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Robert Redford on the History and Future at Sundance

http://nofilmschool.com/2015/01/sundance-2015-robert-redford-history-and-future-film

"Change is inevitable"

For the past week, The Sundance Film Festival is being held in Park City, Utah. The founder and the Sundance Kid himself was there to kick off the event, Robert Redford spoke of the history and future of film. He mentions that "Change is inevitable" and that "the festival is meant to use change to underline the word diversity". With the recent Selma snubs at the Oscars, Robert Redford took time to address the issue. With new films coming out each year from veteran filmmakers, film festivals such as this one give birth to careers and experiences for many young filmmakers. These will design the future and make change happen.

A question pops up that makes a filmmaker's career bleak, "who is going to see your movie?" With many websites offering to screen it, such as Gowatchit.com, some of these don't get distribution deals. Distribution deals is what each filmmaker hopes to achieve. This year we have great news. 85% of the films screened at Sundance has gotten distribution deals. Now, what does this mean?

Last year a number of films got award buzz. Boyhood, Whiplash, Ida, A Most Wanted Man, The Skeleton Twins, and many more. Many directors even started out in this festival. What a distribution deal eventually means is a career path that doesn't become so bleak. While it's hard to see all the films in competition, this year has seen improvement and the change that the Sundance Kid was talking about.

As said by the CEO of the website GoWatchIt.com, David Larkin, "Filmmaking is a fusion of art and fusion and each film is both a business that aspires to be a work of art and work of art that aspire to be a business." New filmmakers are coming and understanding this. Most aren't backing down and hopefully we will see a long awaited change was inevitable to happen.