Giving a nod to
the Sundance Institute's 25th anniversary, an 11-DVD
collection of festival favorites is being readied for a
November 22 release. "Sundance Film Festival
Collection: Celebrating 25 Years of Sundance
Institute" includes 10 movies plus an additional disc of
interviews, behind-the-scenes shots from the Sundance
Institute labs, and footage from the Sundance Film
Festival.
Films that will
be part of the collection include Stephen Soderbergh's
sex, lies and videotape, which won the Audience
Award at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival; Kevin Smith's cult
favorite Clerks, winner of the Filmmakers Trophy at
the 1994 festival; The Usual Suspects, the
acclaimed thriller from out director Bryan Singer that
premiered at the 1995 festival; Smoke Signals,
which was developed by Chris Eyre at the 1995 Sundance
Institute Filmmakers lab and won the Audience Award
and the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 festival; and
the Sundance Film Festival's 1999 Grand Jury Prize winner,
American Movie, from director Chris Smith.
Also featured in
the collection are the Oscar-winning Boys Don't Cry
(1999), developed by queer filmmaker Kimberly Peirce
at the 1997 lab; Todd Field's critically hailed In
the Bedroom, for which stars Tom Wilkinson and
Sissy Spacek were given Special Jury Prizes at the 2001
festival; 2002 Grand Jury Prize winner Real Women
Have Curves, from director Patricia Cardoso,
which also garnered Special Jury Prizes for Lupe
Ontiveros and America Ferrera; 2003 Grand Jury Prize
winner Capturing the Friedmans, the acclaimed
documentary from director Andrew Jarecki; and another 2003
Grand Jury Prize winner, American Splendor,
helmed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.
Special features
on the bonus disc include interviews with Sundance
founder Robert Redford; a documentary on the Sundance
Institute; filmmaker interviews; and scenes from the
Sundance lab sessions for two films included in the
collection. The boxed set will include a booklet with
an introduction by Redford and a review of the institute's
work in independent film, film music, and theater.
(Thomas K. Arnold, via Reuters)