PARK CITY, Utah — Ihad the pleasure of attending the 25th Sundance Film Festival as a regular nobody that had to line up for hours for a chance to glimpse at tomorrow’s next big hits.
The festival began in 1978 with the objective of giving new and independent filmmakers an outlet for their works. Among the films that have had their big break at Sundance are Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Kevin Smith’s Clerks, The Blair Witch Project and Little Miss Sunshine.
Most tickets are reserved for industry folks (as filmmakers hope their films get picked up for wider distribution) but films at Sundance are accessible for regular fans as well. Over a few days I managed to see a couple of full-length features, a “meditative film” I’d rather forget, and some shorts.
There are three ways to purchase tickets: (1) sign up for an online lottery for time slot assignment to purchase tickets pre-festival; (2) purchase any remaining “day-of-show” tickets at the main box office; or (3) arrive at the theater before screening time and hope enough ticket holders are no-shows.
We had the most success lining up for waitlist tickets; after queuing in freezing sub-zero temperatures for four hours we caught the midnight screening of Spring Breakdown where we saw the hilariously unhip trio of Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Rachel Dratch take a trip to South Padre island for a well-deserved vacation (Poehler and Dratch were in the audience laughing their heads off with us).
The following morning we got in line at 5:30 a.m. for Carlos Cuaron’s fantastic new film Rudo Y Cursi which reunites Y Tu Mama Tambien stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna as brothers plucked from their banana plantation jobs and dropped into the crazy world of Mexican pro football.
The screening was followed by a Q&A session with the Cuaron brothers (director Carlos and producer Alfonso produces, Guillermo del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Among the other feature films with a lot of buzz were: cop-drama Brooklyn’s Finest (starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke), farcical romance I Love You Phillip Morris (with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as lovers), and claymation-animated Mary and Max (with voices by Toni Collette and Phillip Seymour Hoffman).
There were a number of interesting documentaries including Prom Night in Missisipi, about the first integrated prom in a small US town, Good Hair where Chris Rock explores African American hair culture, and September Issue, which follows Vogue editor Anna Wintour over the nine-months leading up to the much anticipated September issue of the magazine.
Jury and Audience prize winners will be revealed on January 25th. For updates visit http://festival.sundance.org.
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