Sundance Film Festival

Press Release: 2006 Sundance Film Festival Attracts Record Online Audiences at Sundance.org

APPROACHING ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS OF SHORT FILMS, FILMMAKER INTERVIEWS AND BEHIND THE SCENES FOOTAGE

Sundance Institute announced today a record number of people have experienced the 2006 Sundance Film Festival at www.sundance.org. Online visitors have downloaded a range of free Festival programming including fifty short films from the Festival, daily video highlights, exclusive filmmaker interviews and behind the scenes footage from the event which runs January 19-29 in Park City, UT. During the first seven days of the Festival, an estimated 700,000 viewers watched Festival videos on the Internet, nearly twice the rate of the 2005 Festival during the same time period. Sundance Film Festival is the only major film festival to premiere short films online in conjunction with their premieres in Park City, UT.

“The Web provides Sundance short filmmakers with a platform to reach the broadest audience with their content. We are delighted by the response this year and we expect to grow exponentially,” says Sundance Institute Director of Digital Initiatives Ian Calderon.

Fifty of the 73 shorts premiering at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival are being posted online this year, about 50 percent more than 2005 numbers.

“At this pace we expect to reach one million free video downloads by the time the Festival closes on Sunday, signaling a fantastic worldwide audience for Sundance’s short film program,” sundance.org chief producer Joseph Beyer notes. The films will be available on the site through June 2006.

Among the many filmmaker interviews at Sundance.org is the only extended on-camera interview with former Vice President Al Gore in town for the premiere of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, a documentary about the former vice-president‘s activism against global warming directed by Davis Guggenheim. The interview, which posted this week, is one of many original online programs, which include director chats, audience question and answer periods, and daily wraps.

The most popular short film downloads include GOPHER BROKE, an animation about a hungry gopher that finds out there‘s no such thing as a free lunch; DIVORCE LEMONADE, a dark comedy about a young girl that covers for her drunk and estranged father; and FOURTEEN, a silent drama about a 14-year-old bride on her wedding day.

Other new online programs planned for the remainder of the Festival include the January 28th podcast of a panel discussion with Wim Wenders and Sam Shepard about their collaboration on the classic film PARIS, TEXAS and the 2006 Sundance film DON‘T COME KNOCKING; and video highlights of the Closing Nights Awards Ceremony which will launch the following morning, Sunday January 29, 2006, giving global audiences the first peek at the winners of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. All of the content is free, including the short films, thanks to official sponsorships and user donations. For the second year, Adobe is rewarding users who register by sponsoring a contest to win a complete Adobe systems Video Collection Professional Edition software suite every month through June 2006.

Since its inception, Sundance.org has attracted more than 5 million visitors, served hundreds of thousands of video streams each year, showcased the work of more than 200 visual artists, and won a 2004 Webby award. For more information visit www.sundance.org.