Sundance Channel Announces Spain and Portugal Launching Monday night, the most famous night club of San Sebastian, the Bataplan, became the launch pad for the first European representation of Sundance Channel. Founded in 1996, Sundance Channel has become a major asset for the promotion and broadcasting of independent films and, in accordance with a festival spirit, offers its subscribers regular thematic and retrospective film cycles called "mini-festivals". After a short video presentation of Sundance Channel (in which Robert Redford was dubbed with a delightful Spanish voice), Vice President Paola Freccero went on stage to say a few words to a dense crowd where very few actors and directors could be spotted (it seemed that they were still busy eating. As you know, midnight is quite a normal time to start eating in Spain). The fiesta went very late into the night, in a frenzy of dancing and drinking. Interview Paola Freccero, Vice President at Sundance Channel International Can you sum up for us the main evolutions of the Sundance Channel since 1996? Paola Freccero: Sundance Channel was founded by Robert Redford. The idea was to get on television the same kind of experience that you could get at the Sundance Film Festival. You receive on the channel interesting new films, films by directors you've seen before, interviews, short films, documentaries. And we're here at San Sebastian to announce the launch next year of Sundance Channel in Spain and Portugal. Why did you choose Spain and Portugal? One of the things that really distinguishes both countries is that there is a great love of cinema, a strong cinematic tradition, people really love films, and I think they're interested in seeing something outside of just your usual Hollywood movies.Those are popular in both Spain and Portugal but there is also an interest in films from other countries and smaller films from the USA. So that's the first reason why we decided to come here. The second reason is that there is a very strong cable and satellite television industry and that makes it an ideal market to launch a new channel because people are eager too and there are operators who are very strong and have with a lot of suscribers, and also good local partners who understand both the film industry and the television industry. Are there countries competing against Spain and Portugal to get Sundance Channel? Well, we do have another channel currently in New Zealand, and we have a small project in Latin America called Sundance Channel on the Film Zone. The Film Zone is a basic television network that carries films everywhere in Latin America, except for Brazil. And we are carried four times a week, in two hour blocks. So these are really the only existing projects we have at the moment. We expect that our next launch will be Spain. Is Sundance Channel the last chance for small independent films that do not find outlets anywhere else? I think Sundance Channel is a home for many kinds of films, it's a home for big films that are innovative and creative, and have made an impact on the film industry, like The Blair Witch Project or Quentin Tarantino films, but it's also the home for films that don't have a home anywhere else. And we feel very strongly that these films deserve to be seen because they're often quite good. It's just that the film industry couldn't possibly provide distribution for all of them. So it's both, I think that it's home for popular, broader appeal films, and also a place for smaller, less expensive budgeted films. Anything else on the backburner? I think the next thing you'll probably see will be, we hope, the launch of a full Sundance Channel in Latin America. And there is the possibility after that of doing something in France...