What: Sundance Film Festival
Where: Utah, US
When: January 15–25
If you love films, there are few better places to be than at one of the world’s biggest and best film festivals.
Created in the late 1970s to foster and promote independent films, Sundance has somehow managed to resist (at least in part) the influence of Hollywood and corporate America and stay true to its roots.
Filmmakers who have got their big break at Sundance include Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill), Kevin ‘Silent Bob’ Smith (Clerks, Zack And Miri Make A Porno), James Wan (Saw) and Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s 11, Sex, Lies, And Videotape), which indicates the up-and-coming talent the festival showcases.
More than 200 films (including documentaries, shorts and animation) are screened at 12 venues in Salt Lake City, Ogden and Park City, and in Sundance (an eco-friendly mountain resort created by Robert Redford).
There’s also live music, parties and seminars with filmmakers, but if all that bores you, you can always go skiing instead.
See www.sundance.org