Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that has been held annually in the city of Park City in Utah, United States, since 1978. It is one of the largest and most important film events in independent cinema.

The festival is organized by the Sundance Institute, an organization created by actor and film director Robert Redford, to create programs to discover and support independent filmmakers, theater artists and composers from around the world.

The event features several competitive sections for American and international feature films, shorts, and documentaries, as well as other out-of-competition sections.

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Complete list of editions of the Sundance Film Festival (1984 to 2023)

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The first edition of the Sundance Film Festival was held in Salt Lake City in 1978, at the initiative of directors Robert Redford, Sterling Van Wagenen and John Earle, with the aim of showcasing and highlighting the potential of independent cinema in the United States. The name of the festival was U. S. Film Festival of Utah.

In 1981, the festival moved to Park City, Utah, and changed the dates from September to January.

In 1984, the Sundance Institute, led by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over the leadership of the United States Film Festival and in 1991 the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival, in honor of Robertd Redford's character, the Sundance Kid from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The 2012 Sundance Festival was held in London in the United Kingdom, marking the first time that the festival has been held outside the United States. In 2016 it was held in Hong Kong.

Many prominent independent filmmakers got their big break at Sundance, including Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Darren Aronofsky, Edward Burns, James Wan, and Jim Jarmusch, among others.