Editor

A crowded Park
City kicked off the Opening Night of the 2001 Sundance Film Festival tonight,
and although the film - My First Mister by Christine Lahti -
was un-spooling forty miles away in Salt Lake City, the
hyped crowds were starting the party early in this mountain town.



Restaurants were jammed, and the nightclubs thundered as filmmakers, dealmakers
and revelers started the Main Street prowl. The street side bulletin boards
only have one layer of film posters up as yet, and the rental SUV's may outnumber
pedestrians (even though what snow is here is old and thin), but the celebrities
have begun to arrive (Billy Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Danny Aielo to name a
few). The buzz feels more like guesses this year than in years past, although
a few names continually pop up: Hedwig and Angry Inch; Unfinished Symphony;
Donnie Darko; Go Tigers...



The dot.com marketing explosion of last year has been replaced by some serious
business as new distribution and exhibition companies set up shop. The list
of parties has now expanded to included the ubiquitous 'reception', a new wave
of afternoon party more businesslike in nature and easier to get in.



Overall, the anticipatory crowd is ready to get to work tomorrow morning as
tickets are ripped, theaters go dark and filmmakers tremble.

Kathleen
McInnis

Slate Of Digital
Films Picked Up By Lions Gate Entertainment



The Sundance Film Festival had barely started before the first deal involving
Sundance titles was announced here today. US distributor Lions Gate Entertainment
is picking up all domestic rights to a slate of five digital films produced
by Independent Digital Entertainment (InDigEnt).



Two of the films are making their world premieres at Sundance this weekend:
Tape, a drama directed by indie stalwart Richard Linklater (Slacker,
Dazed and Confused) starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, and Women In
Film, a satire of the film business starring Beverly D'Angelo, Portia de
Rossi and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, directed by novelist turned filmmaker Bruce
Wagner.



Other films included in the deal (but not screening at Sundance) include: Final,
a psychological drama starring Denis Leary and Hope Davis directed by Campbell
Scott; Chelesea Walls, a dramatization of the play by Nicole Burdette,
directed by Ethan Hawke and starring Vincent D'Onofrio and Kris Kristofferson;
and Ten Tiny Love Stories, directed by Rodrigo Garcia, and satrring Debi
Mazar, Radha Mitchell and Elizabeth Pena.



InDigEnt was formed in 1999 by director Gary Winnick, high powered attorney
John Sloss and The Independent Film Channel with a mandate to explore the world
of digital cinema while drawing on established screenwriters, directors and
actors. The films will most likely premiere as a series on the Independent Film
Channel, after Lions Gate Entertainment determines whether to open the films
theatrically or premiere them on pay cable or video.

Sandy
Mandelberger

Sundance
site