iTunes to offer select Sundance shorts
updated 12:50 pm EST, Fri January 12, 2007
Sundance on iTunes
Apple continues to expand the collection of films available on iTunes with the addition of Sundance shorts. On Friday the Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel announced they will offer narrative, documentary and animation shorts from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival for download via iTunes. Nearly half of short films from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival will be available for purchase and download for $1.99 beginning Monday, January 22, 2007. The films available on iTunes are drawn from the 71 Sundance Film Festival short films, representing 19 countries and 4445 submissions from American and international filmmakers. Also available on the iTunes Store will be free podcasts that take users behind the scenes of the Sundance Film Festival including engaging panels with filmmakers, journalists and industry representatives direct from Prospector Square and live performances straight from the Music Café in Park City.
Sundance Institute will continue to stream a selection of short films online, free of charge, on the Sundance Film Festival website. These short films will be posted after they have screened at the Festival, beginning January 18 and continuing for three months to April 18.
According to reports, filmmakers will get about 67 percent of the sale, while Apple will take 30 percent and the Sundance Institute and cable television's Sundance Channel will share the remaining proceeds. Filmmakers are also free to make deals with other distributors, including the Sundance Channel. The company said that there are no current plans to make full-length festival movies available online.
Sundance said that at least 32 of the 71 narrative, documentary and animation shorts were slated to be distributed via streaming through the Sundance site and iTune a select few--about 14--will only be shown on the website.
Since 1991 Sundance Film Festival has provided a showcase for short filmmakers and their films.
"Fueled by artistic expression and free from the conventions of feature-length films, shorts have the ability to transcend boundaries of traditional storytelling," the company said.
Over the years, the Sundance Film Festival Shorts Program has become a prime source of discovering filmmaking's newest voices, including Todd Haynes, Spike Jones, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, David O'Russell, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Holofcener and Alexander Payne.
The 2007 Sundance film festival runs from January 18-28 in Park City, Utah.
