IndependentFilm.com

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel today announced they will offer narrative, documentary and animation shorts from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival for download via iTunes (www.itunes.com). The announcement solidifies Sundance's commitment to leveraging technology to help filmmakers expose their work and bring the Festival to film fans around the world. A broad selection of short films from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival will be available for purchase and download priced at $1.99 (US) each on the iTunes Store beginning Monday, January 22, 2007.

"I have felt, from the earliest days, that if people really care about independent film, they should pay particular attention to short filmmakers, who are the best indicators of what is coming down the creative pike," said Robert Redford, president and founder of Sundance Institute and founder of Sundance Channel."

The films available on iTunes are drawn from the 71 Sundance Film Festival short films, representing 19 countries and 4445 submissions from American and international filmmakers. Also available on the iTunes Store will be free podcasts that take you behind the scenes of the Sundance Film Festival including engaging panels with filmmakers, journalists and industry representatives direct from Prospector Square and live performances straight from the Music Café in Park City.

Sundance Institute will continue to stream a selection of short films online, free of charge, on the Sundance Film Festival website at www.sundance.org. These short films will be posted after they have screened at the Festival, beginning January 18 and continuing for three months to April 18.

Sundance Institute has partnered with industry leader Mediastile to provide ongoing digital distribution and encoding services to the Festival. As the official digital clearinghouse of the Sundance Film Festival, Mediastile provides a digital on-ramp to content retailers for filmmakers around the world.

Since 1991 Sundance Film Festival has provided a showcase for short filmmakers and their films. Fueled by artistic expression and free from the conventions of feature-length films, shorts have the ability to transcend boundaries of traditional storytelling. Over the years, the Sundance Film Festival Shorts Program has become a prime source of discovering filmmaking's newest voices, including Todd Haynes, Spike Jones, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, David O'Russell, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Holofcener and Alexander Payne.

Sundance Channel spotlights the annual Sundance Film Festival as it presents exclusive coverage of the festival alongside a series of films from past Festivals. Airing concurrently with the 2007 Sundance Film Festival 10 Days of Sundance captures the unfolding excitement of the world's premier independent film festival and airs from January 19 to 28, 2007. Each night Sundance Channel's coverage kicks off at 9:00 pm ET/PT with "Festival Dailies," a daily program produced onsite in Park City, Utah, followed by the airing of a standout narrative or documentary feature and a short film - all from past Festivals. Sundance Channel will also feature daily updates online, including blog posts, video clips, photos and archival material on past Festivals. Visit www.sundancechannel.com for more information.

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film. Held each January in Park City, Sundance Resort, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah, the Festival is a core program of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Presenting 125 dramatic and documentary feature-length films in nine distinct categories and over 70 short films each year, the

Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films of the past two decades. The official website of the Sundance Film Festival, www.sundance.org shares the Festival experience beyond the streets of Park City with a global audience through the streaming of short films, filmmaker interviews, and current news and box office information.

Sundance Institute

Dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2006. Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk-taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with U.S. artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world.

Source: Sundance Institute; Sundance Channel

http://www.sundancechannel.com/
http://www.sundance.org/
http://www.itunes.com/