Everything you ever wanted to know about Sundance, but... (Part One)
The Deep Dive "soft launch" resumes with Issue #2
In what is left of SC-Indie and our FKATheFilmBiz, you pronounce January as “Sundance”. And we want to let you know we still speak your language (even if you many not speak ours).
Most of this month Deep Dive is in our “soft launch”mode and will be sharing posts that have inspired this new FS Deep Dive mission… but beginning in February, it will be like this post and the one before it on the possible Netflix/Warners consolidation — an exploration from sources and feeds all around the globe (when we can find them) on a single topic. Consider us the primer for the deeper conversation. We hope to be your go to source for keeping up with The Jones the changes.
And you can use the comments as an old school chat spot where the conversation continues on that subject. Just keep it civil please. Don’t make us set some rules!
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And we’ve got a lot to share with you in preparation for the upcoming festival that will occur January 22 to February 1, 2026 and for the final time in Park City, Utah.
This post however is NOT about the movies. It is about the event and the institution that has defined January for the American Indie Filmmaker and beyond for the last 35 years. We want to explore the thinking around both the event and the institution, what it does to us being part of the system it has helped create. We suspect if Deep Dive is to survive, we will return to this subject more than once, and hence the “Volume” number. Plus, its kinda cute. Consider this our initial attempt to get the house in order.
NOTHING has had the effect on American Non-Studio Cinema that Sundance has. NOTHING comes close. Just ponder that for a while, will you? I think I fill the next slots all with film movements, a director, and a movie: The French New Wave, Dogma 95, Cassavetes, and Pulp Fiction. That’s my Top 5. With Sundance as the cherry on top. What’s your Top 5 Influences on The Non-Corporate Non-Studio Artist Side of The Cinema Ecosystem?
It is a remarkable thing that Robert Redford created. And I don’t think I’d be writing to you now if it wasn’t for him.
He will be missed.
But we know many of you are the TL;DR sorts, so we might as well share The Big Secret at the top so you can get the easy golden ticket elevator right to the top of the ‘stack.
But seriously…. forget about winning… let’s start from the beginning.
As a cinema-maker, how do you get into Sundance (or any festival)?
Indiewire offers some advice:
Here’s also their advice from 2016. Someone should do an analysis of how that advice changed over the years. #JustSaying. We always looking for volunteers round here.
Indiewire also always talks to those that do get in, and you can always pick up a nugget or two from what they have to share.
https://www.indiewire.com/news/festivals/what-it-takes-to-be-next-gen-filmmaker-1235089823/
But maybe you should take a bit picture view, and really ask yourself some questions first:
What is the Sundance Film Festival “for”?
Is it for the art? The community? The industry? The business? All of the above?
Is it anything more than just a farm league for The Studios? As Anthony Kaufman points out in his 2025’s Annual Sundance Hits & Misses Filmmaker Mag article:
Or maybe the better question is… WHO is Sundance for?
YM Cinema Magazine (aka “the technology behind filmmaking”) feels there is a bias around the equipment you use (or don’t) — and that hurts the true independents, so maybe it is not even for the ones we thought..
Okay, but the equipment we use is not your top concern, but I find it interesting. So there!
A heck of a lot of folks sure go to Sundance!
This is the data from 2025:
You can download the whole enchilada here.
But if you do win the lottery and get it… what do you need to know?
On preparing for Sundance:
Premiering at Sundance is an intoxicating experience that can totally go to your head, even without all the booze-filled parties. It can also be deflating and depressing — arriving with such lofty hopes and dreams, then seeing other films and filmmakers getting all the interest and attention.
Back in 1999, Sundance was a place where even doc filmmakers dared to fantasize about a whopping big theatrical distribution deal. One that could propel us into another filmmaking sphere altogether, a la Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock. Now we peg our dreams on getting more than 50 people to show up for a virtual screening on Gathr or Kinema.
The day the lineup was announced, I heard from a lot of you (hi thank you!), talked with the film team, talked with my team, and at the end of the day caught up with my manager. And while we talked about next steps, accommodations, travel, and more importantly… how to capitalize on this moment with whatever the next project is (this one) he said… “The work begins.”
https://www.vogue.com/article/anticipated-releases-sundance-film-festival-2026
There is a mixed blessing in the acceptance:
There’s got to be a whole many more articles on preparing for Sundance. I just haven’t found them yet. Lend a hand if you get a chance.
But damn, it’s not easy to get into, is it? Maybe that is a better place to start
On dealing with rejection by Sundance:
https://filmmakermagazine.com/104973-so-you-didnt-get-into-sundance-redux/
So… what’s the matter with Sundance?
Well, we always phrase it in an all or nothing sort of way, don’t we?
That was Variety’s take last year: https://variety.com/2025/film/columns/does-sundance-still-matter-sundance-film-festival-205-1236294002/. Sundance was a #MustAttend event because you knew you were going to see movies that were “too good to ignore”.
I started attending Sundance regularly because most of the movies were interesting — and you were not going to get much of a chance to see them anywhere else. If they are not going to be 2G2I, I actually want them to be perhaps be the only time I will have an easy time to gobble them all down. Scarcity can be an attribute. Is that something that can be used still today?
Variety’s dismissal of the festival is not theirs and theirs alone. FilmThreat’s Chris Gore has never been shy about sharing his issues.
And neither is Richard Rushfield. You can thankfully always count on him to not hold back. Last year, he let his venom for navel-gazing movies in the midst of cinema’s extinction event fly:
But maybe the problem is NOT Sundance itself…
Maybe the problem is… US!
Yeah, it seems like Anthony is not one to see the festival as much of an issue. Maybe he’s right. His Filmmaker Mag roundup on Sundance ‘25 was against the Something-Is-Rotten-In-Denmark-Park City narrative:
“As Sundance Film Festival director Eugene Hernandez says, “This festival isn’t the same as it was in 1999, nor is it what it was even in 2019. In the past five years in particular, the Sundance Film Festival has evolved just as our audience has. [And] immediate sales during the fest are only one metric.”
“Sundance is clearly not dead,” adds Fithian. “The breadth of quality and originality of feature films being produced today is better than I’ve ever seen, but it’s just harder and harder for those independent movies to find their way to theatrical audiences.”
https://filmmakermagazine.com/129998-analysis-sundance-2025-success/
We could definitely use some new articles praising Sundance for al that it provides.
Where are those articles?
Could we actually make Sundance better?
The hope of moving it to a more accessible, less expensive and elitist place did not pan out. Well the move is happening, but it doesn’t sound like those criteria will be met.
What’s still on the table?
What are some recommended improvement for Sundance?
I am definitely with Anne Thompson on this one. Smaller is better. And although she did not direct it totally towards the ‘dance, we know what she was thinking.
There’s a ton of little fixes that are needed, but it is hard to find anyone talking about them. Perhaps you have a suggestion or two of your own to offer? I know I do.
Yeah, Could we actually make Sundance better?
A couple of months ago I had the chance to hear some “leaders” of film festivals speak in conversation. One of the speakers was in charge of NYFF - more specifically in charge of Lincoln Center and it occurred to me that the festival’s “business model” was so effective because they spend all year “building an audience” through the programming at Film at Lincoln Center. They have direct access to their audience to gather “data points” and iterate in real time what is working and what isn’t - i.e. what the people really want. They also have a year round physical space to connect filmmakers, audiences, entrepreneurs, artists… and as we know connecting with each other in person is really the whole appeal of a festival in the first place.
I think the biggest difference between an “institution” and event i.e. festival like NYFF as opposed to Sundance is that they seem to focus on the audience first while Sundance seems very focused on “status.” Most of its workshops, labs, and educational programming while they could potentially “launch,” or at the very least build a network to launch, any filmmaker’s career are so closed-off to the point of being almost “secretive” that it creates a rather dense wall between not just filmmakers and their audience but between other filmmakers (who aren’t part of the club.)
I think if Sundance truly wants to meet the times or innovate in a way that can help them thrive in this new landscape - they need to further democratize their educational resources and lab opportunities not simply to “level the playing field” but to give fresh oxygen to what I find increasingly to be an outdated way of approaching how to cultivate true craftsmanship/ the future voices of cinema. And as far as the festival itself goes, take a play out of Lincoln Center’s book and start building your audience now.
(TL)
But… Who is gonna lead it now?
Sundance is now looking for a new Executive Director. Perhaps you should apply.
Personally speaking, I’d love to see someone in their 30’s or 40’s be chosen. An organization with a mission like Sundance needs to embrace vision and change. They NEED someone who isn’t being rewarded for maintaining the same old same old way of thinking. As it is now though, taking the job is a bit like pursuing the task of POTUS — if you want it, you clearly must be insane! You will be rewarded for NOT making meaningful change. That’s not what the industry or the community needs now. And if they put one of us Olds, I fear it will be a death foretold.
But… should you go to Sundance or stay home?
Here’s some films to see:
Here are all the black and diverse films premiering this year:
But then again, as Anthony Kaufman points out:
Festivals are a tricky business. Okay, this is not just about Sundance, but maybe we need to pull back a bit and look at the big BIG picture:
FWIW, I had some good luck choosing NOT to go to Sundance early on my career.
Do you have anything to share about Sundance?
Please do!
PS. In the future, we hope such posts will be community-curated — like what we do over on FilmStackDailyDigest — but I needed to get this going so this was my holiday hobby.
And just in case you haven’t yet subscribed to our sibling pub, the Daily Digest, don’t delay!
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Thanks for this post on Sundance. I'll be at Sundance briefly (1/23-25). It's my first time having a film there that I worked on, so I'm very excited!
Sundance selected 95% alumni for their feature film programming in 2025, I haven’t seen the updated numbers this year but I’m sure it will be more of the same. The problem is similar for many festivals: paralysis of programming for fear of not picking “the right” one. Instead Sundance needs to be worried about representing the undertold and misunderstood. Exceptionalism theories need to go out the window to truly disrupt. Stop basing selections based on in person vetting and labs and actually use programmers to select films. They have an army after all. How does it rarely get used?