Ramen to Riches: How Sundance Film Festival Catapults Film School Grads to Super-Stardom
Film school grads whose careers were launched at Sundance Film Festival.
Film School Graduates at the Sundance Film Festival
Since its founding in 1981, the Sundance Film Festival, a brainchild of academy-award winning actor, Robert Redford, has been the premiere venue to showcase emerging filmmaking talent. Originally designed to help nurture the fledgling genre of independent film, the Sundance Film Festival has become known as a launching-pad for unknown directors.
Below are just a few of the directors who have gone on to fame and fortune after debuting their films at the Sundance Film Festival. Many of them were recent film school graduates.
Joel and Ethan Cohen
This dynamic duo has been well known in the independent film community since winning the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic category in 1985 for the film, Blood Simple. The wunderkind brothers both graduated from Simon's Rock College, a specially designed college for high-school age students, where students typically enter at age 16. In 1979, the school became a part of Bard College and is now known as Bard College at Simon's Rock. Ethan Cohen also went on to attend Princeton University. Riding the success of their Sundance win, the brothers went on to write, direct and produce such memorable films as Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Steven Soderbergh
The son of a college professor, Steven spent his high school years taking film animation classes at his father's university, Louisiana State, where he was able to use secondhand equipment to make several short films. His feature film directorial debut, Sex, Lies and Videotape took the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1990. The film was a huge critical success and launched not only Steven's career, but also the careers of James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo. Steven has gone on to the direct box office hits Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen. He's also credited with producing a wide range of other films such as Pleasantville, Insomnia and Syriana.
Robert Rodriguez
After attending the film program at The University of Texas – Austin (which boasts such famous alums as Matthew McConaughey, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson), Robert sold his body to science to secure funding for his first feature-length film, El Mariachi. After debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993, Robert signed a lucrative distribution deal with a major studio which allowed him to go onto make many of his other, well-known films: Sin City, Spy Kids, The Faculty and Desperado.
Edward Burns
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Transferring from The State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany in his junior year to study filmmaking at Hunter College in Manhattan, Ed spent his last two years in school writing scripts for short films. After personally handing Robert Redford a copy of The Brothers McMullen, the film went on to win the Grand Jury Prize in 1995. Ed went on to direct She's The One, the sequel to The Brothers McMullen which starred Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz. Ed has found greater success in front of the camera, starring in movies such as Saving Private Ryan, 15 Minutes, The Holiday and 27 Dresses.
Morgan Spurlock
Rejected five times by the University of Southern California (USC), Morgan eventually decided to move to the East Coast, graduating from the New York University (NYU) Film Department in 1993. His best known film, Super Size Me, premiered at Sundance in 2004, where Morgan was the recipient of the Documentary Directing Award. After spending 30 days eating nothing but fast-food and gaining 25 lbs. in the process, Morgan's portrait of the industry opened the eyes of thousands of viewers and spurred a reform movement that brought healthier choices to fast-food restaurants around the world.
From Film School to Fame
Attending film school gave these directors their start, providing a foundation in filmmaking skills and techniques, but it was appearing at the Sundance Film Festival that helped them make the leap from good to great.