Slamdance Film Festival

The Slamdance Film Festival takes place each year in Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival, competing with Sundance to provide what its supporters consider a truer representation of independent film-making. It champions beginning directors with no or limited budgets. The festival began in 1995. Other affiliated Slamdance film festivals have since been created internationally, in countries like China and Poland. Known as a festival "by filmmakers for filmmakers," Slamdance was launched to showcase undistributed films by emerging filmmakers. Festival discoveries have included directors such as Christopher Nolan (Memento), Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite). The Slamdance Screenplay Competition has discovered a number of talented screenwriters, including Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) and Nicole Kassell (The Woodsman). In the 2005 Festival, Slamdance screened the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, which was immediately purchased by Paramount... full article at wikipedia