The Sundance Film Festival, held every January in Park City, Utah, has become one of the most well-known celebrations of independent filmmaking in the world.
This year, as an extension of the festival’s NEXT category, which exhibits independent films with innovative approaches to storytelling, the Sundance Institute hosted the inaugural NEXT WEEKEND program over the past four days at Sundance Cinemas in Los Angeles.
Four films were also selected to be screened at other theaters in the Los Angeles area in a sub-program titled NEXT SUNDAY. These films included “Cutie and the Boxer,” a debut feature by director Zachary Heinzerling, shown Sunday night at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater, followed by a Q-and-A with Heinzerling and the film’s stars.
Heinzerling said he appreciates the work it took to curate NEXT WEEKEND in a city known for its film culture.
“I think they wanted to do something in Los Angeles to spread that energy and feeling of them supporting new and interesting projects,” he said. “Park City is a very small town, and everybody is on a farm for about 10 days. But, I think it’s cool to do it in Los Angeles and focus on films that are more innovative in nature and push the envelope.”
Though the NEXT category at the Sundance Film Festival is exclusively designed for fictional features, NEXT WEEKEND showcased a range of cinematic genres, including “Cutie and the Boxer,” one of two documentaries in the program. Trevor Groth, director of programming at the Sundance Film Festival, was a leading figure in this expansive decision.
“We saw the film and fell in love with it,” Groth said. “It’s about a love story, about the creative process, about art and what it means on a regional level and on a social level. We wanted to showcase it due to its aesthetic styles.”
The “NEXT SUNDAY” screening at the Hammer Museum was set up by the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Noela Hueso, TFT’s media relations manager, said the arrangement spotlights TFT’s interest in humanistic stories.
“College students are very open-minded and I think students would be very interested in … what’s represented on this film,” Hueso said. “TFT is always trying to foster excellence in the arts. This is just an extension of that, to showcase good, quality filmmaking.”
With success at the individual venues for NEXT WEEKEND and NEXT SUNDAY, both programs have the potential of growing to more organizations around Los Angeles. If audience response is positive, Groth said he hopes to expand the event in future years into a special citywide night for celebrating film.
“Coming up to Park City, not everyone can do it, in January, in winter, it’s far away. So we wanted to bring this to Los Angeles where it’s such a vital film community, a growing young film community,” Groth said. “Hopefully the students at UCLA will fall in love with the film and it will propel them to seek out more of the films we showcase at Sundance and NEXT WEEKEND.”