Forty years of imagination and madness at Sundance
• The festival introduced filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, but also made a mogul out of Harvey Weinstein
It may now seem to be just another Hollywood A-lister event full of red-carpet premieres, exorbitant swag bags and films that aren’t so much independent as just not multimillion-dollar blockbusters.
But in its 40th year, the Sundance Film Festival in Utah can hold its head up as the little festival that could, and one that helped to change the face of the US film industry and give a platform to independent filmmakers and stars who have since gone on to become major players in the film industry.
It traces its roots to 1978, when its first edition in Salt Lake City as the Utah/US Film Festival was envisaged as a means of attracting filmmakers to the state and went on to be relaunched as the US Film and Video Festival in 1981. But the Sundance we know began in 1984, when its management was taken over by Sterling van Wagenen, head of the Sundance Institute and his actor business partner, Robert Redford.
As the US indie movement began to explode in the 1990s, Sundance was perfectly positioned to become its premier event and helped to introduce the world to the likes of Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino; bring documentary films into the mainstream and make a mogul out of a relatively unknown independent producer, Harvey Weinstein.
It’s also been the site of some famous multimillion-dollar deals, temper tantrums, fist fights and walkouts that have ensured that hungry streaming platforms bring new content to hundreds of millions of home viewers around the globe.
Here are some of the highlights from 40 years of innovation, imagination, madness and dirty wheeling and dealing in snowy Utah that pay tribute to Sundance’s place in the film calendar and the ways in which it has helped to, mostly, make movies better:
1. SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE (1989)
Steven Soderbergh’s $1.2m suburban drama about a group of bored yuppies who become entangled in a web of sex and deception became Indie cinema’s first major crossover hit when it was bought by Weinstein for $1m and went on to gross $25m, putting the rest of the industry on notice that there were gems to be had and money to be made at Sundance. It also put actors James Spader and Andie MacDowell on the map and launched Soderbergh’s career as the Indie godfather who would go on to critical, commercial and Oscar success in the decades to come.
2. RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
Hustling scriptwriter Quentin Tarantino made his first foray into directing with this heavily French-gangster-influenced crime caper that, in spite of a less-than-perfect first screening at Sundance, during which the film was incorrectly projected and eventually broke in the projector, put its director on the road to cult status and superstardom and changed the way American gangster movies have been be made.
3. CLERKS (1994)
Kevin Smith’s $27,000 blackand-white stoner hangout comedy was made using the director’s credit card and using anyone he could convince to be in it. Though it featured no naked people, the film got an R rating for its profanity-ridden dialogue and earned itself an NC-17 rating for its effort. While this may have been a setback for most filmmakers looking to get their work seen by as many people as possible, Weinstein seized the opportunity to launch a PR guerrilla war and hired lawyer Alan Dershowitz to make Clerks into a free-speech cause that beefed up expectations well before its release and had its rating downgraded to R before it went on to make millions at the box office.
4. FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (1994)
Mike Newell’s sweet British romcom written by Richard Curtis was made for less than $250,000 and had little expectation of doing much beyond perhaps a respectable UK screening when it arrived at Sundance in 1994. Instead, it proved a smash hit with audiences, earned a US release and went on to make $250m at the box office and a household name of its mumbling oh so English star Hugh Grant.
5. FRUITVALE STATION (2013)
Ryan Coogler’s gritty, heartbreaking drama about the last day in the life of Bay Area resident Oscar Grant III who was killed by transit authority guards on New Year’s Eve 2008, was made for less than $1m. It won the festival’s Grand Jury and Audience awards, gross $17m at the box office and establish its director as a filmmaking force who would go on to head the Black Panther franchise for the MCU. It also made a star of lead actor Michael B Jordan, who would use his star power to launch the Creed franchise.
6. SWISS ARMY MAN (2016)
A film that begins with Paul Dano riding the corpse of Daniel Radcliffe and propelling himself by means of corpse farts, was always going to be a difficult sell. When about a dozen people walked out of the first screening, directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan kissed their hopes of a bidding war goodbye but production company A4 saw something beyond the fart jokes and eventually distributed the film. Though not a commercial success, it helped provide a platform for “the Daniels,” that would see them go on to direct Everything, Everywhere All At Once, winner of seven Oscars, including best picture and best director at the 2023 awards.
7. CODA (2021)
Sian Heder’s sentimental but heartfelt drama about the challenges faced by the teenage daughter of hearing-impaired parents was the highlight of Sundance’s 2021, pandemic restricted remote edition. It was bought for a record $25m by Apple and went on to win three Oscars, including best picture in 2022.