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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1496181
Sundance 2023 proved people were ready to get the business back on its feet as thousands of folks tramped through the snow to watch good, mediocre films along with really outstanding creative efforts that focused on major issues people face as well as work that was just plain fun to watch. This year’s Sundance was again a pre-eminent showcase for off-Hollywood movies that were unique, special projects that still had strong commercial potential. In other words, despite the brief hiatus of the in-person get together, Sundance still was the right combination of art, money, vision and hustle. This year’s Sundance was brimming with fine, good and very good movies, but theatrical distributors sat quietly on the sidelines while streamers cherrypicked the offerings. Some will be scheduled for your local theater over the next 12 months but increasingly, most will be available on one of your streaming platforms. Even though most of the specialty distributors including Focus Features, Searchlight, A24, Magnolia, Neon and Roadside Attractions indicated that most of their 2023 schedules were full, they were still willing to consider opening up their checkbooks if there were some buzzy crowd-pleasing surprises during the festival (there were a few); but most of them were stingier than Scrooge McDuck. For most of the Sundance hopefuls Netflix, Amazon and Apple were the big streamers who were willing to pay big, even though their selections were limited. All of the buyers simply attended the shows in the theaters around town to gauge audience interest and maybe sanity check their opinions on the projects being offered. But even streamers are interested in having a theatrical window opened … a little. It not only qualifies them for Oscar submissions but, more importantly, theatrical previews/reviews and attendee social media coverage add to the overall value of the project. This year’s Sundance included 111 features and 64 shorts, selected from 15,856 submissions. Nearly half the films at the festival were made by first-time filmmakers, including a record number of works by indigenous filmmakers and projects from 28 countries. Just a few of the over 80 films that were available when Sundance opened had found homes. These include Chloe Domont’s thriller Fair Play that went for about$20M to Netflix. Apple paid about the same for John Carney’s Flora and Son while Searchlight captured the improv comedy Theater Camp for $8M. Mubi picked up Ira Sachs’ drama, Passages. A24 acquired the buzzy Midnight title Talk to Me and MTV Documentary, Films walked away with Maite Alberdi’s documentary grand prize winner The Eternal Memory.