Dealing 'Dot Com' At Sundance
The Sundance film festival came to a close this past weekend with two films tying for the top drama award. Sharing the prize were You Can Count on Me -- a tender film about a sibling reunion -- and a gritty tale of a female boxer called Girlfight.
Girlfight, which stars Michelle Rodriguez, is a film about a young woman who channels her fierce temper to become a champion boxer. Karyn Kusama also won the dramatic directing award for Girlfight.
Kenneth Lonergan won the Waldo Salt screenwriting award for his film You Can Count on Me, which he also directed. It stars Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo as a sister and brother struggling to maintain a sense of family -- years after their parents are killed in a car crash.
The grand jury prize for documentary went to Long Night's Journey Into Day. It examines four cases that came before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the aftermath of apartheid.
The audience award for dramatic film, chosen by public balloting, went to Two Family House. It is a touching 1950s portrait of an Italian-American loser who bucks tradition when he takes up with a young Irish woman and her baby by a black man.
Media buyers were eager to buy feature films with top honors, but short films were also hot property this year. Internet buyers were cutting deals with directors of the 50-plus short films and were inundated with videos from short moviemakers whose features did not make the festival cut.
The presence of Internet companies not only made the festival more crowded this year, but they gave filmmakers further opportunities for exposure, reports CBS News Correspondent Manuel Gallegus.
An interactive lounge showcased new entertainment technology, allowing short filmmakers the chance for their product to meet consumer demand. Companies such as Mediatrip.com and IFilms.com trolled the festival to meet with filmmakers and hunt for Web site content. AtomFilms' staff cruised Park City in a recreational vehicle where directors could drop off videos for the company to consider.
The Internet is "great for filmmakers. It's a breakthrough. It's not the old, difficult audition process," said Skip Paul, chief executive of IFilm, which is trying to become an all-purpose Web destination for movie-makers. "If their film is good, there's immediate exposure for it."
"Soon it's going to start moving to places like your cell phone. We've already sold to airlines and malls, there are all kinds of places people are getting entertained," said Mika Salmi, founder of AtomFilms.
Under AtomFilms' standard deal, filmmakers such as Reitman are paid $500 to $1,000 upfront then receive a percentage of revenues if their movies sell to TV, airlines or other places. The most successful of AtomFilms' 800 shorts have brought in nearly $100,000, said Salmi.
Only a fraction of Internet users have high-speed, broadband connections needd to make viewing films practical. The download time even for the shortest of shorts generally is too long for Web browsers over a telephone line.
With approximately 3000 entries submitted each year to the festival and less than 200 accepted, additional options for filmmakers to gain exposure is viewed as a positive step forward.
"It's good if it gets the films to audiences that want to see them," said John Cooper, Sundance associate director. "I still want to see someone make his money back on a short film."
The audience award for world cinema went to Saving Grace, starring Brenda Blethyn as a destitute British widow who grows marijuana in her greenhouse to cover her debts.
The documentary directing award went to Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman for Paragraph 175, an exploration of Nazi atrocities against homosexuals.
Dark Days, which examines a group of New York's homeless who built their own shantytown community in an underground tunnel, won the audience award for documentary and shared a cinematography award.
The dramatic jury awarded two special acting honors. One went to Janet McTeer for Songcatcher. She also won a Golden Globe last week for Tumbleweeds. In Songcatcher she plays a turn-of-the-century woman who gathers folk songs in the Appalachian backwoods. Aidan Quinn, Pat Carroll, Jane Adams, Gregory Cook and Iris DeMent received a special jury prize for outstanding ensemble performance in the same film.
One of many female filmmakers causing a buzz was Sophia Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. She showcased her directing debut called the Virgin Suicides, at the 23rd annual event.
For more information visit: The Sundance Institute Web site, AtomFilms.com and IFilm.com.