Sundance Film Festival 101 + Home Economics for Park City

Heading back to Sundance tomorrow and looking forward to catching up with fellow filmmakers, finding out what’s changing and happening in this year’s film festival. Since my first years of doing the annual trek to Park City, I was on a fast track learning curve with the techno transitions– the Sundance App, eWaitlist and Eventbrite coordinating my calendar schedule with my producer partners. It’s going to be a week filled with PR and promotion for the marketing savvy. However, there always seems to be the ubiquitous first time filmmaker or film festival visitor who gets lost in the fast paced, film screening, starry-eyed premiere nights followed by receptions and after parties. They often forget about eating, sleeping and drinking water (water is our friend) as the high Utah altitude can take a serious physical toll on the uninitiated.

Interestingly enough, according to a report produced by the University of Utah Bureau of Economic and Business Research, only 17 percent of attendees identified themselves as entertainment industry professionals. Not sure what the reason could be for this. I see Sundance as a nonstop, never a dull moment, convention full of artists and filmmakers for networking and deal making. Business is good for Park City and Utah as the 2014 Sundance Film Festival generated $86 million in the state including $63.9 million in spending, (up $7.2 million from last year), an increase in state and local tax revenues from $5.8 million (2013) to $6.9 million (2014). Quite the economic impact.

This positive economic development side of festival-related events created 1,434 festival-related JOBS where film screenings were offered at theaters in four geographic locations—Park City, Salt Lake City, Sundance Resort and Ogden. More films are most definitely shown in the Park City area than all other areas combined, and Park City is the hub of festival related events.

As for the demographics, the 2014 festival attracted an estimated 3,583 international visitors. People came from 29 countries– the largest share of international visitors came from Canada followed by Australia, France and Mexico. Nonresident attendees accounted for 69 percent of all festival attendees or 31,482 visitors with about one-third of festival attendees were Utah residents (13,870 or 31 percent). The largest share of nonresident visitors were residents of the U.S, of those, about 63 percent were residents of three states: Utah, California and New York.

The biggest change this year is the actual festival week not held during the MLK holiday weekend and school year winter break. It was said that the area ski resorts suffered during that particular week with few people on the ski slopes. While it’s quite the change for a film festival to make after thirty years, it’s good to see the festival organizers care about their local economy and Utah residents. Of the estimated 31,482 nonresident festival attendees, approximately 8,814 people indicated it was their first visit to Utah, 29,593 people said they traveled to Utah specifically to attend the festival and 11,333 people indicated they would visit Utah again during the next year.