More grit, less glitter at this year's Sundance festival

By Andy Goldberg Jan 20, 2011, 15:21 GMT

Los Angeles - The Sundance Film Festival is going back to its roots.

Opening in Park City, Utah Thursday, the world's largest festival for independent film-makers is trying to shed its image as a snowy retreat for Hollywood bigwigs and embrace the low-budget film-makers that were uppermost in Robert Redford's mind when he founded the annual event in 1978.

The new approach was outlined last year by Redford and has been fully implemented this time around. So instead of the usual star- studded gala opening, featuring well-known stars in movies that could have been made by established Hollywood studios, this year's festival will open with four lower key films at separate venues.

That's not to say that there won't be the usual parade of Hollywood stars roaming the sidewalks, cafes and hospitality lounges. Actors still love appearing in low-budget movies, in which they can demonstrate their art without the usual restrictions they face in blockbusters. And indie film-makers love attracting stars not only because of their screen presence and acting skills, but also because they make alternative films so much easier to market.

Thus despite the efforts of organizers to refocus on smaller films, the Sundance buzz this year is still dominated by Hollywood glow, albeit in films far outside the usual firmament of their respective stars.

Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan plays a wayward evangelical Christian in the dark comedy Salvation Boulevard. Kate Bosworth stars in Little Birds, a modest coming-of-age drama about two Los Angeles runaways, and Paul Rudd features in an irreverent comedy called My Idiot Brother, in which three sisters are flummoxed by their sibling's strange ways.

Kevin Spacey stars in Margin Call a drama about the financial crisis, which also feature Demi Moore, while Vera Farmiga makes her directorial debut in the spiritual drama Higher Ground. Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks star in the domestic comedy The Details, while Ewan Macgregor and Eva Green try to defeat a global pandemic in Perfect Sense.

The festival's closing film will also be heavy with star power as Al Pacino, Channing Tatum and Katie Holmes star in the cop drama The Son of No One.

They will all be hoping that their movies can match the success of one of last year's entries, The Kids are All Right, which has earned over 21 million dollars at the US box office as well as a handful of critical awards, and is tipped to be a strong Oscar nominee.

But predicting post Sundance success is notoriously difficult. Last year's acclaimed films included the dramas Blue Valentine and Winter's Bone, which have since enjoyed critical and commercial success. But the film most widely tapped to succeed, Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds, barely made back half the 3 million dollars it sold for at Sundance 2010.

Yet according to film writer John Horn of the Los Angeles Times, film buyers will not be flashing big cash at this year's festival. That's because attendance dropped 5 per cent overall at the US box office last year, and the market for DVD sales also dried up in the face of competition from internet rental services.

Video on demand does offer a potentially lucrative alternative for film studios, but the revenues aren't there yet.

'VOD will play a major role in the independent film business going forward, but we're just starting to see significant revenue being generated from this new platform,' said Hal Sadoff a sales agent for International Creative Management, the largest Hollywood talent agency.