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The
Believer wins Sundance Grand Jury Prize
 The
winners of the 2001 Sundance Film Festival were announced in an
awards ceremony January 27, 2001 in Park City, Utah. Henry Bean's
The Believer, the dramatic tale of a religious boy-turned-Nazi
skinhead won the Grand Jury Prize, while Zhang Yimou's festival
hit The
Road Home won the World Cinema audience award. The winning
films will screen Sunday, January 28 in Park City.
Day
Seven: Raw Deal Upholds Fest's Creative Perspective (Thursday,
January 25)
The
disturbingly controversial and emotional documentary Raw
Deal: A Question of Consent, about the rape of stripper
at a fraternity initiation party, is perhaps the toughest and yet
most important film to see here as the festival slides toward the
finish line with no breakaway movie or mega-bidding war relieving
the week's ennui. Festival Founder Robert Redford (who is away shooting
a film in Europe) has finally weighed in with his annual admonishment
to remember what the festival is meant to be (a haven for emerging,
fresh work from creative artists and not a market) while Festival
Co-Director Geoffery Gilmore continues giving hopeful interviews
about the selling 'picking up', leading to the conclusion that festival
intent and festival reality are indeed two different things.
Day Six: Sold Out Show for Invisible Circus (Wednesday Jan 24)
 At
the theaters, audiences are still going strong as was evidenced
by the sold out show of Invisible
Circus from Director Adam Brooks (writer -- French Kiss,
Practical Magic), starring Christopher Eccelston and Jordana
Brewster. Produced by Fine Line, Circus speaks a beautifully
turned cinema-phrase with its sparse story line and clean direction.
Brewster plays a young girl, haunted by the loss of her sister,
travels to Europe to find the answers she is sure must be hidden
away concerning her sister's untimely death. But there is no hidden
agenda or secret link, and what unfolds instead is a deeply realized
coming of age tale.
Day
Five: Where did Ryan Gosling Go? (Tuesday, Jan 23)
 Enjoying
the films without the pressure of first screening performance anxiety,
audiences and filmmakers alike packed the theaters to watch a variety
of tales unfold. Screenings were varied and included a less than
enthusiastic response to Green Dragon, a generous response
to the Spanish Compassionate Sex, an inspired response to
The Endurance and a split decision down gender lines to Jack
the Dog.
Day
Four: Angry Inch Next Cult Film (Monday, Jan 22)
 The
'most fulfilled hype' award has to go the Hedwig
and the Angry Inch from Writer/Director John Cameron Mitchell,
from his off-Broadway hit play. A fabulously delirious story about
a transformed, transgendered, rock-singing Teutonic, Hedwig and
the Angry Inch lifted everyone's spirits at its afternoon screening
at the Eccles today. While festival programmers call it a film 'destined
to take its place beside The Rocky Horror Picture Show as
a cult classic for a new generation', the film will surely find
a faster acceptance in wide release as it is simply too much fun
to not be charmed by.
Day
Three: Un-Happy Campers and Double Whammy (Sunday, Jan 21)
 The
industry heavyweights are weighing in with a less than enthusiastic
review of the market potential at Sundance this year as day three
closes and no bidding war or breakout offer has hit any filmmaker's
table. Happy
Campers was a last minute addition (to replace the pulled The
Secret Life of Altar Boys) which begs the question, what was
the deal in place that forced the festival to accept this film?
Tom
DiCillo's new film, Double Whammy starring Dennis Leary as
a cop with a bad back, was a huge comic hit at its screening-even
at the ungodly hour of nine o'clock a.m.
Day
Two: The Bombed and Stand-Out Films (Saturday, Jan 20)
The
cream may rise to the top in most cases, but it was sour milk on
the screens at Sundance this morning. With but one or two exceptions,
the day's early screenings were loudly and roundly bemoaned as the
worst of the fest starting with The Sleepy Time Gal and quickly
moving to Caveman's Valentine, Some Body, Margarita Happy Hour and
a split decision on Business of Strangers which had some walk out
among the crowd.
Day
One: Film and Digital Buzz (Friday, Jan 19)
Snow
flurries hit late in the afternoon as the first full day of Sundance
took off with a shot. The big premieres got their hoped for attendance
records as scores of industry jammed the screenings of The Business
of Strangers and Trembling Before G-D (where rumor has it three
deals hit the table by the time the lights went up at the end of
the screening), but the smaller profile, foreign films resonated
as well with audiences who had arrived at the festival unsure what
to expect.
Opening
Night
(Thursday, Jan 18)
A crowded
Park City kicked off the Opening Night of the 2001 Sundance Film
Festival tonight, and although the film - My First Mister by
Christine Lahti - was un-spooling forty miles away in Salt Lake
City, the hyped crowds were starting the party early in this mountain
town. Restaurants were jammed, and the nightclubs thundered as filmmakers,
dealmakers and revelers started the Main Street prowl. The street
side bulletin boards only have one layer of film posters up as yet,
and the rental SUV's may outnumber pedestrians (even though what
snow is here is old and thin), but the celebrities have begun to
arrive (Billy Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Danny Aielo to name a few).
Still
on the Road to Sundance (January 17, 2001)
When
the Sundance Film Festival begins on January 18, the quaint ski
resort of Park City, Utah will again be inundated by hordes of Hollywood
insiders, New York indie moguls and thousands of filmmaker wannabes.
Like a biblical plague of show biz locusts, they will crowd the
streets, the restaurants, the bars with their black-on-black ensembles,
their chirping cel phones, their portable DVD players and a nervous
energy whose force could threaten avalanches on the surrounding
mountains. This year's films, drawn from a mind boggling 3,000 submissions,
are generally unknown qualities. Expectations of uncovering jewels
that will ignite audience and critics alike have been greatly lowered.
It is well known industry fodder that many of the films in recent
years that won top awards were major busts at the box office.
On
the Road to Sundance (January 10, 2001)
One
week and counting…..the 2001 edition of the Sundance Film Festival
begins next week as the official kick-off to the film season, and
one can feel the tension mounting as filmmakers, sales agents, distributors
and PR agencies work against the clock to get their media campaigns
ready for the big unveiling. Filmmakers are still scrambling at
this late date to assemble their sales and promotion teams. Film
laboratories are dealing with rush orders and last minute crises
to deliver a literally wet film print for a world premiere showing.
Distributors are using their most persuasive charms to try and preview
the films on video before even getting on the airplane.
General
Presentation
Sundance
may lack the sunshine and glitter of its European counterparts like
Cannes and Venice, but it compensates with innovation and energy.
What other festival could convince film buffs and Hollywood executives
to bundle in the snow awaiting the screening of an indie film by
an unknown director? Or claim to have launched the phenomena known
as Blair Witch? Founded
by Robert Redford and begun as a celebration of indie filmmaking,
the festival is now a must-stop-trek on the American festival circuit
and considered the most prestigious competition in North America.
Pre-fest
News
Stars
Head to Sundance (January 15, 2001)
 The
stars are heading to Sundance ... and we don't mean the celestial
ones. The Los Angeles Times reported today that the Park
City festival is expecting an all-star guest list, including Julia
Roberts, Elizabeth Hurley, Mick Jagger, Patrick Swayze, and Forest
Whitaker. Roberts will be in town to support her niece, whose short
film was accepted into the festival. In case you've been stuck in
a snowstorm, Sundance kicks off January 18 and runs through January
28. More than 23,000 people are expected to attend.
 Sundance
Salutes Moore (December 12, 2001)
Actress Julianne Moore, the star of recent hits Magnolia
and Boogie Nights will receive the 10th Anniversary Piper-Heidseick
Tribute to Independent Vision at the Sundance
Film Festival. She will receive the honor at an awards
January 20, 2001, where she will be interviewed live onstage and
where clips from her films will screen. The award was created to
honor an artist who "has made a significant and unique contribution
to independent film." Previous honorees include Kevin
Spacey(2001), Frances MacDormand (1998), Denzel Washington
(1993) and John Turturro (1992).
Sundance
Online Resource Center
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