The Sundance Film Festival, once a launching pad for independent cinema, is facing challenges in its relevance as the film industry evolves. The festival is seeing a surge in submissions but is struggling to maintain its status as a tastemaker. This text explores the changing landscape of film festivals and the impact of streaming on the industry.
As a new era of indie film rises in the U.S., the festival setting highlighting this shift has moved across the Atlantic. Before awards season gets its annual wrap with the Oscars, the Sundance Film Festival ushers in a new year of movies every January, although it is increasingly less like the tastemaker it once was.
What was once the touchstone of discovery that launched the independent film boom of the ’90s now exists more as an aspiration than an actual event, where the number of submissions seems much more impressive than the tiny fraction that ultimately get curated. The upcoming festival had 15,775 submissions, 4,138 being feature-length, and it would not be a stretch to assume that a significant sum of these films are ones making a Hail Mary pass at a festival run. While the mythic image of Sundance is that of unknowns like Steven Soderbergh or Quentin Tarantino bursting into the limelight, there’s little chance that will happen again. The market has changed, and so have tastes. But if Sundance is unwilling or unable to adapt, there are other places to look to find the best emerging talent in American cinema. Part of this landscape change has been because of COVID forcing major fests to implement extensive at-home viewing options that many (like Sundance) still retain, which can reduce the aura of the actual on-the-ground event. But more importantly, Hollywood has been changing how it interacts with the independent film industry ever since streaming became hegemonic in the 2010s. To put it simply: films don’t play at festivals anymore, at least not how they used to. COVID collapsing ticket sales was a nail in the coffin of an already endemic issue. Films platforming at Park City can still make waves, but it’s a far cry from the guaranteed buzz they once enjoyed. That is not to say it’s impossible for artistic breakouts to still happen. While by no means an unknown in festival circles, Jane Schoenbrun had their debut to a broader moviegoing public with A24 by premiering in Sundance’s Midnight series
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