Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18-28 and, after a sluggish start, there were deals (click here for the latest), celebrity sightings, and a protest.
Christopher Nolan turned up to collect an honourary award at the festival’s opening night gala fundraiser and called the occasion a “full circle moment” 23 years after premeiring his breakout thriller Memento there back in 2001.
Kristen Stewart also attended the gala and starred in two films this year, while celebrity guests included Robert Downey Jr., Will Ferrell, and Malia Obama, who managed to attend somewhat under the radar with her short film The Heart credited to Malia Ann. Obama was also spotted enjoying the Thelma party with friends.
Below are some of the key take-aways from the festival in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Don’t panic, deals take longer to close and that’s fine
Sundance started slowly as has been par for the course since the pandemic, and eventually spluttered into life with headline deals for A Real Pain, It’s What’s Inside, Presence, Skywalkers: A Love Story, and (anticipated soon) Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, while buyers were in advanced talks on other festival hits like Thelma and Will & Harper.
With the exception of Jesse Eisenberg’s comedy drama A Real Pain, which Searchlight Pictures closed at 7am after the January 20 world premiere in a $10m deal for worldwide rights, gone are the days of all-night bidding wars. It would be incorrect to attribute this to a hangover from the pandemic days of virtual markets. It takes longer to close deals these days, as wary buyers devise intricate marketing plans in a challenging and increasingly complicated distribution landscape. And they need sign-off from lots of people: whenever a studio is involved in the hunt, things take even longer. One veteran sales agent recalls sending out more than 100 links to various executives at various departments of a media conglomerate so everyone could weigh in.
Documentaries rise to the occasion
The documentary sales space was looking very glum indeed in the past year or so. Yet it sprung back into life in Park City as Netflix picked up Skywalkers: A Love Story and, at time of writing, Warner Bros was in exclusive negotiations for Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story for a deal reportedly in the $15m range. The latter is particularly interesting, given that Warner Bros, unlike Netflix, is very much in the theatrical distribution business – yet it can also channel the film through its Warner Bros Discovery stablemates CNN and Max.
“It’s definitely feeling like an uptick,” says Jason Ishikawa of Cinetic, who represents rights to Super/Man and declined to comment on the project. “It’s an aggressive market for people thinking about docs in a commercial, expansive way.”
At the start of the festival Netflix also took rights to Benjamin Ree’s Norwegian documentary Ibelin. As Sundance wrapped on Sunday interest continued to swirl around Will & Harper, a documentary about a road trip taken by Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, his longtime friend who has come out as a trans woman.
Horror still holds sway
Good horror never gets old and so it proved to be as Netflix swooped in a $17m worldwide deal for It’s What’s Inside, a creepy tale about an estranged friend who turns up at a pre-wedding party with a mysterious suitcase. Audiences lapped up Greg Jardin’s film and that wasn’t the only chiller to score.
Neon pounced on Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, a haunted house tale with a twist starring Lucy Liu. This was Soderbergh’s first appearance at Sundance as a director since his 1989 breakout Sex, Lies And Videotape and it was good to see he hasn’t lost his ability to connect with film-goers.
And it would be remiss to omit mention of I Saw The TV Glow, Jane Schoenbrun’s chilling follow-up to 2021 Sundance selection We’re All Going To The World’s Fair. A24 has the new film and it played on Thursday opening day, setting a high bar for horror. Midnight entries included The Moogai, an Aboriginal shocker from the producers behind last year’s breakout, Talk To Me.
Political protest comes to Main Street
The Let Gaza Live protest was a peaceful affair although it ran to more than two hours and shut down Main Street. At one point pro-Palestinian supporters traded chants with a man waving an Israeli flag who solemnly recited the names of more than 100 Israeli hostages still believed to be held in Gaza. Actors Melissa Barrera and Indya Moore were in attendance, and the latter took the microphone and gave a short speech in support of the protest while Barrera watched from the sidelines.
Back in 2017 the Women’s March On Main filled the street with a protest in support of women’s rights which also served as a wider condemnation of Donald Trump in the first few months of his presidency. Were another protest to take place during Sundance 2025, what flavour might that take?
Will Sundance stay in Park City?
Speaking to The Town podcast host Matt Belloni on stage, Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente mostly kept mum when asked if the festival would change location. As her interviewer noted how the festival can overwhelm Park City and is not popular with locals, Vicente said there was a negotiation on the horizon and acknowledged that accessibility and cost are challenging. She also noted how festival programming has expanded in recent years into Salt Lake City. Watch this space.
No comments yet