Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is the largest independent film festival in the United States. Festival events are held each January in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and the Sundance Resort. The festival highlights new works from American and international independent filmmakers.
Robert Redford has been involved from the very beginning, but he is not the sole founder. However, because of his ongoing involvement with Sundance, he and the Sundance Institute are largely responsible for bringing the festival from relative obscurity to its current status as one of the top film festivals in the world.
The festival was first held in Salt Lake City in August 1978 and was called the Utah/US Film Festival. Originally conceived as a way to attract more filmmakers to Utah, it was founded by Sterling Van Wagenen (then head of Wildwood, Robert Redford's company), and Utah Film Commission members John Earle and Cirina Hampton Catania.
The 1978 festival featured films such as Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, Midnight Cowboy, Mean Streets, and The Sweet Smell of Success. Robert Redford served as the festival chairman and worked with then Governor Scott Matheson of Utah in an effort to increase visibility for filmmaking in Utah.
The festival has served as the launching point for many high profile film careers including those of Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Steve James, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Darren Aronofsky, James Wan, Edward Burns and Jim Jarmusch. Currently, the Sundance Film Festival is one of the pre-eminent events of its type in America. In addition, it is considered one of the top five film festivals in the world along with the Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and Berlin festivals.
One of the BEST KEPT SECRETS about Sundance is that while the town is packed with festival attendees, the ski resorts are virtually empty. It is a great time to ski!