2016 turned out to be the year that Sarasota films broke out in force at the Sundance Film Festival. Other People, the Sarasota-funded directoral debut of Saturday Night Live staff writer Chris Kelly, opened the festival to a standing ovation. Dark Night, a chilling tale of the Aurora theater shootings directed by Sarasota Film Fest alum Tim Sutton (Memphis), and shot in Sarasota with significant help from Ringling College, left audiences stunned and disquieted. Sutton's fellow SFF alum Robert Greene (Actress) won a rare Documentary Writing Award for Kate Plays Christine, about the Christine Chubbuck tragedy, while Antonio Campos' narrative take on the same event, Christine, established itself as an Oscar contender. At the Sarasota Film Festival, we were thrilled to land two of the four for our program—Other People opens our fest just like it did Sundance, and Kate Plays Christine will be the recipient of the Terry Porter Visionary Award and play the first weekend, along with a panel on filmmaking in Sarasota, the life of Christine Chubbuck, and dealing with depression.

In the midst of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, all eyes were also on African-American-themed films at Sundance, and the films themselves did anything but disappoint. Nate Parker’s Nat Turner biopic Birth of a Nation was possibly the most anticipated film of the festival, and won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award. SFF alum Chad Hartigan (This is Martin Bonner) brought his film Morris From America, about an unusual relationship between an African-American father and son in Germany. Curiously enough, the film began to be attacked by (mostly white) critics for supposedly stereotyped representations of African-American characters, and then was defended by (mostly black) critics who saw the characterizations as insightful and groundbreaking. And Anna Rose Helmer’s The Fits, her first narrative feature, was one of the most innovatively told fables in recent memory, examining an African-American girl’s entry into young womanhood and the challenges and confusion surrounding that transition. In the end, we were proud to land both Morris and The Fits for our fest.

Another big theme from the festival was the firm establishment of Amazon and Netflix as fully legitimate—even dominant—players in the acquisitions game. Each of them acquired seven films from the festival; no other distributor acquired more than four. The emergence of new distributors is always a good development for the state of independent film, and we feel that both these companies are doing great things in the field. Ted Hope’s leadership at Amazon is especially encouraging. We ended up programming two films from Amazon—Penny Lane’s bizarrely entertaining historical documentary Nuts! And Whit Stillman’s lush and utterly delicious Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship.

Experiencing the Sundance Film Festival in any capacity—as a fan, as a journalist, as a filmmaker—can be utterly overwhelming. It really is like trying to drink from a firehose, so short is the time and so rich the programming. As a festival programming team, there’s the added pressure of trying to find just the right films for your specific program. But as pressure-filled as the time is, it’s also an incredibly exciting time of discovery and just having your faith in independent film renewed. We count the organizers of Sundance as role models, as colleagues, and as friends, and this year as ever, they were invaluable contributors to our process. We hope you enjoy the Sundance films we’ve brought to this year’s Sarasota Film Fest!