Sundance 2.0 aka An evolution of festivals
a post that's not really about Sundance...that much
Back in January I walked the streets of Park City and was conscious it would be one of the last times I’d do it for the festival in its current incarnation. There are many memories of Main Street, Swede Alley, Park Ave and a couple of my fav staircases coming down to Swede Alley from above Park City. I really thought Utah would hold on and the festival would expand into Salt Lake with a small footprint back at his spiritual home in Park City. I really didn’t see Boulder coming. But c’est la vie. Talking to a producer friend earlier today, his feeling was that there are two film festivals known worldwide, Cannes and Sundance...how does Utah let one of them out of their sights?
Interestingly enough I had been to Boulder for the first time late Fall ‘24 to film and no disrespect to the town, it’s no Park City yet it is definitely a cool place. Perhaps I’m not giving it enough credit and in due time I will be totally won over. Will they have a similarly breathtaking evening view driving down from Deer Valley with Christmas tree lights dotted around the town below? The fact that Colorado can boast two of the world’s top tier film festivals hosted in their state is impressive.
This quite seismic shift has sparked debate, nostalgia, and plenty of uncertainty. I’m not going to dig much into all that. I’m interested in imagining the opportunities. What if we imagined how the festival, so vital to independent film, could reinvent itself and evolve in ways that weren’t possible in Park City? For the record, for me the size of the town/city correlates directly with how much I’ve enjoyed the film festival. The smaller the better. I’m ready to be surprised though.
I didn’t know this but it seems Robert Redford initially pitched the Sundance idea to the University of Colorado before turning his focus to Park City. He had gone to school in Boulder and his first idea involved establishing a space that could foster independent filmmaking. This early vision for Sundance in Colorado was rooted in a shared desire for a creative space that nurtured artists and filmmakers, offering a place where they could experiment with their craft free from the constraints of Hollywood’s major studio system. In fact, Redford’s vision for Sundance was initially formed during a time when he was focused on pursuing his own storytelling interests, such as exploring more complex, "gray" areas of American life. His connection to Utah and its proximity to the Sundance resort eventually led to the festival finding its permanent home in Park City, where it grew exponentially. So I guess there’s a sense that the festival is going back to where the seeds first sprouted?
For 2027, what opportunities does Sundance Boulder present...
a more accessible festival
a return to artistic roots
a hub for year round filmmaking
Yes to all that but this shift invites us to think beyond the logistical changes and ask bigger questions: How can film festivals evolve into holistic audience-building and distribution avenues for independent filmmakers? What new possibilities emerge when we stop seeing festivals as just launchpads for selling or career building and start imagining them as integral parts of a direct-to-audience pipeline?
What Festivals Have Been and What They Could Be
Traditionally, film festivals have operated as gatekeepers, offering filmmakers prestige, visibility, and the hope of a distribution deal. But as we’ve all been saying and witnessing, them times are changing. As more filmmakers take charge of their own distribution, could festivals themselves become part of that ecosystem in a more active way?
Festivals have long been spaces where films get discovered by buyers. But what if they also functioned as platforms where filmmakers are discovered by audiences? And could directly connect with audiences? Imagine a festival-integrated model where attendees could immediately support a film’s release,
pre-buying digital access
gifting the film to friends
Letterboxd integration that amplifies the film to audiences outside the festival
promoting the film to their local indie theater booker
subscribing to a filmmaker’s future projects
or engaging in crowdfunding initiatives tied to festival premieres and theatrical release
What happens after a festival premiere? Often, films disappear into a waiting period before eventual release. How about a long tail of festival engagement? What if festivals offered continued audience engagement tools,
curated digital screenings
integrated with Gathr and Kinema to empower audiences to host screenings
festival-branded distribution channels
or a year-round membership model that keeps audiences connected to the films they love?
more partnerships by festivals with each other to uplift the films they collectively show. Let’s not have festivals compete with each other but rather rising tides lift all ships
Alamo Drafthouse’s “Drafthouse Recommends” program has found success in keeping indie films in theaters longer. What if festivals partnered with select theaters to create a festival-to-theater pipeline where standout films are championed post-festival through curated screenings and continued word-of-mouth engagement?
Theaters and festivals have yet to tap into the kind of data-driven audience outreach that powers streaming giants. Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics argues that festivals and indie distributors should adopt better audience data collection—similar to how Spotify and Live Nation notify users of upcoming concerts. Festivals could use ticketing and viewing habits to personalize film recommendations and guide audiences toward similar indie films they might love. Connect Jolt with festivals. This helps them become better at finding their audience and what they learn about the films’ engagement is passed on to the filmmakers to use in their marketing.
Letterboxd has become a powerful discovery tool, but mostly drives traffic to existing streaming services. What if festivals integrated a Letterboxd-style social layer, where attendees could rate, review, and share films instantly, providing organic buzz, amplification, and even guiding distributors toward audience-supported acquisitions? Key for me is how this social driven word-of-mouth speaks to a local audience so that we’re encouraging and developing local growth of indie film viewing. Also how this can develop the viewing habits of the next generations.
Platforms like TikTok are expanding into longer-form content, and some industry players see it as a viable place for audience mobilization. A festival-backed initiative could help indie filmmakers create grassroots micro-marketing campaigns on TikTok and Instagram, where enthusiastic festival-goers spread the word about their favorite discoveries.
These ideas align with industry conversations happening right now about independent film sustainability. John Sloss of Cinetic Media has suggested industry-wide endowments to support theatrical P&A budgets for indie films, ensuring they get a fair chance against streamer-driven content.
All of this points toward the same core shift: festivals need to rethink their role as intermediaries between filmmakers and audiences, rather than just marketplaces for buyers. A couple weeks ago I wrote about how Enguene Hernandez is talking about exactly this.
A quick programming interlude. Welcome to the new subscribers. If you want to know what this substack is all about, start here and then work through some other older posts like this one and this one. Participate with your comments and suggestions. Share things you like and get your friends to stop by. This post I wrote about Theaters as Cultural Focal Points is a perfect companion to today’s post.
What Questions Must We Answer?
If we’re going to reimagine film festivals as long-term audience-building and distribution tools, what are the critical questions we need to explore?
How can festivals better serve filmmakers who want to bypass traditional distribution and go direct-to-audience?
How can festivals serve audiences who have a thirst for more diverse films than the studios and streamers are serving them?
What financial models could make sustained festival engagement viable without undercutting filmmakers’ revenue streams?
How do we ensure accessibility while maintaining the exclusivity and prestige that make festivals special?
How can festivals partner with filmmakers beyond the event itself, offering infrastructure for long-term audience growth?
How You Can Contribute
This is an open conversation, and I want to hear from you. Whether you’re a filmmaker, festival programmer, distributor, or audience member, what do you see as the biggest opportunities for film festivals in this new landscape? How can they evolve to better serve independent filmmakers and audiences alike?
Drop your thoughts in the comments, reply to this post, or reach out directly. Let’s think beyond the festival premiere toward a future where festivals are not just launchpads, but long-term partners in building and sustaining independent film careers.
**one of the least relevant things I googled while writing this post is if there are direct flights from Long Beach to Denver. Answer is yes. LBC had been my secret airport to get to SLC. Yes Burbank is closer to me and a great airport but I never got my act together to book a ticket early enough. I learned this past Sundance a producer friend books his hotel & flight for the next Sundance the day he returns from the current one. Props.
Ok now the plug part of the post...
The short doc ĐẤT LÀNH CHIM ĐẬU aka On Healing Land, Birds Perch from Vietnamese American filmmaker Naja Phạm Lockwood started it’s festival run last week at Martha’s Vineyard. I loved producing this! You can see it next on it’s current festival and community screening run in Cleveland (April 4th), San Francisco (April 25th), and Doc 10 Chicago (May 4th). It’s hitting the JKF Presidential Library and the Ford Presidential Library in May. See the full (growing) list on the website.
