Sundance 2009: State of the festival

Everyone's ready to throw in their version of how this year's Sundance Film Festival is going to be different from years past. Films will find it tough to find buyers." "Attendance will be way down." "Corporate America is staying home this year."

Sure, the hard economic times have had their impact on the festival and the film industry in general, but the evidence of such play has been hard to find for those of us "on the ground" at the fest. Shuttle buses are as crowded as ever, many being so full that the doors won't close. Some screening lines are so long that even those who have purchased tickets in advance aren't guaranteed a seat. And the Main Street Deli is still doing booming business. From the trenches there's no noticeable reduction in attendance. Hard statistics may tell a separate tale, but for all ostensive purposes it appears business as usual here at Sundance. Certainly this feeling is mutual amongst other festival goers based on those I've chatted with while waiting in line. Films are being picked up (HBO and Sony just made a number of buys in the past few days) and, if anything, sale quantity seems to be on the rise. I spoke with one producer during the opening night gala who exclaimed she'd already made three sales. And that was before the full festival even got into swing.

However, even with "Brookly's Finest" selling yesterday to Sony for an undisclosed figure of up to $5m, there's little buzz of a breakout sale at the fest and it's uncertain whether there will be anything like last year's much talked about "Hamlet 2" deal. Perhaps that will be this year's defining aspect - no "big" sale. Certainly plenty of industry players have been saying for the past few years that an end to expensive pickups at the fest is overdue. And that was before the financial system soured. Have we hit a point where festival buying has finally gone south? Maybe, but bear in mind that Hollywood just closed out one of its best years on record according to total box office sales. Certainly, from my own perspective in the thick of the studio production system, the amount of "work" in the pipeline over the past six months has done nothing but increase. While conglomerate parents decry that pennies must be pinched, distributors are still thirsty for product, particularly product that's already been developed, has a known audience reaction, and is effectively screen-ready. The films offered for acquisition at Sundance provide cost-effective options for studios looking to fill slates and cash in on the fact that hard economic times seem to bring people to movie theaters just as they did during the Great Depression.

Perhaps the only thing that's certain this year is that sponsor representation isn't what it used to be. Indeed, "subdued" seems to be the word du semiene for corporate involvement with this year's festival. They're here and making their presence known, but parties and overall strength are definitely more anemic that in years past. One woman who was in attendance on behalf of a corporate sponsor said that she knew of many cases where both her company and others were at the festival, but instead of sending the usual 30 people they'd sent only 10.

So what is the legacy of the 25th Sundance Film Festival? From where I stand here in the midst of the festival it seems very much to be that "film prevails" even with much-subdued corporate attendance. The industry, for all the disorder of the past year, is alive and well.