An Academy Award nomination is an incomparable stamp of approval for any film – and for an indie feature coming out of the Sundance Film Festival, in some cases, it’s a downright miracle.
The festival, which ended last week in Utah, has had a scattered record with the Oscars, but its track record for the night’s top award – Best Picture – has been steadily improving over the past few years.
This year, Whiplash and Boyhood – both Sundance premieres – are among the eight best picture nominees. Boyhood is considered a favourite to win.
Coming on the heels of previous Best Picture nods for Sundance films like Precious, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Winter’s Bone over the past few years, the festival has become a breeding ground for awards candidates. In 2014, for example, Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash was programmed as the opening night film.
Erik Davis, a contributing editor at the movie ticketing site Fandango, believes it’s a ripple effect: “Because filmmakers, studios and producers are seeing a lot of Oscar movies begin to come out of Sundance, I think they’re looking at Sundance as a strategy to put the movies they feel have a chance in the Sundance line-up.”
Davis said he’s seen the quality of the films steadily increase in the decade since he began attending.
“I’ve never seen an opening night film as strong as Whiplash. I feel like the festival was making a statement but at the same time taking a risk by programming such a strong film right at the start of the festival,” he said.
Whiplash in some ways is the ultimate Oscars Cinderella story. What started as a short at the 2013 festival and premiered in feature form at last year’s festival without a distributor lined up, 12 months later gets singled out by the Academy as one of the best pictures of the year.
Producer Bob Tourtellotte thinks the focus on festivals has intensified due to the changing landscape of theatrical releases: “Because there are fewer dramas in theatrical release and one of the few places to see the new and the best of indie dramas is Sundance, then when it comes to Oscars, those dramas at Sundance gain even greater importance and visibility.”
Some movies, Tourtellotte said, come to the festival with an eye on the prize. Others, like a Whiplash, benefit from the fact that there is so much media already there.
Keith Simanton, managing editor of IMdB, thinks that there is something bigger going on that all started with the Academy’s expansion of the Best Picture category from five films to as many as 10: “I think ironically what’s happened is now it’s almost like ‘best of the fest’ in some ways. This year is a very good example of that. Every film except for American Sniper debuted at a festival,” he said, referring to this year’s Best Picture nominees.
While the Toronto International Film Festival and Telluride will continue to be harbingers of major awards contenders from major studios, mainstream success for an indie film festival is challenging to maintain.
“It’ll be interesting to see how they follow last year,” said Davis. “That puts pressure on the fest to keep up with that. If they don’t have two or three Best Picture nominees from this year, is it a failure for them?” – Sapa-AP