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Sundance says it wants a "webolution." Just don't look for it at the indie film fest's website, which has slashed its online offerings even as internet video is taking off.
This year's Sundance Film Festival, which opens Thursday in Park City, Utah, includes a panel called "Webolution" with Motion Picture Association of America chief Dan Glickman and representatives from online players Netflix, Veoh Networks and Joost.
At the same time, Sundance is beating a stealthy retreat from the web. Its Online Film Festival, launched in 2001, has suffered: In 2007, Sundance's site offered nearly 50 films continuously over the course of the festival; this year, it'll show just one for each of the festival's 10 days. (iTunes, Xbox Live Marketplace and Netflix will each make 35 additional Sundance shorts available for download, at $2 each, after the festival ends.)
Sundance programmer Trevor Groth said the program was reduced to eliminate competition with iTunes and other video sites.
"Sundance's short films will still be able to be downloaded," he said. "But we wondered, 'Why would someone pay the $1.99 for a film if they could just stream it?'"
The timing, however, is unfortunate. With indie films in a financial funk -- the trade magazine Variety reported that distributors spent $54 million at last year's Sundance for movies that earned just $34 million at the box office -- filmmakers might have hoped Sundance would start flexing its muscle online. Instead, the indie fest looks decidedly behind the times, even as Apple charges forward with an industry-shaking move into movie rentals.
"There is definitely a proven hunger for content online," said Groth, who hopes to create an online version of the Sundance Channel, which showcases indie flicks on TV. "But translating that into revenue for these filmmakers remains a problem."
To date, none of the attempts to create viable online indie film outlets, including AtomFilms, CountingDown.com and iFilm, have clicked.
Until someone solves that puzzle, the web will remain indie film's Wizard of Oz: all promise, no substantive solutions. Films have become easier to find, thanks to YouTube, but that site's explosive success does nothing to help indie filmmakers pay down their credit cards.
"The (filmmaking) model right now has been in place for a long time," Groth said. "The money gets shuffled around in old-fashioned ways. People recognize that the future will be vastly different. New systems will be put in place, but those systems are unformed."
It's not just an indie film problem. The question of future revenues from online distribution is behind the Writers Guild of America's strike that has shut down Hollywood. Sundance's description of the "Webolution" panel puts it in stark, if overly dramatic, terms: "The writing is on the wall. The industry must adapt to new media or face extinction."
Hollywood, however, has a broad range of revenue streams, while indie filmmakers tend to pin all their hopes on Sundance. The festival, which still draws a huge number of acquisition execs from Hollywood and around the world, has launched unknown indies including The Blair Witch Project ($140 million in U.S. box office), Saw ($55 million), Napoleon Dynamite ($44 million) and Little Miss Sunshine ($60 million). Attendance at the festival is expected to hit 50,000 this year.
The truth, however, is that most Sundance films never see a commercial theater. Those that don't premiere at Sundance -- the festival debuted just 121 of the more than 3,600 feature films submitted this year -- have a still slimmer chance of connecting with audiences.
"There is a huge gap to fill," said Variety columnist and blogger Anne Thompson. "Most of the films at Sundance won't get a proper release, and everyone is looking for that magic answer. How do you establish a title and brand without opening in theaters and getting reviewed by the major critics? There are an enormous number of outstanding films that nobody sees."
Thompson said she believes Netflix or Amazon.com may figure out how to connect off-Hollywood films with audiences. Until then, she said, the glut of unseen movies will continue to grow.
And, it should be remembered, Sundance never promised to solve all of indie film's problems.
"We aren't good at engineering outcomes," said Ian Calderon, director of Sundance's digital programs, "but we are good at featuring new tools and technologies for filmmakers to explore and use to tell their stories. We try to highlight, support and underscore the new technologies, and then we hope for the best."
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