Sundance’s New Low-Budget Category – Good or Bad?

4Sep/091

Sundance’s New Low-Budget Category – Good or Bad?

There's been a bit of debate on the Twitters about Sundance Film Festival's recent announcement:

No-budget is the new wave (although you might have already known that) at the Sundance Film Festival for 2010. That's the word from festival director John Cooper, who announced the launch of a new section called "Next," which will focus on six to eight innovative and original low- and no-budget films for the 2010 festival. The idea behind "Next" is to discover and promote new filmmakers whose vision is hemmed in only by available funding.

-LA Times

On the negative side, this is seen as a sop to true indies, who are now virtually locked out of the major fest in favor of movies with "name" producers and stars. It's also seen as a ghetto, a small side-fest that will be a middle-finger to Slam Dance, the concurrently-running low-budget film festival in Park City.

But there's a plus side, which I'm inclined to agree with. This is a great way for Sundance to address the inequality and access issues, provided they really do pick unknown filmmakers who are doing interesting things. Rather than becoming a ghetto, this section could actually be the one people want to watch, truly introducing Next Big Things.

The Mumblecore and Dogma movements are long past, but I'd like to see Sundance recognize an exciting new low-budget movement (which I'll be participating in come October): #2wkfilm.