Sundance Reinvented
By Megan Gilbride, Rebecca Green
The middle Wednesday of Sundance is always a moment for taking a deep breath. Filmmakers attending with their films say farewell to departing industry and colleagues and dust off the welcome mats for film fans and family. There’s a molecular change of energy on the mountain, like the split-second pause of an incoming wave that’s about to rush back out to sea. It’s the day of the festival where attention shifts from business to art. From selling and small talk to rabidly seeing as much as you can and communing with your fellow artists and film lovers about what they’ve discovered so far. We come to you with today’s thoughts about the future of the festival very much with this Wednesday transition in mind.
When Sundance was founded 40 years ago, movies were one of our primary, if not the most, culturally relevant forms of media. American independent filmmakers, raised on classic films, spurred on by 70s cinema, and responding to the Reagan Era, were vital voices carving out their own place in that landscape. People didn’t need to be convinced to see movies in theaters, because Blockbuster hadn’t even been founded yet. Fast forward 40 years, to a time of streaming dominance (and chaos) and people flocking to TikTok rather than to movie theaters, our independent film ecosystem is in a truly existential crisis – a unique moment where nothing is working. It’s not just that we CAN innovate and reinvent, it’s that we MUST. The Sundance Institute, independent cinema’s most trusted brand, can and should embrace 2025 by leading the field in the challenging work of rebuilding our relationship with the audience to fight for the value of independent film.
SUNDANCE IS BROKEN
There are many audiences that were once served by the festival that are currently finding it inaccessible.
In 2023, we traveled to Park City together for five nights and shared a one bedroom condo towards the bottom of Park Ave. We EACH spent approximately $4,000 on the trip – and still one of us slept on the couch. Was it worth it? Neither of us are attending this year if that answers the question. When producers are systemically paid so little, the cost of attending needs to be met with an indispensable creative and professional experience, which didn’t materialize in 2023.
If you’re one of the lucky films selected to premiere at Sundance, the price tag becomes astronomical. Because Sundance doesn’t invite films until around Thanksgiving, film teams only have a little over a month (during Park City’s peak ski season), to book travel for all cast and crew. On average, a low budget film can expect to spend (and scramble to raise) upwards of $50-75k to properly attend. To offset those costs, Sundance only gives each film one $500 travel stipend and a $750 stipend to cover expenses associated with screening your film, for example, to cover the required closed captioning costs.
Financiers, funders, and philanthropists wanting to use the festival premiere as a launchpad, head back home disappointed. With streaming rights deals dominating the market, the single upfront sale has become the only return funders might realize, putting an undue market pressure on the festival premiere. This sales market that financiers and funders have come to depend on, has eroded so entirely that even a Sundance premiere guarantees little correlation with a return on investment.
Meanwhile, corporate brand experiences have taken over Main Street, sucking the charm out of Park City, and transforming a space for filmmakers into a space for brands. In The Hollywood Reporter’s Sundance Roundup of Events, Panels and Parties for 2024 Festival in Park City what you see is a celebration of Acura, Adobe, Airbnb, Amazon MGM Studios, Audible, Bumble, Canon, Chase Sapphire, Cotopaxi, GoogleTV, Hendrick’s Gin, IMDb, LinkedIn, MasterClass, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Procter & Gamble, Starz, United Airlines, Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, White Claw, and more.
Even if you can afford to attend, Park City being situated in the mountains during the winter comes with obvious accessibility issues. Case in point, the headline for Day One of Sundance 2024 was, Wild Weather, Slippery Roads & Travel Delays Vex Sundance Kickoff. While the theaters and buses are wheelchair-accessible, no one can deny how difficult it is to get around Park City during the festival, even if you are an able-bodied, A-list actor with a car and driver. And the cold weather is not suitable for a post-pandemic era with hundreds of people being crammed into small spaces and no outdoor venues to mix and mingle or watch films. If you weren’t sick when you arrived, there’s a high probability you will be upon departure.
Over time, the value proposition of attending Sundance has changed. Being on the cutting edge of what’s new in independent storytelling, discovering new voices, finding like-minded creators to forge creative relationships, was worth the cost of admission. That by attending or volunteering, you could directly connect to those who had their “ticket punched” for this year’s festival. But now, cast, funders and programmers are chauffeured around, absent from the shuttles between venues. It’s impossible to find a place to get out of the cold and sit down for a meal or have a drink with a colleague, including at the Filmmaker Lounge, which isn’t the indie film clubhouse it used to be. Sadly, Zooms and DMs have supplanted the IRL connections that Sundance once provided.
THE HARDEST TRUTH
Painful as it is to ask, does anyone beyond our own filmmaking community know or care about Sundance? On the first Saturday of the festival, by the end of the day, Sundance had posted 7 videos to Instagram and TikTok, which only had a few thousand likes/comments combined. This indicates that either no one outside the industry is paying attention and/or Sundance, the premier festival for innovative storytelling, is not skilled at using social media. Both scenarios are a problem. The film industry at large is guilty of talking only to itself – a dependable, if cynical, niche audience. But if Sundance has become irrelevant to the wider public, it’s because independent cinema is irrelevant to them.
Over the holidays, Rebecca recommended a friend go see THE HOLDOVERS. Her friend had not heard of the film so Rebecca replied with, “It’s with Paul Giamatti.” Her friend, who would consider herself a movie-goer, having just gone to the theater to see FERRARI, responded, “Oh I love him!” A few days later, Rebecca’s friend texted saying, “We just finished THE HOLDOVERS. So good! All the feels. Storytelling at its finest. Thank you for the stellar recommendation.” If audiences don’t know of a film made by an acclaimed director, with a beloved actor, and released by a major studio, how will they know about 2023 Sundance titles such as Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner A THOUSAND AND ONE, or THEATER CAMP, or SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD?
We can no longer ignore the fact that we are competing with more distractions than ever before: Films, television, sports, video games, podcasts, music, TikTok, Reels, YouTube… There are a plethora of reasons why people never have to leave their house to be entertained and it is on all of us to convince them to – beyond just making a great film.
Think pieces about the successes and failures of Sundance 2024 are being drafted as we speak and there will inevitably be takedowns of what went wrong, except there are truly no feet at which to lay them. It’s not the festival’s fault that independent cinema is inconsequential to the broader public, but it is their problem. It’s all of our problem. Now is not time to point fingers, it’s time to lock arms, to own that if any piece of the ecosystem fails, it’s a collective failure.
AND SO WE PROPOSE A BIG IDEA
Take the Sundance Film Festival out of Park City and transform it into a year-round, multi-city roadshow catered to audiences. Hear us out…
In July of 2023, Deadline Hollywood reported that “the Sundance Film Festival has been fielding bids from a handful of cities to relocate the festival from its Park City, UT home base.” The festival has a contract with Park City to remain there until at least 2026 and other cities in the conversation were reported to be Santa Fe, New Mexico and Bentonville, Arkansas. Whether a relocation is true, someone on the outside can only speculate, but if Sundance is indeed considering leaving Park City, they need to think bigger than just a lateral move.
In 2021, as a way to combat the challenges of the pandemic, Sundance launched Satellite Screens stating, “The Sundance Institute’s commitment to discovering and supporting emerging, independent artists includes developing new audiences for independent film. Vital to this mission is a thriving cinema culture, accessible to all, where filmmakers and audiences can watch and talk about movies together.” With this initiative, 20 cinema partners around the country such as Atlanta Film Society, Austin Film Society, Cinema Detroit, Denver Film, Houston Cinema Arts Society, New Orleans Film Society and more, exhibited a curated line up of festival films during the final weekend of the festival. Sundance continued Satellite Screens in 2022, but with only 7 cinema partners, and then discontinued the program.
For the festival ecosystem, virtual cinema and Satellite Screens were the only alternative ideas that came out of the pandemic – a time when reinvention should have taken place. Instead, festivals held their ground or hibernated. Now four years post-pandemic, they’re mostly operating as if it’s business as usual, except audiences have not followed suit. Developing Satellite Screens was the kind of collectivist innovation that could tangibly improve the nation’s access to independent film and expand the Sundance brand, and by extension, independent cinema’s reach.
We do not have the receipts to show if Satellite Screens was successful or not, but we do know that in 2013, Sundance launched the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour, which features a 90-minute theatrical program of short films from the festival. In 2023, the Short Film Tour played 30 cities around the U.S. from June through December (with 2024 dates on the calendar). For Sundance to continue the tour for a decade, indicates that there is an audience around the country for independent film and discovery, who will show up for the Sundance brand.
One can guess that Sundance did not continue Satellite Screens because it would not be sustainable to hold both a full capacity Park City festival and Satellite Screens. It would require more funding and staff to pull off at a time when sponsors are hard to pin down. So what if Sundance dropped the Park City component entirely (and Sundance London) and dedicated all those resources to taking films out to audiences around the U.S. rather than just serving those who are privileged enough to attend the festival in-person?
HERE'S HOW A ROADSHOW COULD WORK
The Sundance Film Festival activates the industry at the start of the year and propels business through the summer. This timing is foundational to independent film and it is imperative that Sundance’s kick-off stays in January. With that in mind, Sundance Reinvented would announce their program in December, per usual, but begin in Los Angeles (a city with ample housing options and where most industry resides) in January. This launch will be called the Sundance Market rather than Festival, with screenings of only the programmed films that do not have distribution. Invited to these screenings would be buyers, press, filmmakers, and LA movie-goers. Each film would have two screenings without on-camera talent in attendance or Q&As. Red carpet premieres will not take place at the Market, rather on the road.
Simultaneous to the Sundance Market would be industry convenings for filmmakers. For example, Sundance could bring back Talent Forum, which brought together a slate of artists and projects across all stages of development and centered on one-on-one meetings with industry leaders designed to support artists and their projects. Talent Forum took place in 2019 and 2020 and then was discontinued. (Fun fact: Rebecca produced Talent Forum’s inaugural year.) These types of filmmaker-focus events are transformational for those who attend and Sundance is uniquely skilled at fostering creative intimacy amongst colleagues at them. Providing these spaces at a re-scaled event could allow for more connective tissue between the many independent film stakeholders.
Following the Sundance Market, all feature films (80 were programmed this year) and shorts would begin a roadshow to 20 cities from April through December, giving filmmakers ample time to fundraise (if needed) and prepare for their premiere. Similar to the 2021 Satellite Screens, Sundance Reinvented will join forces with local cinema partners for a 4-day event in each city. Screenings would take place Thursday and Friday evenings and all-day Saturday and Sunday (when everyday movie-goers are available to attend). 10 feature films will play each city, preceded by a short with two short-blocks per city. All screenings will take place at the same venue and films can play in multiple cities with one city/screening dedicated as the premiere.
To create events for audiences and entice them to come out of their houses, red carpet premieres will take place in these cities. Rather than this year’s talent such as Pedro Pascal, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Camila Cabello, Will Ferrell, June Squibb, Sebastian Stan, Lionel Richie, Lucy Liu, Saoirse Ronan, Zach Galifinakis, Aubrey Plaza, and Steven Yeun descending on Park City to hang out in luxury condos and schmooze with people they already know, they will visit cities across America, participating in Q&As alongside filmmakers, and connecting directly with audiences. With their talent and charisma, they will bring attention not only to individual films, but also to the local cinema partners, giving audiences a reason to fall back in love with going to the theater.
All cities will advertise the full festival program and we propose a Sundance Reinvented app that will share content on each city’s programming, information about ALL the films, and how to connect with the film teams and distributors. In the spirit of collectivism, the festival and theaters will agree to share data (attendance information, audience emails, demographic data) with each other and with the filmmakers. This data-sharing will likely provide valuable insight into audience interests, which can aid filmmakers in securing distribution and releasing titles down the road, and enrich the programming rubric of both the festival and arthouse cinemas. Integral to the events will be collaborating with, or at least steering clear of competitive timing with local film festivals, as not to disrupt any of the existing filmgoing ecosystem. The roadshow expressly is not the homogeneous “sundancing” of all regional festivals, it’s the opposite. It’s the Sundance brand working with communities to preserve and ignite a love for independent cinema and movie-going.
Rather than having dozens of brands take over a city, one or two Sundance sponsors will be dedicated per city to host a Sundance House and support the costs of the event. This will give Sundance filmmakers and cast an opportunity to convene together, and local filmmakers a dedicated space to meet their inspirations, connect in-person with their community, and inspire the next generation of filmmakers from underrepresented regions, an already existing mission of Sundance.
HERE’S WHAT IT ACCOMPLISHES
An arthouse festival roadshow meets several needs for a variety of participants in the ecosystem. First and foremost, it serves Sundance itself by creating in-person opportunities to bring the Sundance Institute brand to new audiences and existing fans. And not just the festival, but also labs, grants, Collab, and other initiatives. In 2015, Sundance did a national tour of screenings, labs, and workshops in cities across the U.S. to accomplish this.
In return, bringing the Sundance brand and filmmaking star power to regional theaters and organizations will help arthouse cinemas grow their yearly audience, sparking new interest and boosting engagement in the arts in those communities. Cast and crews of the curated films visiting these cities will be an important element to this strategy. Having not only the filmmakers, but A-list talent attend, will generate dialogue about the creative processes, enrich the audience’s relationship to what they’ve seen, and drive turnout. Local filmmakers will have access to the Sundance House programming and arthouse programmers can facilitate relationships between the local filmmaking community and Sundance curating staff. As awards season rolls along, Sundance alumni who are nominees, can drop into the roadshow and connect with audiences, adding wattage to the events, and potentially bringing back interest to awards telecasts. Perhaps once audiences have actually watched and gotten to know the scrappy film teams that made that year’s independent darlings, arthouses will host live-streaming Spirit Awards parties boosting their audience in the absence of a broadcast partner.
In cities without an arthouse venue (there are more than you think) and where filmgoing has languished, the commitment to bringing screenings and events to audiences will incubate new centers of curation, making space for a budding generation of diverse programming talent. Curating the film selections for each market could massively improve representation within Sundance’s audience and cultivate filmgoing culture in communities that would never otherwise be reached by the work of the festival. Along the way, Sundance will champion theatrical accessibility standards that can be practiced nation-wide. Their arthouse cinema partners will lead their cities in offering genuinely accessible entertainment experiences for all viewers and cultivating loyal audiences in the process.
What will distributors get out of Sundance Reinvented? New audiences, new audiences, new audiences! Expanded audiences for arthouses nationwide WILL improve their bottom line. In addition to those coveted Sundance laurels on a film, Sundance Reinvented will expand word of mouth beyond the end of the initial January Market. For both their festival and non-festival films, distributors can capitalize on a robust, eventized theatrical network to plug into, and further emphasize the value of the theater-going experience as separate from streaming or VOD viewings. Distributors will also save hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to travel their teams to Park City and rather invest those funds into buying films.
This new idea does require sacrifice. Filmmakers will be in their feelings about giving up some signature Sundance iconography in their social channels (pics with your puffy coat, selfies at the Egyptian) and all the parties and fancy celebratory dinners on the mountain. (Maybe some of them can still happen in January?) But what this version of the festival does is preserve the cache of being included in the Sundance family. It preserves your Sundance premiere while saving you serious cash by staging it outside Park City with time to plan. It preserves valuable IRL facetime with industry players at the January Market, without the added chaos of slipping in the snow and sleeping in a closet with 12 of your fellow crew. It also allows for multiple opportunities to connect directly with audiences across the country, which, if you’re a filmmaker who has spent time at a regional festival, you know is the most rewarding and fulfilling experience to have with your film. And, perhaps most critically, it is a strategy based on connecting the audience to the value of your work. If we can draw audience engagement back to the movies, distributors will have more reasons to buy, and funders will have more reasons to fund.
SUNDANCE MATTERS
So many stakeholders are impacted by the health and vitality of Sundance. We’re invested in its success because of its place at the center of our ecosystem. In this piece, we’ve anticipated some specific improvements that might come from Sundance Reinvented, but like reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone, there could be many other positive outcomes we can’t anticipate. Will philanthropy return to the artist support organizations and arthouse cinemas that are currently struggling to stay alive and prove their cultural value? Will we aid in creating a more tolerant society by connecting it to a diversity of quality media and the storytellers behind it? Will we, at long last, break the glass ceiling in Hollywood gatekeeping by proving that all kinds of films can work if you know how to connect them to their audience?
It may not be serving us as well as it did in the past, but we need Sundance in the community and in the industry. The Sundance Institute has been an essential curation ground for all manners of filmmaking talent. At the helm of the festival sit Eugene Hernandez and Kim Yutani, two genuine film lovers who should be given the opportunity to share their significant programming prowess in a way that responds to the needs of a 21st Century audience. And we need Sundance to be a beacon of hope during a time of global upheaval to demonstrate the reflective humanity that indie film represents.
We know that many of you will pick apart our ideas, find holes, and reasons why it can’t work. We acknowledge there are aspects of this reinvention we did not address or fully think through. We understand the inclination to avoid profound change. However, a collective problem requires collective work and we want to amplify a forward-thinking conversation. If different sectors of the business protect only their own agenda and keep doing things the way they have always been done, we are doomed to fail.
While the media CEOs rub elbows at yacht parties as Rome burns, we in the independent community can roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of making audience cultivation our primary focus. A bold re-imagining of the festival won’t just lead the next generation of independent filmmaking, it will fill the leadership void left by the Hollywood studios. The call for Sundance to lead us in reinvention is a call to all of us in the indie film community. Embrace our destruction in order to be reborn.