The festival honored late Roger Ebert and premiered Life Itself by Steve James, a biographical documentary film based on Ebert's 2011 memoir titled as Life Itself: A Memoir on 19 January 2014.[4][5] The festival introduced a new film category titled Sundance Kids, which will help to introduce independent films to a younger generation of audiences. It is also a first category at the festival dedicated to children's films.[6][7] The festival also hosted several events and discussion panels around themes of success through failure titled Free Fail, which included the screening of Bottle Rocket turned down by the Sundance Film Festival in 1996 and later become independently successful.[8][9] The festival had more than 700 sponsors and 1,830 volunteers.[10][11]
About the festival
A record 12,218 films were submitted, 72 more films than the 2013 festival. Of the 4,057-plus feature films were submitted, 2,014 were from the U.S. and 2,043 were international, and 121 were selected from 37 countries (with 100 of them being world premieres). Of the 8,161 short films submitted, 66 were selected (59 more than for the 2013 Festival). There were 54 directors, who made their directorial debut at the festival, 35 of whom have films in competition. Sixteen films were selected each for the U.S. Dramatic and U.S. Documentary competition sections, and twelve films each for the World Cinema Dramatic and World Cinema Documentary sections.[12][1][13][14][15][16]
Music was major part of the festival. Most of the movies in the festival had musical themes. The opening night film Whiplash used music to explore human nature and identity. God Help the Girl, a coming of age drama with musical theme directed by Stuart Murdoch. Memphis starring musician Willis Earl Beal as an artist. Australian musician Flea appears in Low Down, a biopic about American jazz pianist Joe Albany. Only Lovers Left Alive follows a musician and his lover while his world is collapsing down. Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, a documentary about a man who wanted to help the Alzheimer's patient with music. Frank, comedy about a young musician, starring Michael Fassbender. 20,000 Days on Earth, a documentary narrating a day in the life of Nick Cave including cameos by Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone. Also the closing night film of the festival Rudderless, told the story of a father who formed a rock and roll band to perform his late son's music.[22][23]
Awards
Whiplash won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic at the festival.
The awards ceremony was held on January 26, 2014 at the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse in Park City, Utah,[24] and was hosted by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally.[25][26]
Additional awards were presented at separate ceremonies.[28][29] The Shorts Awards were presented January 21, 2014 at the ceremony in Park City, Utah.[30][31][32]
Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction - I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked
Short Film Jury Award: Animation - Yearbook
Short Film Special Jury Award for Unique Vision - Rat Pack Rat
Short Film Special Jury Award for Direction and Ensemble Acting - Burger
Short Film Special Special Jury Award for Non-fiction - Love. Love. Love.
Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards - Hong Khaou for Monsoon, Tobias Lindholm for A War, Ashlee Page for Archive and Neeraj Ghaywan for Fly Away Solo.
Sundance Institute/NHK Filmmaker Award - Mark Elijah Rosenberg for Ad Inexplorata[33]
Hilton Worldwide LightStay Sustainability Award - Ben Kalina for Shored Up (and $25,000 grant)[34]
Jury members, for the U.S. Documentary Jury, were announced on December 18, 2013.[36] The rest of the jury members including the Alfred P. Sloan Jury, which will also take part in the Science in Film Forum Panel, were announced on January 9, 2014.[17][37] Presenters of awards are followed by asterisks:[27][38]
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