[terryaki]

Inspired by the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, I thought a thread about cultural festivals would be fun. Is your city known for a major arts, music or film festival? If so, please show it off!


America's most important film festival: the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah begins tomorrow on Jan 15, celebrating it's 20th year. Robert Redford has managed to turn a small town festival into America's most important indie film gala. There are numerous indie successess that had their birth at Sundance e.g. - Blair Witch Project, Sex Lies and Videotape, In the Bedroom, Capturing the Friedmans. For 10 days, the ski resort town is horded by celebrities and elitists. This year Redford is appearing in a film himself and other notable actors/actresses like Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore, Matthew Broderick, Nicole Kidman, Courtney Cox...the list goes on. This year though, the opening night premiere will be held in Park City, not in Salt Lake City, 30 minutes away, like in past years.

http://www.parkcityutahcondo.com/images/sundance.jpg http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20040115/capt.sge.baq87.150104040719.photo00.default-384x268.jpg
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040115/capt.xpkc10201150033.film_sundance_xpkc102.jpg http://www.wcnet.org/~tzap/purplehouse.jpg http://www.parkcitystock.com/festivals/pkc18008036.jpg http://www.moviemaker.com/issues/45/images/sund.Main-St-Interview.jpg

Look it up here: http://festival.sundance.org

[edsas]

That looks like so much fun. LA, ironically, has a remarkably lackluster flim festival. At this point I would say in terms of importance in North America, it ranks well behind Sundance, Toronto, New York, Austin and Telluride. It may even rank behind Seattle's. Such a shame for tinsletown. :no:

[Urbanguy]

Theres a ton of festivals held through out the year in Honolulu, however do you only want pics of major arts, music or film festivals here? I notice the first line said cultural so could it be included? :???: As for film Festivals the Hawaii International Film Festival is the largest for the city.

Established in 1981, the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) is dedicated to advance understanding and cultural exchange among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and North America through the medium of film. From its beginning, the Festival's constant theme has been "When Strangers Meet."

A unique international film event, HIFF has won the praise of governments, filmmakers, scholars, educators, programmers and film industry leaders throughout the world. As the largest East-meets-West Festival in the United States, HIFF is the primary source for the discovery and exhibition of Asian and Pacific feature films, documentaries and videos in the nation. The Festival is an eagerly anticipated annual event for residents of Hawaii, as well as visitors to the state.

http://www.hiff.org/2003-fall/graphics/prog-cover-art.jpg

Each year in preparation for the event, HIFF programmers view some 1,000 films and choose an average of 100 features, documentaries and film shorts. Among them are world premieres, North American premieres, U.S. premieres, experimental films, films representing social and ethnic issues, and first features by new directors. In 1998, the lineups included films from the United States, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, India, Thailand, Singapore, The Netherlands, Mexico, Austria, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Saipan, The Republic of Vanuatu and Iran.

HIFF is unique in discovering features and documentaries from Asia made by Asians, films about the Pacific made by Pacific Islanders, and films made by Hawaii filmmakers that present Hawaii in a culturally accurate way.

It is noteworthy that HIFF audiences reflect the diverse multi-cultural face of Hawaii. For example, Chinese Americans see films from Japan; Japanese Americans see films from Korea. In so doing, HIFF helps to enrich, enlighten and broaden support for Asian and Pacific films by "foreign" audiences.

Other film festivals: Cinema Paradise Island Independent Film Festival, Filipino film festival, etc etc

There are also a large number of music and art festivals through out the year too.

[Rossiapacifica]

Seattle regularly stages the largest film festival in the United States in terms of NUMBER of films shown. It is second behind Toronto in size in North America (I believe).

However...the quality of the Seattle film festival is a different matter. Its usually a hit-and-miss affair. The Sundance film festival is indeed a premier festival.

Also, see this link for the Port Townsend Film Festival. (http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=20522&highlight=townsend)

Rossiapacifica

[chrisaus]

www.perthfestival.com.au
http://www.perthfestival.com.au/Festival/img/logo.gif
The UWA Perth International Arts Festival, the oldest annual international multi-arts festival in the southern hemisphere, is Western Australia's premier cultural event.

The Perth Festival was established in 1953, following the birth of the Edinburgh Festival six years earlier, and now offers the people of Western Australia some of the best international and contemporary drama, theatre, music, film, visual arts, street arts, literature, comedy and free community events