Life After Winning Sundance with Diane Bell
I always talk about not counting on the "lottery ticket" mentality that so many filmmakers today count on. Winning Sundance is not a distribution plan. Well I was involved in a project, written and directed by Diane Bell, that did just that. It won not one but two awards at Sundance. She didn't count on winning, hell she didn't think in her wildest dreams that she would even be accepted. Here's the story.
In 2010, 16 feature films were selected out of 1,058 submissions to be screened in the US Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Diane Bell's OBSELIDIA was one of them. It was made for less than $140,000, it had no movie stars in it, and none of the cast or crew had connections to Sundance. And yet it was picked out of the slush pile, and selected to premier on this world stage, alongside movies that had cost 100 times as much with big name movie stars and recognized directors.
OBSELIDIA, premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2010, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Award and the award for Excellence in Cinematography. It was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards 2011, including one for Best First Screenplay. It won acclaim at festivals around the world, including being named as Best of Fest at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Best Narrative Feature at Ashland Independent Film Festival, and winning the Youth Jury Prize for Best Film at the Valladolid Festival, Spain.
If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be accepted and win awards at the Sundance Film Festival sit back and enjoy on conversation with Diane Bell.