So I’m recently back from the 09 Sundance festival.  We had a film, Barking Water, playing in Spectrum.  The festival was a success for our film, but interesting regarding the big picture for films. 

First there was, I felt, a more narrowed audience than in years past.  I got the feeling this festival was for movie fans.  The streets were less crowded, as were the events (though ropes and lines still caused plenty of controversy) and the people were more subdued.  It was a pleasant change.  

The films this year were top notch as always.  I only saw two, unfortunately, but I talked about several and reports were positive.  I did see La Mission, an amazing film by Peter Bratt.  Also saw Adam which I would highly recommend.  

The sales were there, though I’m not sure as plentiful as prior years.  And the numbers were certainly not as high this year as in years past.  The highest figure I am aware of was $3.5 for Brooklyn’s Finest, which was rumored from $5 to $2 so who knows.  All the other sales fell in below that number.  And at least a few of the sales had some non-traditional release strategies coupling VOD usually as a pre rollout.  That is interesting.

I think it speaks to the progress of film.  The market is changing.  Theatrical will, hopefully, always be there, but there are certainly some strong arguments for taking the film out to the end user via the TV prior to any theatrical.  I don’t know, and haven’t heard anyone that does know, how this new platforms will line up, but the experiments have begun to determine a working model.