Has Sundance Jumped The Shark?



(image via bloggingsundance)

Sundance arguably jumped the shark when the swag bags and the Paris Hilton set overtook the screenings and actual behind-the-scenes work that went into the independent movies being celebrated in Park City, Utah. The outright swaggotry got so bad that in 2006 (The nicknames "Brand Dance" and "SwagDance" was starting to adhere the previous year), Robert Redford himself gave an opening ceremony address on the meaning of independent cinema and the vacuousness of the materialism that was infecting the festival. So how has the Economic Crisis of 2009 affected Sundance? From Filmmakermagazine:

"What’s the mood heading into the 25th Sundance Film Festival? Overall, the sense of a across the board scaling back is palpable. Almost no one will talk about their own company’s downsizing publicly, for fear of appearing financially unstable, but it’s no secret that the economic catastrophes have hit everyone’s travel and promotional budgets. Besides fewer sponsored parties – Motorola, for instance, will not be in attendance -- the rumor is that some photo agencies have majorly scaled back their coverage, sticking to the red carpet only, and usually ubiquitous publications aren’t sending their film critics. 'The party grid is much, much shorter than it has been in the past,' says Jeff Abramson of Gen Art, whose company is nevertheless co-sponsoring several parties with companies like Kenneth Cole and 7 For All Mankind. 'There are still tons of actors who don’t even know if they’re going or not,' possibly because producers no longer have the budgets to bring them."