Middle School
Worksheets
Celebrating Movies: The Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival was started in 1978 by the Utah film commission. It was started as an effort to draw more filmmakers to Utah. The goal of the festival was to showcase only American-made films. The original purpose of the festival was to set up a competition for independent American films. (Independent films are those that are not made by large film companies such as Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, etc.) The festival's aim was to highlight films made outside the Hollywood system. The categories included dramatic films, documentary, feature-length, and short films.
The festival's first chairman was actor Robert Redford. Having his name associated with the Sundance Film Festival gave it great attention. Redford and his wife built a home near Park City, Utah, in 1963. Later, Redford used the profits from his films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Downhill Racer to purchase a ski area north of Provo, Utah. He renamed the ski area Sundance after the film character that helped finance the purchase. He later started the Sundance Institute, Sundance Cinemas, Sundance Catalog, and the Sundance Channel, all in and around Park City.
The first film festival was held in September 1978 in Salt Lake City. It was called the U.S. Film Festival at the time. It was a competition for U.S.-made independent films. It also served to provide access to publicity for these smaller film companies.
