Sundance

Egyptian Theatre
Originally uploaded by Angela Hartwig

The hardest thing about being an artist that is just starting out is that there are no guarantees. When you make a movie for a studio, or if people know who you are then it’s pretty certain that your film no matter how big or how small is going to garner some attention. People are going to see it, festivals will premiere it, theatres will exhibit it.

On the other hand, films like our little film have to fight, push and shove to get any sort of attention. Our actors may be phenomenal, production value beautiful and story exceptional, but without a name or a studio behind it we have no guarantees. In a market where over 9,800 films applied to Sundance, a film shot in eight days on no budget, without famous names and or connections is like a needle in a hay stack. No one has found our needle yet.

I don’t normally talk about the festivals we don’t get into because I don’t really believe in dwelling on the negatives, but if you couldn’t already tell this one hurt. We didn’t get into Sundance. I’m not really shocked, in a way it’s kind of expected.

Out of 9,800+ films only 200 could be selected – that’s only about two percent of the films submitted. I can’t even imagine what it must be like for the programmers to have to chose films out of a selection like that, the pressure has to be enormous; however, I am sure that the films that made it to Sundance this year are phenomenal and more than deserve the honor. It’s still one of my dreams to someday get a film into their brilliant festival, but sadly, END will not be that film.

I wanted to take a moment and congratulate the filmmakers whose work made it into the festival this year and I look forward to seeing what unique visions each of them has. While they prepare for the cold weather and excitement of Park City, I will continue trying to get people to sort through the haystack and see END and all of the passion, talent and heart that everyone involved put on screen.