Talk of the Sundance Film Festival's demise as an incubator for crowd-friendly independent films seems to have been greatly exaggerated.
When titles from this year's 40th anniversary festival weren't flying off the shelves by the third day of screenings, some observers saw it as yet another sign that Hollywood was in dire straits. It was believed that the festival was no longer presenting independent films that could become commercially viable.
However, as the festival wrapped up over the weekend, it seemed that the studios found a number of films that they were willing to bet would connect with moviegoers.
As has been the case in recent years, streaming services made the most eye-catching offers. Netflix paid $17 million for the horror film “It's What's Inside” and Amazon/MGM bought “My Old Ass,” starring Aubrey Plaza, for $15 million. “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” a documentary about a Russian couple who saves their marriage by climbing skyscrapers, was acquired by Netflix, while Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of the Max streaming service, is negotiating a $15 million sale for “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve story”, a documentary about the “fall and rise” of the actor best known for his portrayal of Superman on the big screen.
Traditional studios also got in on the act. Reminiscent of the heady days of Sundance, an all-night bidding war ended with Searchlight Pictures acquiring Jesse Eisenberg's “A Real Pain,” in which she stars opposite Kieran Culkin, for $10 million. of dollars. Independent distributor Neon has purchased Steven Soderbergh's ghost story “Presence” for $5 million.
Deborah McIntosh, co-head of WME's independent film sales and financing group, said this year's market is likely to end up on par with 2023's in terms of sales volume.
“I think there's a lot of things emerging now that the festival dust is settling, where buyers are getting really excited about movies that they can make money on,” he said in an interview. “Ultimately, the film crop is very strong and I think the buying market has increased year over year and is hopefully recovering to a good place.”
The Sundance Film Festival has long been considered a barometer of the health of the film industry. Last year, after two strikes shut down business for nearly six months, film insiders hoped a robust market would emerge in which a large number of films would be purchased and eventually made available to the public.
“My hope is that the only positive thing about the strike is that a lot of movies that could have had problems shouldn't, because there are a lot of holes in the release schedule,” producer Jason Blum said during a press conference early on. from the party. “I expect a lot of Sundance movies to hit theaters quickly in the next six months.”
Still, not everything is idyllic in the independent film market. Last week, Sundance convened a three-hour summit where 60 industry leaders from across the independent film spectrum—distributors, producers and sales agents—gathered to brainstorm issues facing the business. According to one attendee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the event was off-limits to the media, one of the central themes was how to best support emerging independent filmmakers, who often end up at the helm of some of the major production companies. from Hollywood. most important films. The main concern was that while films at Sundance were still being bought for larger sums, the smaller million-dollar purchases that used to account for the majority of sales are no longer as plentiful.
“We're well beyond the post-studio era and it turns out we're well beyond the post-streaming era,” said Neon CEO Tom Quinn, referencing the go-go days when studios first and Then streaming services often overpay for talent and set excessively large budgets for films.
However, he added, despite the market contraction, Sundance has remained stable.
“It's really interesting to see the consistency of Sundance,” he said, adding that certain films from this year's festival “could be included in Sundance 20 years ago and they would be as relevant then as they are today, a certain timeless notion of what cinema is.” independent it is, and that's really exciting.”
