Film Festivals in the U.S.

The Sundance Film Festival is the brainchild of actor/director Robert Redford via the Sundance Institute. In 1981, Redford gathered like-minded industry professionals to help create the Sundance Institute, which fosters " independence, discovery, and new voices in American film". In the beginning there were ten filmmakers who were invited to participate in a filmmakers/directors lab. Today, there are hundreds of filmmakers who submit their films for the festival competition. The annual Sundance Film Festival will take place January 19-29, 2012 in and around Park City, UT. Sundance likes to keep it green too. Festival promoters make sure there are plenty of recycling bins at all the participating theatres and venues. All of their merchandise is eco-friendly too! A Sundance mobile app is also available for iPhones to keep festival goers up-to-date on festival schedules and venue maps.

Sundance Film Festival Collection:
Celebrating 25 Years

This year's Newport Beach Film Festival touts the screening of 350 films representing 40 countries and a slew of premiere parties. All of this and more is set in the beautiful community of Newport Beach in Orange County, CA. Filmmakers can submit their entries via the online platform available through the website. The Newport Coast is south of Hollywood (about an hour to 1.5 hrs away) and is an upscale community that is home to many celebrities. The festival runs from April 26-May 3 2012. If you attend, expect to see plenty of A-list Hollywood actors and filmmakers.

The Tribecca Film Festival (TFF) started in 2002. The annual competition, founded by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff, was originally designed as a way to bring back some of the vitality of the Lower Manhattan area known as TriBeCa after the 9-11 tragedy in 2001. TFF showcases indie filmmakers, documentaries and even family-friendly films. There's also an artists component to the festival, where both rising and established artists create original artwork that is given to the festival's filmmaking competition winners. The festival runs from April 18-29, 2012. In recent years, the festival has had more than three million people in attendance, generating a reported $600 million.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is the trade show company that sponsors this annual festival in Austin, TX. Originally, it was the SXSW Music Festival that brought musicians and music lovers together (by the thousands) beginning in the late 1980s. Now there are three festivals with dates that overlap each other. In 2012, the SXSW festivals will begin with SXSW Interactive and SXSW Film on March 9th. SXSW Music begins March 13th. Last year's event brought in an estimated $165 million to the local economy.