Sundance Film Festival Thrives After 25 Years

Sundance Film Festival Thrives After 25 Years


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Today, we know it simply as Sundance, 10 days of screenings and stars in Park City. Twenty-five years ago, Robert Redford took over what was the fledgling United States Film Festival. Carole Mikita takes a look back at an event she's been covering for that long.

The phrase 'you've come a long way, baby,' certainly applies to the Sundance Film Festival. In 1980 at the ribbon cutting in Salt Lake City, there were about twenty people on hand. It's safe to say few even knew about it.

A few years later it moved to Park City. Through those early years it took on several different names, U.S. Film and Video Festival was one of them. It was not going well, losing money. In the mid 80's, people from the state film commission asked Robert Redford to get involved, and at first he did seminars, then agreed that his Sundance Institute take over, if he could do it his way.

Bingo, word spread, tickets sold, the festival found success.

Robert Redford: "What I ran into was a lot of confusion. There were a lot of people who had bruised feelings from what had happened years before that I wasn't even aware of. So we tried it and there was mixed support last year, because I think a lot of people were waiting to see, they'd been burned by their involvement before, financially or otherwise and we kind of loaned it last year, but it went well, it went really well."

Soon, well-known names in Hollywood became involved. Jody Foster, who at the time had a Golden Globe nomination, came to be a judge for the festival's film competition.

Jody Foster, Festival Judge, 1989: "Real people, sitting around talking about movies that they love. And, I don't know, I'm a huge movie fan, it's all I really do. It's like being in heaven." It took years in the 90s, but Hollywood finally discovered Sundance.

Robert Redford, January 1994: "The first year we had, we had an attendance of 400 people and all signs indicated that this was probably going to be one of the great tank jobs of all time..."

As its popularity grew, the competitions attracted better films and bigger names. Every year an actor of independent vision received an award.

Kevin Spacey, January 2000: "What this means to me is that i'm on the right road...and I’m gonna keep trying to do the best work that I can..."

A few years earlier, Denzel Washington got the honor.

Denzel Washington: January 1993: "I’m really not an awards person, to be quite honest with you...but I wanted to come up here and I wanted to see what it was like..."

You know you've arrived when the Brits make it. Kenneth Branagh and fellow actors came to premiere a film.

Kenneth Branagh, 'A Midwinter's Tale', January 1996: "It's a beacon, really...not just for America but in terms of the world as a truly independent festival for pictures that are almost always are the product of great passion..."

But besides all the stargazing and deal making, the Sundance Film Festival maintains its original intent: Providing a showcase for independent filmmakers.

Bridget Bedard, independent filmmaker: "Getting in makes you feel like it was all worth it... All the risk, all the financial burden... Everything, you know... It's really a good feeling..."

This year, 120 films made it into what has become America's premiere festival: Sundance.

The Sundance Film Festival opens tomorrow evening and runs through January 29th with screenings in Salt Lake, Park City, the Sundance Resort and Ogden.

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