Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects
Will You Buy My Movie? A Study of the Films Purchased for Distribution at the Sundance Film Festival
Department
School of Journalism and Broadcasting
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Robert Redford created the Sundance Institute with the intention of helping filmmakers outside of the Hollywood system hone their craft with assistance from established industry professionals. Today, the Sundance Film Festival, held every year in January, provides an opportunity for independent filmmakers to sell their films to distribution companies and get their name out to executives in Hollywood. Through research of the festival’s history and content analysis of the most popular films from the last twenty years of the festival, I argue that the festival has become increasingly more commercial and that the films purchased for distribution share similar characteristics to each other in large part because major Hollywood studios and distributors have caused a change at the festival and are now dictating what audiences want to see.
Advisor(s) or Committee Chair
Dr. Ted Hovet
Recommended Citation
Smith, Kaitlynn, "Will You Buy My Movie? A Study of the Films Purchased for Distribution at the Sundance Film Festival" (2014). Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects. Paper 481.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/481