test sunday

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Friday at Sundance turned out not to be a big festival news day. No films
were picked up. In fact, Sony Pictures Classics made it known that they would
not be purchasing rights to any festival films during the festival — thus
limiting the chances of making hasty decisions. Sony acquisitions reps are
avoiding being caught up in the buying frenzy and after Sundance, plan to step
back from the experience to make clear-headed purchases that best serve the
company.

Screenings were almost all standing room only Friday, especially screenings of
2 by 4, Slam, Frat House, and the latest from Roger & Me‘s Michael Moore, The Big One, which
made its world premiere at Sundance.

The party to be at was thrown by BMI at
the Canyons’ “Bubble.” Cracker performed a loud and raucous set, while Adam
Duritz of Counting Crows alternated between singing along in the front row and joining the band along with raspy-throated
songster, Joan Osborne.

While screenings continued on Saturday, the real attention turned to Saturday
night’s awards ceremony and party. For the second year in a row, Robert
Redford was noticably absent from the evening. Always looking fo an excuse to
keep the focus on the filmmakers and off of himself, Redford opted to stay put
in California’s Sonoma wine country where he is editing his upcomming film,

Filmmakers, television camera crews, still photographers, festival staff, and
festival-goers all made their way to Park City’s large racquet club for the
ceremony. Alfre Woodard admitted to being, “Humbled by the quality
and breadth of films in this year’s competition.” The actress and festival
juror then presented the festival’s dramatic grand jury prize to Marc Levin‘s
Slam.

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The grand jury prize in the documentary competition was split between
The Farm, by Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus, and Frat House, by Todd Phillips
and Andrew Gurland. Phillips showed a bit of his own frat house mentality
during the course of his acceptance speech. After thanking the people that
were pivotal in helping to get his film made, Phillips left the stage by also
thanking Seymour Butts (apparently Phillips may be watching too much of “The Simpsons”).

The Waldo Salt Award for excellence in screenwriting went to High Art‘s Lisa
Cholodenko. Stunned by the honor, Cholodenko exclaimed to the audience, “I
feel like I should be wearing some Bob Mackie dress.”

The dramatic audience award went to Smoke Signals, while the audience’s choice
for best documentary went to Jeff Dupre‘s Out of the Past. Smoke Signals also
won the filmmaker’s trophy for best drama, while Steve Yeager‘s Divine Trash
was honored as the filmmakers’ favorite documentary.

Other giveaways: the Documentary Directing Award to Moment of Impact
director Julia Loktev; Dramatic Directing Award to Pi‘s Darren
Aronosfsky; Best Cinematography in a Documentary to Wild Man’s Blues
Tom Hurwitz; Best Cinematography in a Drama to 2 By 4; The Freedom of
Expression Award to The Decline of Western Civilization: Part 3‘s Penelope
Spheeris; Special Jury Prize for Acting to Miss Monday‘s Andrea Hart; the
Latin Cinema Award to Carlos Marcovich‘s Who The Hell is Juliette?; and
Special Recognition in Short Filmmaking to Debra Granik, director of Snake Feed.

Even though Sunday is officially the final day of the festival, most of Park
City’s temporary guests spend the morning packing away their snow globes and lip balm, making room
for local Utahans to catch screenings of the winning films.

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Numbers in parenthesis indicate January 16-19 weekend box office position.

Box office results for the January 23-25 weekend, 1998.

1. (1) TITANIC

Weekend: $25M Total: $274.4M

2. (new) SPICEWORLD

Weekend: $11M Total: $11M

3. (2) GOOD WILL HUNTING

Weekend: $9.1M Total: $49M

4. (4) AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Weekend: $7.6M Total: $76.6M

5. (3) FALLEN

Weekend: $4.9M Total: $16.9M

6.(7) WAG THE DOG

Weekend: $4.7M Total: $23.8M

7. (5) HARD RAIN

Weekend: $3.7M Total: $12.8M

8.(6) HALF BAKED

Weekend: $3.1M Total: $12M

9. (new) PHANTOMS

Weekend: $3.1M Total: $3.2M

10. (8) TOMORROW NEVER DIES

Weekend: $.3M Total: $115.5M

Source: Exhibitor Relations Co., Inc.

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• Kate
• Ving Rhames
• vintage sneakers
• Chinese
• Prozac

Gia Jack Lemmon designer sneakers Japanese Viagra

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Monday, January 26, 1998

The Rosie O’Donnell Show
(3:00 p.m. EST — syndicated):
Bill Pullman

NIGHT CRAWLERS

Late Show With David Letterman
(11:35 p.m. EST on CBS):
Farrah Fawcett

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
(11:35 p.m. EST on NBC):
Rupert Everett

Tuesday, January 27, 1998

EARLY BIRDS

Today
(7:00 a.m. EST on NBC):
Elton John

Live! With Regis & Kathie Lee
(9:00 a.m. EST — syndicated):
Farrah Fawcett

NIGHT CRAWLERS

The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show
(11:00 p.m. EST — syndicated):
David Alan Grier

Late Show With David Letterman
(11:35 p.m. EST on CBS):
Robert Duvall

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
(11:35 p.m. EST on NBC):
Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore

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WEEKEND REVIEW

Were there movies out there this weekend? Between the Super Bowl and
Suborning Bill, movies seemed like a low priority for a change. Titanic
made its $25 million. The Spice Girls managed to snap up $11 million
(if anyone out there knows why, please e-mail me). The Good movies
(Will Hunting and As it Gets) did good in third and fourth. Fallen fell
in a pretty standard way. The only newcomer to the Top Ten was
Phantoms with a weak $3.1 million open.

MILESTONES: Titanic passed Jaws’ $260 million domestic gross to become
the 10th most popular film of all time. Jaws, who had to turn down a
cameo in the film due to rust, refused to comment. But a spokesperson
for the mechanical shark rambled on about the box office to production
cost ratio and mentioned that Quentin Tarantino had recently visited
Jaws on the Universal Studio tour and they were hoping to have “good
news” about a comeback in the near future.

MILLSTONES: President Clinton was getting wagged so hard by the tale of him
being a dog that it could snap his presidency. New Line has
decided not to capitalize on the current problems in the White House,
but Iraq has. Saddam Hussein is claiming that he is now expecting an
American assault on Iraq as a Clinton distraction.

ABOVE THE FRAY: Ben Affleck, Phantoms most marketable co-star and Golden
Globe award-winner for co-scripting Miramax’s Good Will Hunting, was not out on the
talk circuit pushing his newer film. Given that Phantoms is from
Miramax division Dimension, that might be internal strategy to keep
Affleck pure for Academy consideration. Or Ben’s head might be too big
to talk sci-fi. Only his publicist knows for sure.

READER QUOTE OF THE DAY: From Marc A, “I don’t doubt Titanic‘s doing
well, but these numbers seem
impossible! I’m waiting to hear that Titanic is healing the sick this
weekend.”

E-MAIL PROMPT: There’s gonna be a Reader Line Of The Day even if I have
to start making them up, so give me a break. Be a part of The Hot
Button. E-mail me your thoughts on Titanic, the Spice Girls, Pulp
Clinton or on anything else.

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In its fourth year, Slamdance is no longer the new-kid festival at Park City.
Instead, Slamdance has evolved into a viable (and crucial) component of
the Park City festival experience. One new addition to this year’s festival was a screening day for the winners on Friday. Also, the welcome addition of the
filmmakers’ lounge made Slamdance a haven for wary filmmakers looking
for a cup of coffee and some quiet, civilized conversation. The lounge
also featured video screenings throughout the day of short works
including Marina Zenovich‘s hour-long indie doc Independent’s
Day (a project that started two years ago as a study of Slamdance).

The slate of competition films and special screenings drew sell-out
crowds consistently throughout the week. In addition to the opening-
night party with techno sensation Moby, Slamdance hosted two
other major events at The Underground: The Red Elvises (a Russian
rockabilly band that provided the energetic Six-String Samurai
soundtrack) rocked Park City late into the night at a post-screening
party on Wednesday. The closing-night festivities also proved to be a
good time, as filmmakers, volunteers and audiences celebrated another
successful festival.

The early buzz is that Sundance and the Park City Chamber of Commerce
are attempting to block the return of Slamdance in 1999 by refusing to
issue festival permits. If they are successful in blocking Slamdance
from playing in Park City, everyone loses. At its worst, Slamdance
serves as a constant reminder that Sundance is not the end of the world.
As Slamdance develops its own identity as the place to
discover new talent (all of its competition films are by first-time
directors), Sundance continues to screen works by established directors that already have a distribution deal. At its best, Slamdance
has shown that there are damn good films that should
be seen and that deserve an industry audience. Let’s hope the big kids see it in their hearts to extend a
welcome hand to Slamdance in 1999.

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Who do you think’s been with more women, President Clinton or Saddam Hussein (see The Hot Button)?