Secrets to Surviving Sundance
On the drive to Park City I felt the giddy excitement of a kid going to Six Flags. Then I slipped on a patch of ice and missed my first…
Sundance is not the easiest film festival to attend. Tens of thousands crowd into a tiny ski village to see 200 films. There are star-filled events with large doormen keeping outsiders at bay. Sidewalks are like sheets of ice. Sleep and healthy food are in short supply.
Yet I can see why people keep coming back. There’s a magic in the air in Park City.
One thing that makes Sundance special is that it allows you, by seeing new films at an accelerated rate, to live multiple lives each day. Time operates differently. You can experience, empathize, and reset over and over with each new film.
The Movies
I went to 30 screenings at this year’s Sundance. I saw 18 narrative feature films, 6 documentaries, 6 foreign films, 14 short films, 9 episodic shorts, 8 animated shorts, and 6 AR/VR experiences.
Best feature films I saw: The Farewell, The Nightingale, Cold Case Hammarskjold, This is Not Berlin, Little Monsters, Big Time Adolescence, Animals, Brittany Runs a Marathon.
Most memorable short films: Squirrel, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, Quarter-Life Poetry, Work in Progress, and Knockstrike (a hilarious and bizarre animated Spanish short).
Stuff I Learned
Have a few go-to sound bites to appear smart at industry events. E.g. “It’s never too early to think about distribution.”
The doormen at Sundance events don’t mess around. You’re not going to talk your way in. So get a list of events ahead of time and RSVP to them. Ask friends to get you on lists for events that are invite-only. Some of the best events I went to were privately hosted at homes in the mountains, far from Main Street.
Cell coverage can be spotty, so collect Wi-Fi passwords at restaurants & hotels on Main Street.
Be nice to Sundance volunteers. They are some of the nicest, most cheerful, movie-loving humans you will meet.
Don’t believe wait times on Lyft / Uber. The app may say 4 minutes, but driving Main Street from top to bottom can take an hour when it’s busy. Add a 15 minute cushion when you need to make a screening. And take advantage of the free shuttles that go around the different theaters.
Bring a duffel bag inside your suitcase to bring home all the swag you’ll collect at sponsored events.
Surrender to randomness. Embrace serendipity. I scheduled a few things each day, but some of my best experiences happened when I didn’t get into a screening, was bummed at first, then ran into a friend outside the theater and ended up finding myself at an even cooler event.
It’s hard to know whether a screening will be good. That’s part of the fun — you’re embarking on a journey of discovery with your fellow audience members. No one has read any reviews (other than some industry buzz). You’re experiencing new art in a collective setting.
When in doubt, go for screenings you’re unlikely to see anywhere else: obscure foreign films, niche documentaries, short films & animated shorts. Stuff that might not make it to Hulu or Netflix. I saw 9 short films for the indie episodic shorts program. They were among the edgiest, most original content I saw at Sundance.
Finally, something I learned from Chiwetel Ejiofor: “You should never name-drop. Mick Jagger told me that.”
How to crash a Sundance party