Sundance Film Festival

.

It's fade to black in Park City and time to roll the credits. Sundance 30 concluded with an awards ceremony that doled out prizes to dozens of films in the competition categories.

.

.

.

Sam Rockwell can easily be called a Sundance veteran: the actor has had seven films premiere at the festival over the years, starting with Arresting Gina and Tom DiCillo’s Box of Moonlight. This time he came to promote Lynn Shelton’s Laggies with co-stars Keira Knightley and Chloe Grace Moretz.

.

"My intention wasn't to make a TV movie, I just wanted to make something for my kids, my family, so they could learn what a great artist their grandfather was. Then HBO picked it up and financed it, so here we are".

.

It is the typical Sundance success story: young aspiring director tries to raise money for the feature film he has written about a jazz drummer, and in order to do that he shoots a short using a scene from the script in two days with friends. The short, Whiplash, gets into Sundance, and it is so good that it attracts the attention of the Sundance Institute and of producer Jason Reitman.