The End of an Era: Slamdance Moves to Los Angeles
The move is bittersweet, especially for filmmakers like me, having just screened there. The days of Park City as filmmaking mecca, it would seem, are officially over.
When I set out to make DARUMA more than 16 years ago, I didn’t know how hard it would be to make a movie. I knew it would be hard to make a movie that starred two authentically cast disabled leads, but I wasn’t prepared for the level of rejection I would receive along the way, over and over and over again (and still do as we shuffle through distribution), but I was particularly surprised at the level of rejections we received from the festival circuit.
One of my lead actors, John Lawson, won BEST ACTOR at Slamdance 2024, back row, middle right, blue shirt.
That’s why when I got the news we were going to screen at Slamdance, THE SLAMDANCE, as an official selection, in the filmmaking mecca known as Park City, I was elated. It wasn’t quite Sundance, which we’d applied to and received a nice personal rejection note, but it still meant we were screening in Park City, which as everyone who’s been in the film industry for a moment knows is a feather in your cap.
It felt golden to be chosen by this festival to screen in this city. As a filmmaker, it’s not hard to quantify: screening in Park City, whether at Slamdance or Sundance, was a commendable achievement. For us so much so that Oscar-winner Peter Farrelly signed on to executive produce our film.
But those days are over it seems.
The news has broken that Slamdance is moving to Los Angeles for 2025.
I get it, I do: Los Angeles is more accessible, it’s less expensive and with Sundance looking for a new home too, it feels more inevitable than ever that Slamdance, who has really come into its own as a festival over the past two decades, would be branching out and looking for a new home.
But for me, and I’m sure other filmmakers, there’s something really bittersweet about this moment. Because it means that Hollywood is really breaking up with Park City. I wonder how many film students and filmmakers just had their hopes of one day screening in Park City dashed. Because it meant something, it really did.
What Happens Now?
If you read my post from last week, I painted a pretty grim picture of the film business as a whole and this only helps to underscore the point I was making.
So many of the institutions that once were are shifting and changing beneath our feet, leaving most of us guessing which way the wind will blow.
What will a festival in Los Angeles look like? Will it mean more opportunities for indie filmmakers who have faced considerable challenges when it comes to the expense of traveling for festivals, especially in ski towns like Park City?
Stepping away from its long entanglement with Sundance, a repositioned Slamdance should provide new opportunities for audiences and filmmakers alike. - LA Times Article
My team with Slamdance Festival Director Taylor Miller, Unstoppable Founder Juliette Romeo, RespectAbility VP Lauren Appelbaum, and Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur who came out to support us. I’m in the middle, my hand on my husband’s shoulder, Alexander Yellen, the director and DP of the film.
I’m excited for the team at Slamdance, who have always marched to their own drum and not taken no for an answer (maybe that’s part of the reason why they picked my film), but there’s a bit of me that can’t help but feel a little sad and nostalgic for something. I’m not sure what it is: something that we’ve maybe lost as the industry moves further and further away to supporting the indie film model.
But this truly does help mark the end of an era in Park City and no matter how special of a place it has in my heart, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments, I would love to hear from you.
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