Times Insider

From Buzz to Bombs: A Dispatch From the Sundance Film Festival

Photo
The actor Ewan McGregor spoke to the press at the premiere of "Last Days in the Desert" at the Sundance Film Festival.Credit Jim Urquhart/Reuters

Brooks Barnes covers show business for The Times. Last week he attended the Sundance Film Festival. For a reporter, the festival is probably less glamorous than it seems. He describes the highs and lows of covering the screenings, and how he avoided the festival’s public relations hype.

PARK CITY, Utah – The first time I covered the Sundance Film Festival for The Times was six years ago, and it was a nightmare.

I focused heavily on the films that advance reporting revealed to have the most advance buzz. The problem: Once the films were actually seen by festival audiences, almost none ended up with much attention – not quite bombs but nothing very special, either. Also, once Sundance started, I was so busy trying to be everywhere that I ended up being nowhere. I saw maybe two full films in five days.

I didn’t know how to play the game.

Now I cover Sundance in a different way, and it seems to work a lot better. The first rule of engagement is to ignore a vast majority of publicists and agents. There are, of course, a handful of operatives who are essential, starting with one of the public relations guys at Sundance itself. But in general the unhelpfulness of their agendas outweighs any helpfulness on raw information.

To give you an idea, this year I’ve so far received 379 unsolicited email pitches from publicists looking for coverage. (I throw them all into an email folder.) Every film has a publicist. Every film has an agent. Directors, stars and producers sometimes have their own publicists and agents. And there are 123 movies here. It’s like working inside a giant swarm of gnats.

Rule No. 2: I try not to write about any film without seeing it first. It helps focus coverage on movies that are actually worth directing readers toward. This year, to try to sort through what’s worthy of attention, I managed to catch 11 films (provided either on DVD or digitally back in Los Angeles) before the festival began.

I obviously do a ton of advance reporting, starting around Dec. 1, when Sundance unveils its lineups. Each entry gets quickly researched using industry databases and good old-fashioned Google. I then spend a lot of time interviewing the Sundance programmers who make the choices and have seen everything. (It helps that Sundance’s offices are in the same building as our Los Angeles news bureau.)

Last is the festival itself. I’ve had a lot of memorable moments up here over the years – a quiet dinner with Tilda Swinton at her condo, that time Creative Artists Agency had strippers at its after party. Sundance is a plum assignment, for sure. But I’m also not here to play: I’m usually up at 4 a.m. writing, then off seeing back-to-back films and doing interviews, and then back to the hotel for bed at a sane hour.