Day 5 of Sundance: Markets and Parties

Blogging From The Sundance Film Festival
Park City
From Wednesday January 23, 2008
Dan Satorius

One of the problems with the independent film "industry" is that there are so many inexperienced participants. Of the 125 features in the festival 53 are by first-time filmmakers and 22 are by second-time filmmakers. The result is that the independent film segment of the industry lacks business acumen and organization. Sundance and other festivals act as organizing forces for independent film.

Sundance is ostensibly a festival. Film festivals are supposed to be different than film markets. A market is where buyers and sellers meet to buy and sell films and television programs. The IFP market in New York and the American Film Market in Santa Monica are examples of film markets. Real Screen and Hot Docs are examples of television markets. The Sundance Film Festival, although a festival in name, is a de facto market.

Last year film buyers went on a buying binge trying to score the next "Little Miss Sunshine". They spent a record $53 million to acquire 20 titles at last year's Sundance. Unfortunately, the Sundance class of 2007 earned about $30 million at the box office (about half of that number goes to the distributor). The distributors were understandably disappointed. And they have been correspondingly cautious this year.

There was some lose talk coming into the festival that the WGA's strike would drive hungry distributors to gobble up a lot of product. But distributors are moving cautiously and sales this year are slower than last year.

By Wednesday night things started to pick up. The comedy "Hamlet 2" staring Steve Coogan was picked up by Focus Features for an impressive $10 million. There was a lot of buzz about this film in which a high school teacher gets his students to write and perform a sequel to Shakespeare's "Hamlet." "Henry Poole is Here" sold to Overture Films for $3 million and "Choke" sold to Searchlight. Surprisingly, other buzz films, "Sunshine Cleaning", "The Wackness", Barry Levenson's "What Just Happened", have not yet been picked up. But this unusually cold Park City may finally be seeing a January thaw.

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At night are the parties of Sundance - part art form and part endurance sport. It's actually possible to get business done at the late afternoon and early evening parties. These parties are a place where you can run into colleagues and meet new contacts. The conga-lines of late night parties are legendary. I avoid them but the Kodak party brought me out this year despite the cold.

Gaining entrance to parties at Sundance is something of an endurance sport. Long lines and a temperature of 8 degrees make party going something of a challenge. Here I am on Main Street waiting to get into the Kodak party.

Sheryl Mousley (on the left) and friend wait with me outsideof the Kodak party. Sheryl is the curator of film and video at the Walker Art Center. She attends Sundance to find new films and filmmakers to slot into her wonderful programs at the Walker Art Center.

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Catch the audio of my interview from Euan Kerr: Dan Satorius talks from Sundance