Why Hollywood Needs Sundance More Than Ever

Hollywood had a, to put it politely, very weird year in 2023. With the prolonged writers and actors strikes, tentpole films underperforming, mergers and acquisitions, the streaming wars racking up billions of dollars of losses… where can we find a little hope for the future of the industry?
As it turns out, a little ski town just outside of Salt Lake City provides exactly that every January. We went to the Sundance Film Festival again this year, and in one of the murkiest times in recent show business memory, we talked to several of the festival's filmmakers and a senior programmer about why film festivals are still a key part of the ecosystem, and how they might be even more important moving forward.
This video was written by Clint Gage and edited by Justin Donaldson.
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[@wgrandbois]

Way to drop five videos all at once.

[@LycanVisuals]

My favorite type of festival film is the studio spending less than 50 million on a movie, then calling it "indie" and the rest of the industry calling it a triumph for low budget films.

[@riparianlife97701]

I found out YESTERDAY why that Oppenheimer image bugs me so much. He looked exactly like that in 28 Days Later.

[@needamuffin]

What was the music used in the intro segment? It sounded beautiful.

[@adamkoyn792]

2023 was a great, great year for films. I suspect 2024 will be fairly similar

[@roel.vinckens]

Loved it, but the sound going left, right and center made my head spin...

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

There are some that I'd like to watch...but I'm on the opposite side of the planet so I'll surely miss the festival

[@Thomas-VA]

Hollywood needs less of the executives involved in hollywooding films. It's not a message problem its a executives don't really listen but go with what marketing is all abuzz about. The hostile crowds will always bemoan a social commentary, it doesn't help if the movies are ill crafted and feul for the pitchfork and torches crowd, the scared society of make it like it use to be.

[@Rayne2013]

That Last of Us comment is sooooo fn true!

[@rocko7711]

❤❤

[@JERSEYBOYPLAY2HARD]

Agreed but alot of the good films are going to Streaming to die.

[@stevdawizard392]

Hi yeah I wasn't subscribed here and I dont to be thanks 😊, thats a shitty thing to do guys

[@Teasebag]

audio channels are whack on this one

[@philiptravis9971]

Promo*SM 😬

[@nm09042]

first!

[@A-Negative]

Hollywood needs to get out of its own bubble more than ever before. Bunch of Rich Ivy League Californians all running TV and film who don’t live in the real world.

[@hosnaaa6555]

Right??

[@uanime1]

So we need Sundance because Indie films need more attention? That's not a good reason to have it.

[@foristrothbert568]

It never fails to amuse me how the Hollywood crowd and their offshoots continue to misread the room. The public isn't sick of "big budget" movies because they're generic (even though they are), they're sick of them because they're all pushing The Message. Every movie coming out now is pushing The Message, and the few that haven't (Super Mario, Top Gun, FNAF, John Wick) were massive hits. Conversely the few times something with The Message made bank like the Barbie movie, it was because of extenuating circumstances (namely the brand and hype...and the fact the creators made a very anti-feminist movie by accident). Hearing about this lineup from Sundance shows that what Hollywood thinks is "edgy" and "subversive" is about 40 years out of date. The public is up to their eyeballs in Satanic subversion and rainbow everything. Want to really be edgy, counter culture, and stick it to "The Man?" Then make something vehemently right-wing and patriotic with conservative messaging pushed just as hard as the opposite has been lately. You know, the sort of thing you'd get blacklisted for making nowadays and shit on by every mainstream critic for. Something that would actually be anti-establishment.

[@LynnHermione]

Lol what a longwinded way of saying "its the wokes fault". Sorry you are not allowed to be a bigot on tv anymore

[@foristrothbert568]

@@LynnHermione Delightful Stage One thinking. Did you come up with that one yourself or did your favorite mainstream critic tell you that? Maybe try to refute an argument when presented instead of beating a dead strawman.

[@hosnaaa6555]

I completely understand what you’re saying & totally dig it!

[@Nekminute]

plz dont gay

[@mdturnerinoz]

Wokewood/Copywood needs to simpley TELL AN EFFING STORY AND STOP, S T O P, PREACHING AT US! PERIOD!

[@raskul4]

You mean tell a story that connects to white men everywhere? Aren't there enough of those? The world is bigger than what Tucker Carlson is showing you man. You don't have to agree with what people find important, but you can at least try your hardest to understand. It's not preaching but educating and even though I don't find a lot of this my taste I can at least try to understand.

[@uanime1]

​@@raskul4 "You mean tell a story that connects to white men everywhere?" You mean the audience. "Aren't there enough of those?" No, that's why so many movies are losing money. "You don't have to agree with what people find important" Says the guy opposing what white men want. "but you can at least try your hardest to understand." Write a good story if you want understanding. No one wants your preaching. "It's not preaching but educating" Still failing at the box office because no one wants this.

[@ConQuixote]

Ofcourse! It's Woke's fault. Star Wars is woke NOW, it was cool action movie when I was a kid. Now it's political and woke. Lord of the Rings was true to its source when i was a kid, then they included females, now it's DEI and woke. I'm telling you, artists never used to include poitics in their art when i was a kid. Now it's trendy, it's preaching and WOKE.

[@rogerkincaid931]

Or maybe when you were a kid, you missed the artists' political subtext.

[@uanime1]

@@rogerkincaid931 Or they didn't include any.

[@rogerkincaid931]

@@uanime1 - Or you too missed them.

[@uanime1]

@@rogerkincaid931 "Or you too missed them." The onus is on you to prove they exist since you are claiming they exist.