The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which also hosts a screenplay competition, workshops, screenings throughout the year and events with an emphasis on independent films with budgets under US$1 million.

History

The festival was founded in 1995 by Dan Mirvish, Jon Fitzgerald, Shane Kuhn, and Peter Baxter, along with Paul Rachman, after they had been unsuccessful in submitting films to the Sundance Film Festival. Baxter has been in charge of Slamdance since 1997.

Screenplay competition

In addition to the festival, Slamdance's screenplay competition has discovered a number of talented screenwriters, including Joshua Marston ('' Maria Full of Grace'') and Steven Fechter and

Nicole Kassell Nicole Kassell (born 1972) is an American film director, film and television director who is noted for her work on films such as ''The Woodsman (2004 film), The Woodsman'' and on TV in series such as ''Vinyl (TV series), Vinyl'', ''The Leftovers ...

, co-writers of ('' The Woodsman''). In 2008, Slamdance entered into an agreement with Upload Films to develop and produce '' Drool'', the winner of Slamdance's screenplay competition. Written and directed by Nancy Kissam, ''Drool'' premiered at the 2009 Festival and thereafter was acquired by

Strand Releasing Strand Releasing is an American film production company founded in 1989 and is based in Culver City, California. The company has distributed over 300 auteur-driven titles from acclaimed international and American directors such as Apichatpong Wee ...

. Chad Crawford Kinkle's southern horror screenplay '' Jug Face'' won the 2011 Grand Prize. During the 2012 Festival, Modernciné producers Andrew van den Houten and Robert Tonino announced their production of ''Jug Face'' in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. In 2011, ''Dead in the Room'', written by Marjory Kaptanoglu (winner of Slamdance's 2010 Short Screenplay Competition) was directed by

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

–nominated filmmaker Adam Pertofsky. In 2012, ''Harold's Bad Day'', written by R.J. Buckley, was directed by Slamdance alum

Jordan Brady Jordan Brady (born August 10, 1964) is an American director. He was a professional stand-up comic in the 1980s, and later played small roles in many TV shows including ''Baywatch'' and '' Who's the Boss''. Brady wrote and directed the feature f ...

. The 2011 Grand Prize winner ''Jug Face'', written by Chad Crawford Kinkle, premiered at the 2013 festival, where it was picked up for distribution by

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an independent film distribution company owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles, California in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio in 2019, where it f ...

. The Slamdance 2013 Screenwriting Competition was presented by JuntoBox Films. Awards were given to the top three scripts in each category, with a Grand Prize of $10,000 cash that went to ''Butterfly Children'' by Melanie Schiele. The Short Screenplay winner ''Think Ink'' by Emily Hu was produced and premiered at the 2015 Festival, as part of the Special Screenings section. The 2014 Screenplay Competition saw an original teleplay (''Search for Life'' by Andrea Janakas) take home the Grand Prize. ''Search for Life'' was also given the award for Best Original Teleplay, the Best Narrative Feature was given to HF Crum's ''The 3 Faces of Hunger & Thirst'', the Best Horror Screenplay was given to Sean Patrick Geraghty's ''The Hounds of House Rearden'', and the Best Short Screenplay was given to David Shushan's ''Over the Line (And Far Away)''. The awards were given at the

Writers Guild of America West The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 mem ...

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. The 2015 Screenplay Competition received a record-breaking 50% increase in submissions, with nearly 3,500 total submissions. Narrative Feature script ''The Delegation'' by Shane Andries was awarded the Best Narrative Feature and Grand Prize Award, Best Horror Screenplay was awarded to ''Speak of the Devil'' by Jesse J. Cook, Best Short Screenplay was awarded to ''Deep Storage'' by Susan Earl, and the Best Teleplay was awarded to ''Castle Rock'' by Jamie King. The awards were given at the Writers Guild of America West in Los Angeles for the second time. The 2016 Screenplay Competition received a record-breaking number of submissions, with 3,600 total scripts submitted. Narrative Feature script ''Great White Shark'' by Andrew Kightlinger was awarded the Best Narrative Feature and Grand Prize Award, Best Horror Screenplay was awarded to ''The Housesitter'' by Suju Vijayan, Best Short Screenplay was awarded to ''Conviction'' by Anju Andre-Bergmann, and Best Teleplay was awarded to ''Feral'' by Bryan Kett. The awards were given at the Writers Guild of America West in Los Angeles for the third time. Andrew Kightlinger has received representation from Principato-Young Entertainment and is currently in development on a new narrative feature which focuses on sex trafficking. The 2017 Screenplay Competition received over 3,000 submissions. Horror Feature "Day Shift" by Tyler Tice was awarded $2,000 for Best Horror Screenplay and $8,000 for the Grand Prize Award. Best Narrative Feature was awarded to ''Escher'' by Jason Kessler, Best Short Screenplay was awarded to ''The Clown-Faced Plumber'' by Frederick Jones, and Best Teleplay to ''Jackrabbit'' by David Schlow. The awards were given at the Writers Guild of America West in Los Angeles for the fourth time.

Slamdance on the Road

The Slamdance organization has established Slamdance on the Road, a traveling showcase supported by the festival and its filmmakers. On the Road brings popular Slamdance films to audiences that otherwise would not have the chance to see them and provide theatrical venues with an alternative film program experience. On the Road events usually take place in U.S. cities such as New York,

, Austin, and

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, but have also traveled to countries like

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, China,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Slamdance Cinema Club

In 2015, as a further development of its theatrical distribution efforts, Slamdance announced a partnership with ArcLight Hollywood to produce and promote the Slamdance Cinema Club, which features two Slamdance films a month for the first three quarters of 2015.

Slamdance Presents

In January 2010, Slamdance and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

announced its partnership of year-round Slamdance Film programming on

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and

Zune Zune is a discontinued line of digital media products and services marketed by Microsoft from November 2006 until its discontinuation in June 2012. Zune consisted of a line of portable media players, digital media player software for Windows Per ...

. Slamdance president and co-founder Peter Baxter said, “Slamdance has a true independent identity and proven track record of unearthing great films. It's time now to be progressive and unleash our film programs outside of the festival and directly help filmmakers find popular, worldwide audiences. The standard of Slamdance films deserve this much and we believe the audience will respond.” As of opening day at the 2011 Festival, select Competition Feature Films were made available via Zune Video Marketplace as part of this year's Festival and VOD Showcase for the duration of the festival, January 20–27. Select films included narrative features ''Modern Imbecile's Planet World'', '' Snow on tha Bluff'' by Damon Russell, and ''The Beast Pageant'' by Albert Birney & Jon Moses; documentary features ''Road Dogs'' and '' Scrapper'', as well as films from previous years’ festivals. In 2013, Slamdance expanded its VOD business onto iTunes,

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, Vudu, and PlayStation. Slamdance Studios acquired and released four Slamdance favorites and award winners through Cinedigm/

New Video New Video (stylized as NEWVIDEO) is an American entertainment distributor and collector of independent digital content. The company works with independent producers, filmmakers and television networks to curate content for many types of distrib ...

, including Monteith McCollum's ''Hybrid'', Ron Eyal and Eleanor Burke's '' Stranger Things'', Rudd Simmons' ''The First Season'', and Daniel Martinico's '' OK, Good''. Also in 2013, "The Slam Collective" made Slamdance's first collaborative feature film called ''I Want to Be an American''. In the spirit of the surrealist parlor game of chance Exquisite Corpse, 7 Slamdance filmmakers each made a documentary short film based on imagery forwarded on by the previous filmmaker in the chain. In January 2015, Slamdance Studios launched a streaming program on Hulu that includes Slamdance favorites and independent classics including Marc Levin's ''

Slam Slam, SLAM or SLAMS may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional elements * S.L.A.M. (Strategic Long-Range Artillery Machine), a fictional weapon in the ''G.I. Joe'' universe * SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield), a fictional anti-ball ...

'', Cullen Hoback's '' Terms and Conditions May Apply'', and Gerard Johnson's ''

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

''. The Slamdance-produced short film "D.I.Y.", featuring conversations with prominent Slamdance alumni

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...

Penelope Spheeris Penelope Spheeris (born December 2, 1945 or 1946; sources differ) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. She has directed both documentary and scripted films. Her best-known works include the trilogy titled '' The Decline of ...

, and the

Russo brothers Anthony Russo (born February 3, 1970) and Joseph Russo (born July 18, 1971), collectively known as the Russo brothers (), are American directors, producers, and screenwriters. They direct most of their work together. They are best known for dir ...

also premiered on the platform. In 2015, Slamdance partnered with filmmakers Steve Yu and

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for a theatrical release of ''The Resurrection of Jake the Snake'' as the first title for Slamdance Presents, a distribution enterprise dedicated to creating theatrical and other commercial opportunities for independent filmmakers. ''The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake'' documents the rehabilitation of

Jake Roberts Aurelian Smith Jr. (born May 30, 1955), better known by the ring name Jake "The Snake" Roberts, is an American professional wrestler and actor currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) where he performs as manager to Lance Archer. He is be ...

and Scott Hall. The film played in markets in the United States and Canada, including Los Angeles, New York City,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. Upon its subsequent VOD release, ''The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake'' became the number one documentary on iTunes. In 2017, Slamdance Presents acquired four award-winning and critically acclaimed films now available on VOD: '' Driftwood'' by Paul Taylor, '' Dead Hands Dig Deep'' by Jai Love, ''Without'' by Mark Jackson, and ''The Ground We Won'' by Christopher Pryor.

Slamdance Digital, Interactive & Gaming

In 2015, Slamdance integrated digital, interactive, and immersive art into its program with the launch of DIG. DIG opened at Big Pictures Los Angeles on December 4, 2015, and showcased cutting-edge works in the field of digital storytelling. Featured projects included ''Pry'' by Tender Claws; ''The Visitor'' by James Kaelan, Eve M. Cohen, and Blessing Yen; ''Sleighting'' by Rachel Ho; ''Woman Without Mandolin'' by Fabiano Mixo; ''Simulacra'' by Theo Tagholm; '' Thumper'' by Drool; '' Memory of a Broken Dimension'' by XRA; ''Apoptosis'' by Kytten Janae; ''Line Wobbler'' by Robin Baumgarten; and ''TL;DR he shape of the internet (Orgy)' by Theo Triantafyllidis. In 2016, Slamdance DIG continued into its second iteration, expanding its program with the creative input of Dekker Dreyer and virtual reality network Littlstar. Featured projects included ''(THREE² x 3P2:VR)'' by Float (Kate Parsons & Ben Vance); ''Bad News'' by Expressive Intelligence Studio ( ames Ryan, Ben Samuel, & Adam Summerville); ''Infinit-O'' by Corazon Del Sol; ''Manifold Garden'' by William Chyr; ''Natural History'' by Lillian Mehrel; ''Soundstage'' by Logan Olson; ''The Magic Dance Mirror'' by Kyle Ruddick; and ''You Must Be 18 or Older to Enter'' by Seemingly Pointless. DIG opened at Big Pictures Los Angeles on December 2, 2016, and then again at the Slamdance Film Festival in January 2017. In 2017, Slamdance DIG featured artists from South Africa,

, and beyond. Projects included ''Brief Excursion'' by Aaron Oldenburg; ''BVOVB: Bruising Vengeance of the Vintage Boxer'' by Michal Rostocki; '' Dujanah'' by Jack King-Spooner; ''Everything is going to be OK'' by alienmelon (

Nathalie Lawhead Nathalie Lawhead is an independent net artist and video game designer residing in Irvine, California. Life and career Lawhead's background is in net art, their work often invokes the iconography of 1990s-era web design and computing, particula ...

); ''F.L.O.W. (Future Ladies of Wrestling)'' by Jennifer Juniper Stratford of Telefantasy Studios; ''Laser Non Laser'' by Jeanette Bonds of GLAS Animation; ''Nour'' by Terrifying Jellyfish (aka TJ Hughes); '' Semblance'' by Nyamakop (Cukia Kimani and Ben Myres); ''Sundays with Absalon'' by John Vanderhoef; ''Super Void'' by Sam Weiss (Shnabubula) and John Donohue Bell (Lazy Brain Games); ''The Game: The Game'' by Angela Washko; ''ULTRA ADHD (Amazing Death and Huge Destruction)'' by Alon “DancingEngie” Karmi. DIG opened at Big Pictures Los Angeles, December 1, 2017. Select projects, including ''The Game: The Game'', ''BVOB: Bruising Vengeance of the Vintage Boxer'', and '' he_(De)escalation_Room''_by_Columbia_University's_Digital_Storytelling_Lan_with_Lance_Weiler.html" ;"title="Columbia_University.html" ;"title="he (De)escalation Room'' by Columbia University">he (De)escalation Room'' by Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lan with Lance Weiler">Columbia_University.html" ;"title="he (De)escalation Room'' by Columbia University">he (De)escalation Room'' by Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lan with Lance Weiler and Nicholas Fortugno was featured at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Guerrilla Games Competition controversy

The festival used to host a computer and video game competition called Slamdance Guerrilla Games Competition. In January 2007, the festival for the first time dropped a finalist. The game '' Super Columbine Massacre RPG!'' was announced as a finalist in late November 2006, but the controversial game was dropped by Slamdance founder Peter Baxter with no outside pressure as initially reported. In response to this, six other finalists withdrew from the competition in protest, Jonathan Blow withdrew '' Braid'',

thatgamecompany Thatgamecompany, Inc. (stylized as thatgamecompany) is an American independent video game development company founded by University of Southern California students Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago in 2006. The company was a developer for Sony Co ...

withdrew '' Flow'', Waking Games withdrew '' Once Upon a Time'', the developers for ''Toblo'' withdrew their game (however, on January 16 the college which they attend, the

DigiPen Institute of Technology DigiPen Institute of Technology is a private, for-profit university in Redmond, Washington. It also has campuses in Singapore and Bilbao, Spain. DigiPen offers bachelor's and master's degree programs in Computer Science, Animation, Video Game D ...

against their wishes "overwrote our decision and readmitted Toblo to the Slamdance Festival", because the developers did not consult the college prior to their withdrawal decision), Queasy Games withdrew '' Everyday Shooter'', Nick Montfort withdrew ''Book and Volume'', and The Behemoth withdrew '' Castle Crashers''. The

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has also withdrawn its sponsorship of Slamdance over this controversy. On January 26, 2007, the date the game awards were to be presented, a panel discussion with the remaining finalists resulted in the withdrawal of the Official Jury Selection for all finalists, and no awards were handed out.Slamdance Game Competition Ends in Dissolution
The competition has not been held since.

References

External links

*{{official website, slamdance.com Film festivals in Utah Park City, Utah January events Film festivals established in 1995 1995 establishments in Utah