Independent film market rebounds at Sundance Film Festival

Films will be packaged under the Sundance name and offered for viewing on some of the Internet's biggest video platforms, including iTunes, Amazon.com, Hulu, Netflix and YouTube.It's hard enough to get into the Sundance Film Festival — more than 10,000 features, documentaries and shorts were submitted for just a few dozen slots in this year's festival. But it's almost equally hard to leave the nation's top gathering for independent film with a distribution deal.

The 27th Sundance Film Festival opens this week aiming to defy the economic slowdown by screening a bigger than ever selection of independent movies from the US and around the world.Founded by Robert Redford as a mecca for independent film and an alternative to the Hollywood machine, the festival ironically now attracts huge interest from the commercial industry's scouts, looking for new talent and ideas.This year's 10-day festival, which opens Thursday in Park City, Utah, will show nearly 120 films from 29 countries -- including 40 first films and 95 world premieres.

By Alyssa Rosenberg

Sure, Sundance is a festival showcasing upcoming independent films, but since it began in 1978, the festival has taken a turn. In addition to film premieres and panels, the people are there to party.

Films about the war in Afghanistan and slain former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto were named in the line-up for next year's Sundance Film Festival.The world's premiere festival for independent films, the January 21-31 festival in Park City, Utah, will once again see a diverse field of competitors in the documentary and dramatic competitions.A total of 16 films will vie for honors in the US Documentary competition, whittled down from some 862 submissions, organizers said.

Ross' presence shows how Sundance has evolved from a showcase for independent filmmakers into a magnet for Hollywood bigwigs.The late-night parties at the Sundance Film Festival are full of regulars, darlings of the independent-movie world who circulate in a small and clubby circle.

YouTube announced Wednesday that it will begin testing an online movie rental service on Friday to kick off the Sundance Film Festival.Five independent films from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance festivals will be part of a "small collection of rental videos" to be available to US users of the popular video-sharing website in "the weeks ahead," according to YouTube."Making content available for rent will give our partners unprecedented control over the distribution of their work -- they can decide the price of their videos and the rental duration," YouTube said in a blog post.