SUNDANCE - THE SOUL OF THE MACHINE

The process of submitting a film to a film festival and waiting to hear back if it got into it can be a tedious and stressful thing. As filmmakers, we have had our share of rejection AND acceptance letters from festivals all around the world, however no one ever really gives much thought to the festival programming process. For example, The Sundance Film Festival, one of the world's largest and most prominent festivals, founded by Robert Redford in 1981 and named after The Sundance Kid, Redford's character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2006. This year the festival received 1,004 American and 936 international feature film entries, as well as 760 American and 448 international documentary submissions... not to mention the 4,311 short films sent in for consideration. Hard to imagine that amount of films all being sent to one place and being watched at least once. The clincher is that only 120 feature length films and 50 short films will be screened during the festival.

"One of the biggest distinctions that I make to my staff is that it's not simply about what you like, it's about what you should play. I think trying to be a professional programmer is not being subjective. A lot of people think that good programmers have a kind of narrow refined taste, some sort of peak of aesthetic comprehension. Whereas to me really good programmers are very receptive to a lot of different things." - Geoffrey Gilmore, Festival Director

Read more about the selection process here. [Fascinating]