Day 5 - 24 January

Film deals set in motion: Artisan signs up Chuck & Buck

The Sundance acquisitions log jam has broken wide open with the announcement of Artisan Entertainment's signing of Chuck & Buck from Director Miguel Arteta for a reported $1.5 million. The film has been playing to huge audience response, selling out the Eccles Auditorium 1500 seat house for its second screening Monday. An oddly humorous story about two childhood friends, Chuck & Buck has left audiences howling with glee as the deadpan delivery unfolds.

Also inking the deal, albeit more surprisingly, Groove, the rave film from director Greg Harrison sold to Sony Pictures Classic at another report of $1.5 million. Surprisingly, because word of mouth on Main Street had pegged Groove to be a distinct miss with festival audiences.

Other films from the first weekend of screening that looked close to deals were both Girlfight and the charming Two Family House. Without naming titles, acquisition executives at Fine Line looked close to the deal (rumored to be for Girlfight) late Monday night as they hurried down Main Street, and proffered deal-signing news could come as early as first thing in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Additionally, early feedback presumes both Love and Sex and Panic will be able to announce a contract imminently.

In the meantime, filmmakers who had early screenings of their films are working feverishly to make sure they are not forgotten in the long stretch towards the awards ceremony next weekend. As package A comes to a close on Tuesday, and package B holders start to arrive, filmmakers find themselves getting dangerously myopic as they look to find the deal. The second week of Sundance has often been described as 'swimming with sharks' as the stakes grow for all involved.

The arrival of fresh blood for the audience pool does give a much needed lift to the crowds however, many of whom had already clocked in viewing twenty films by the end of Monday. Fresh eyes are always welcomed and the new audiences are giving directors an additional boost.

The early morning screening of Spring Forward at the Prospector Square delighted the audience with a simply told, elegant story of change. Starring Liev Schribner and Ned Beatty, the film is a quiet journey of self-discovery as one man slowly begins to learn valuable life lessons from the other. A deeply resonant character study, the film was shot over the course of the year in order to take advantage of the season changes. Those changing seasons serve to act as visual metaphors, and Writer/Director Tom Gilroy wisely moves his directing out of the way to allow for performances (and silences) that can find purchase in the heart of each viewer.

The emerging frontrunner from the word-of-the-street continues to be Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her from director Rodrigo Garcia. Audiences and critics alike are captivated by the film's poetic sensibility, and the extraordinary cast is well worth watching.

The Festival is also continuing it's series of panels with The Independents: Marginal to Mainstream on Monday, where Kathleen Kennedy spoke up about her independent work amid small budgets. When she mentioned using a budget of $6 million was difficult for her, it took the audience a moment to understand that for her, $6 million was a small amount of money.

Daily Variety reported that the invasion of the dot.com'ers had usurped more than acquisitions: they had usurped the party scene, and that was in full view on Monday night as doors swung wide-if you had the right pass. The traditional Miramax party drew the elite of the crowd, but it was the AtomFilms party that embraced the largest crowd of filmmakers and industry as they took over two houses and screened short films on the snow banks outside.

The restaurants are now completely packed, with concentrated celebrity sighting at the Riverhorse Cafe where filmmakers are squeezed into every available corner. Redford's own Zoom is also filled to capacity-staff report this festival to be overwhelmingly the largest ever. Several sites along Main Street offer a quieter environment, but the WGA Screenplay Coffeehouse is still the best place to actually get work done. A line up of festival film screenwriters have visited the Coffeehouse every day for informal chats.

A number of the writers from the Sundance Screenwriters Lab have also stayed on in Park City to screen films before going back home. Among them, Colleen Smith (Drylongso) and Michael Burke (Fish Belly White) both of whom screened at Sundance 1999, and who are working on new feature script projects. The Lab Fellows spent the week prior to the festival deeply involved in an intensive mentoring session that allows for one-to-one dialogues with six professional screenwriters.

Tuesday marks the 'seventh inning stretch' for the festival and a number of special events including the World Premiers of Emilio Estevez's Rated X and Julien Temple's The Filth and the Fury, as well as the Tribute to Kevin Spacey. Also screening for the first time will be Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me from the producers of Boys Don't Cry.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Kathleen McInnis

Sundance