Red and I popped over to Sundance this week to catch up with some good friends, meet up with some new folks, and get a few flicks in. Andrew Disney also made the trip and steller Sonny star Jason Dohring opened up his beautiful home in Utah as a base camp. As we wrap up “Searching for Sonny” and look into our distribution future, there are a lot of good observations to be made:
1. Interest from buyers is up over the past two years as evidenced by healthy advance numbers – i.e. “My Idiot Brother” sold for a reported $6-7M.
2. The big sales will always be led by “star driven” films – i.e. “My Idiot Brother” starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones, and more. “Margin Call” starring Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, and more. Etc. Etc. Etc.
3. Alternative approaches to distribution are still being talked about – i.e. Kevin Smith hosted a live auction for his new film “Red State” immediately following the screening, only to purchase it for $20 himself and announce that he will be self distributing the film through a road trip. And there’s more Day and Date releases making Sundance premieres available to a wide audience via their VOD boxes or computers.
4. Sundance has a lofty mission to discover fresh, unknown talent and bring them to the big screen. However, these “true indies” – that is, the films made by undiscovered filmmakers outside of studio our big agency influence, still remain virtually uncovered and relegated to non-primetime screenings.
5. With over 10,000 films submitted to Sundance this year, it is very clear that independent filmmaking is alive and well. It just begs the questions – where do all these films go, how are they getting there, and is there an audience for all of this content? We hope that both “Take Shelter” and “The Details” find their audience. Two awesome films.
— Greg Beauchamp, Producer