "We Live in Public," "Humpday," "Arlen Faber" (a k a "The Dream of the Romans"), "The September Issue," "Reporter," "Art & Copy," "Good Hair," "An Education," "Five Minutes in Heaven" and "A French Gigolo."
The sci-fi blog io9 notes that the slate "includes two science fiction heavy hitters. One features a soul-stealing inventor (Paul Giamatti) and the other is a Japanese flick about cloning a lost astronaut." (Those would be "Cold Souls" and "The Clone Returns.")

Labels: Buzz

The competition slate

Here are the 64 films in the competition slate for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, along with some commentary from festival director Geoffrey Gilmore.

The rest of the slate will be announced Thursday.

No gifting suites?

They are like trick-or-treat for grown-ups - or, at least, for famous grown-ups.

They are the "gifting suites," the rooms set up at celebrity-studded events (like award shows or the Sundance Film Festival) where companies give products to stars - in the hope that those stars will get themselves photographed with those products. (Here's an Los Angeles Times photo of actress Emily Mortimer loading up at the Village at the Yard suite at Sundance '08.)

But, according to this article in Daily Variety, the suites may be fading into oblivion.

"Slowly, each year, the suites are dying down and losing their appeal," Elissa Kravetz, founder of Kravetz PR, told Daily Variety. "I don't want one of my brands to pay a hefty participation fee to be a part of a suite when there's no guarantee of a return on their investment. There are more effective ways to raise brand awareness."

The reasons the suites are not so sweet? Fewer A-list celebrities want to go - because it's tacky to go scrounging for freebies, or because the companies will deliver. And the suites are getting clogged with D-listers and reality-show stars trying to get some publicity for themselves.

(Photo: Myung J. Chung / Los Angeles Times)

Labels: Gifting suites

Out of the loop

So you think being the big cheeses at the Sundance Film Festival means you're in the know about all things Hollywood? You would be wrong.

Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore and programming director John Cooper confessed Tuesday that watching the films that apply to be in Sundance takes up so much time, they barely keeps up on the big Oscar-season contenders.

"All I ever watch is Sundance movies," Gilmore said. "Sometimes it puts me so far behind, it's unbelievable."

"I don't know how many times I go to the Academy Awards, and I'm watching three movies the day before to catch up," Cooper agreed.

Labels: Geoffrey Gilmore, John Cooper, Oscar

Big announcement today

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival's competition slate of 64 films includes dramas and documentaries from home and abroad. A complete list will be announced at 2pm today, so stop back by or visit www.sltrib.com/sundance for the scoop.