Fest learns new 'Dance steps
Park City annual takes a new stance on sales
A few weeks before the event, Sundance officials mailed surveys to query attendees about the festival. Front and center was an idea that seemed blasphemous: Would you be interested in attending press and industry screenings held in nearby Salt Lake City?
"We sent the survey to get a sense of who's coming, the economic impact the festival has and to review what people like and dislike about it," says Sundance press rep R.J. Millard. "We have very limited space in Park City and as people pressure us to have market and industry screenings, we've been looking at having screenings in Salt Lake."
Salt Lake City unspoolings would likely mean bigger theaters but in Variety's own very informal survey, there is a clear-cut reaction to the notion of Hollywood going to Salt Lake: yuck.
"I would not want to come here if it was in Salt Lake," sniffs one Sundance veteran. "It might as well be in Omaha, Neb."
Indeed, the chilly downtown flatlands of Salt Lake City don't compare to the charm and beauty of Park City, where crowded streets ensures you'll struggle to make your screenings as you bump into anyone you'd ever want to see.
That you can't ski between screenings in Salt Lake City is also a strike against the move.
Which brings up the issue that Sundance has long disregarded: that people actually buy and sell films there.
This year, Sundance announced the debut of a sales office in partnership with information gathering shingle Film Finders. The next step, it would seem, would be market screenings.
Ironically, given all the talk of formally acknowledging a market, buyers view Sundance 2002 as offering one of the most market-resistant lineups in recent memory. At the crowded opening night party in Salt Lake City's Marriott Hotel, guests praised opening film "The Laramie Project" -- produced by Good Machine and to debut on HBO -- but murmured over how daring it was to select such a dark film to kick off the event.
With bidding wars unlikely, particularly in the currently bearish economic climate, distributors screened a number of buzz titles on videotape weeks in advance of the festival. These included Steven Shainberg's "Secretary," Justin Lin's "Better Luck Tomorrow," Kasia Adamik's "Bark" and Alex and Andrew Smith's "The Slaughter Rule."
Some of the festival's hottest films still remained under wraps, however, including Miguel Arteta's "The Good Girl," Finn Taylor's "Cherish" and Victor Nunez's "Coastlines."
Another title to watch was Joe Carnahan's Dramatic Competition selection, "Narc." While Lions Gate already holds domestic distribution on the film, it's attracted the attention of rival buyers who know that anything could be made available at the right price.
It's unclear that the strategy of sneak previews will be any more successful. None of the biggest buyers felt compelled to make an early move on any of the films they had screened, although that came with the familiar refrain of "someone will buy it."
This year, there are a lot of someones. Among the smaller distribs hungry for product are ThinkFilm, Fireworks, Magnolia, Lot 47, ContentFilm, Manhattan Pictures, First Look and Magic Lamp.
Still, as films began to make their debuts over the weekend, the consensus was that buyers were unlikely to find breakthrough titles in the mix but could very well find the talent likely to provide hits in the future.
