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The Hat Trick: Sundance 07 Film Festival
By Zack Roddy, Editor-in-chief
The year 2007 was a very busy year for the Sundance Film Festival.
With the premiere of one hundred and ninety six new films this year
alone, the small snowy city of Park City, Utah was once again
invaded by moviegoers and celebrities hoping to view the newest
forms of popular culture: movies.
With each passing day of the festival new
filmmakers and returning ones premiered their newest films to be
viewed by critics, distributors, and audience members alike. I
readily expected to be entertained with the newest onslaught of
films, but was unpleasantly surprised to find that the once quaint
film festival has become one of the most exclusive events of the
winter season. Parties and events that were available to the public
and press are now only available to filmmakers, agents, and high
class media reporters like CNN and Access Hollywood. It seemed as if
the once resilient festival had finally succumbed to mass media
visions.
The content of the films itself did not exactly help the
situation, either. After last year’s undeniable Sundance hit,
Little Miss Sunshine, was picked up for a cool $8 million
dollars by Fox Searchlight Pictures, and then went on to gross over
$60 million dollars in the United States alone. The film is now
nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. So
obviously, distributors wanted to find the next audience pleaser
like Sunshine, explaining the exclusive screenings set up
just for them.
Film stars, which are about as frequent on the streets
as your common pedestrian, were constantly mobbed by adoring fans
(mostly teenage girls), and at one point during the festival, I
witnessed (and admittedly participated in) a mob of people who stood
outside of a building for over an hour where a celebrity photo shoot
was taking place. One disgruntled reporter even had the unfortunate
luck of slipping on the icy sidewalk in front of the entire crowd,
and then, picking up her sun glasses which had fallen to the ground,
tried to justify it to the crowd by saying, “I have an exclusive
interview with Kevin Bacon that I’m five minutes late for.”
Despite the fact that the festival has become quite
jaded, some of its original charms still survived. Among them are
the press people that helped me get through the last three years of
the festival, followed by my favorite portion of the festival, the
films. Among the best films I saw at this year’s festival was
Black Snake Moan, a drama starring Samuel L. Jackson and
Christina Ricci, Eagle vs. Shark, a comedy from New Zealand,
Rocket Science, a comedy starring Reece Daniel Thompson,
Teeth, an explicit comedy starring Jess Weixler (who won the
acting award this year) and Snow Angels, and drama starring
Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Michael Angarano (all of the
film’s reviews can be viewed on my website, realtvfilms.com). The
films at this year’s festival proved to be much more thought
provoking and confusing than past years, and have become the harder
to market.
Although the festival was much more exposed and busy
than in past years, it was still a great learning experience for me,
and the films are what ultimately redeemed the festival for me. I
look forward to seeing what the festival will bring in the future,
and I can’t wait to apply for next year.
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