The Sundance Film Festival opened with the usual fanfare yesterday: A press conference; anxious filmmakers, journalists, distributors, and sales agents scrambling around town; a couple of parties.
But in one sense it was completely different: While in previous years, Sundance opened with a single film that received an overwhelming amount of attention from everyone in attendance and had to represent the entire spirit of the festival itself, newbie festival director John Cooper decided to take a different approach, littering a quartet of opening night events across town: two competition films screened back-to-back at the massive Eccles Theater, while short films and experimental works were unveiled on the bustling Main Street.