Elf once again braves the deep cold of Park City and Salt Lake city to give us daily updates from the 2006 Sundance Film Festival (19 - 29 January, 2006).

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Diary & Features Day Ten The final day of the festival, and Elf catches up on two movies; and the Sundance awards. Day Nine The final day of press screenings, and Elf dips her toes into some of the higher profile releases. Runaway laundry over Justin Timberlake's debut? Day Eight Early morning wakeup calls, discussing KZ with director Rex Bloomstein; The Night Listener and Art School Confidential are the movies of the day. Day Seven A short reminisce on the sheer volume of new and exciting cinema that is largely ignored by the press at Sundance; and the powerful drama Journey From The Fall. Day Six The Sundance slimming plan (patent pending..), and interviewing Paul Laverty and Clive Gordon on their new film Cargo. Day Five Mascara worries do not faze Elf on her fifth day of Sundance! Indeed, the best film of the festival thus far awaits... Day Four Elf interviews cast and director of Lucky Number Slevin, enjoys the hospitality of the Sundance Institute, as well as snagging her first goody-bag! Day Three Nosebleeds, technological SNAFUs, and soaking up the atmosphere - along to the sentimental tones of Rufus Wainwright. And another three movies! Day Two Lucky Number Slevin, The Peter Pan Formula and Wide Awake are today's movies - along with shopping for essentials. Day One Settling in, celebrating 25 years of the Institute, the Opening Night Film, and alcohol-less Oriental parties. Preview of Sundance 2006 (19 - 29 January) Elf guides us through the ten day maelstrom of Sundance, the films we'll be talking about throughout 2006.

Sundance 2006 reviews  Friends with Money - the Opening Night Film - "could do for fortysomething women what Sideways did for fortysomething men" 13 (Tzameti) - "a powerful narrative and a strong style." The Descent - Neil Marshall's superbly claustrophobic Brit shocker finally recieves US distribution - but with a slight trim in the finale. Kinky Boots Madeinusa The Peter Pan Formula Battle in Heaven Short Film Reviews - A Supermarket Love Song More coming soon! - see them online at www.sundance.org

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Park City, looking down on Main Street - photo by Amber Wilkinson

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Background

What began in 1981 as a little film festival out West, instigated by Robert Redford to stimulate and encourage innovative and alternative cinema, has now bloomed into a major stomping ground for the international film community. These days it's a competitive marketplace for "independent" film.

In fact, Sundance has been so successful that some credit it with helping to blur the lines between big budget Hollywood fare and "Indie" cinema.

Sundance, is the first major international film festival in the calendar, taking place while the snow is still on the ground in Utah. Run by the Sundance Institute, over 100 feature length films are screened, with a high percentage of World Premieres. Over 20,000 people attend the festival each year.

The festival also includes the Online Sundance Film Festival.

IOFilm Sundance Film Festival archive

2005
Sundance Daily Diary 2005 archive
Elf's first year, what does she make of the experience!?

2002
Sundance Daily Diary 2002
Paul Fischer taps into the spirit of Sundance.

2001
Coverage of the Sundance Film Festival 2001
Award winners, daily diary, online film festival review and more.

Links
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Institute


More film festivals coverage
Read iofilm reviews, news and previews from other film festivals.

We'd like to say a big thank you to Alamo who are this year helping us out with our car hire. To make a reservation log on to www.alamo.co.uk or call 0870 400 4596