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Sundance 2020: Day 7

Festival Director James McNally is attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival from January 21st to February 2nd.

Festival Day 5

I was able to sleep until 9am this morning and it really felt like it made a difference. Then I was able to attend the annual Telefilm Canada brunch for the first hour (12pm until 1pm) before joining the team back at HQ for the ride out to Temple, where we had the premiere of the New Frontier Shorts program.

The brunch was good, but an hour was barely enough time to talk to people. I did meet the producer of a short called A Walk Down to Water which is playing in Slamdance. His name was Behran and he and the rest of the film team are from Calgary. I also talked to Jen Mair from the NFB, writer/directors Supinder Wraich and Renuka Jeyapalan, whose series The 410 is also playing at Slamdance. And I briefly chatted with Shasha Nakhai, another producer from Toronto who is doing a Sundance lab here along with her producing partner Melissa Coghlan. Oh, and TIFF’s Peter Kuplowsky. Then I had to run back to HQ.

Our screening at Temple was for the New Frontier shorts, and we had three teams there, but one of them was so late arriving that we had already left. We needed to ask the venue manager to help us get the filmmaker his check in folder, tickets, and credentials. Hoping it all went well.

Our next screening was down Main Street at the Egyptian Theatre. It was for a short before a feature, and that went well and wrapped up by 6pm. I was able to grab a sandwich at Main Street Pizza and Noodles with my volunteer “grub stub” and just took it back to our condo to eat. I’m catching up on this blog post before having a short nap and heading out again. There’s an informal meetup of all the shorts filmmakers at the bar in the Park Avenue Hotel (formerly the Yarrow Hotel) and then we are there for 10:45pm for the premiere of the Animation Spotlight program which should get underway just before midnight. The days are still long but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

12:35am: Back from the Park Avenue. Screening went well, and was able to meet more filmmakers in the bar earlier, although US$9 beers made things harder. After our screening, there were a few left, and Drew (International Shorts liaison) was going to stay for another drink, but I was able to get a lift all the way home with Terry, who was driving her own car out to an afterparty she was invited to. Happy to get home quickly and get some more good sleep!