Slamdance Film Festival To Honor Christopher Nolan with Inaugural Founder's Award

Today, the Slamdance Film Festival announced the introduction of its Slamdance Founder's Award. The award, which is in its inaugural year, will be presented to filmmaker and Slamdance alumnus, Christopher Nolan. He will be honored at the Slamdance Film Festival headquarters later this month during their annual festival.

"Throughout his incredible successes, Christopher Nolan has stood firmly behind the Slamdance filmmaking community. We are honored to present him with Slamdance's inaugural Founder's Award," stated Peter Baxter, Slamdance President and Co-Founder, in a press release.

Nolan is a Slamdance alumni. In fact, his first film, Following, screened at the festival. Since then, Nolan has gone on to become a famous name in Hollywood. He wrote and directed The Dark Night Rises, The Dark Night, Inception, The Prestige, Batman Begins and Memento.

"I'm honored to be recognized by a Festival that gave me some of my first opportunities to connect with an audience," Nolan said in a press release. "Slamdance continues to provide an important forum for emerging filmmakers and I'm proud to be part of their history.”

The 2014 Slamdance Film Festival will take place from January 17- 23 in Park City, Utah at the Treasure Mountain Inn. That's the same weekend and city as the Sundance Film Festival. Since its rebellious first festival, Slamdance has taken place alongside Sundance every single year.

Back in 1995, a group of frustrated filmmakers decided to create an alternative to Sundance after they were rejected from the competition. Now, nearly 20 years later, the festival has become popular on its own merit rather than just an "alternative" event. President and cofounder Peter Baxter has said publicly that he wants to continue scheduling Slamdance so it coincides with Sundance.

Last year, ParkRecord.com published an article stating that "there was friction between the two festivals in the early years of Slamdance, but the leadership at Sundance since then has appeared to accept the Slamdance presence. Baxter said the decision to continue to hold the festival in Park City is partly based on Sundance."

"Slamdance and Sundance have grown and developed over the years. I really believe the two festivals complement each other," Baxter said, as quoted in the article.

Slamdance is the only festival programmed entirely by filmmakers, and more than half of last year's feature films found distribution after premiering in Park City. The festival is an excellent place for emerging, unknown filmmakers to find their voice and begin their career.

This year's festival will include a premiere of a short documentary, DIY, which follows the historical development of the Do-It-Yourself indie film movement.

ScreenCraft will be covering both Slamdance and Sundance next week, so stay tuned for our reports.