What’s NEXT for Sundance?: Cooper Embraces Counter Culture

It doesn’t look like a re-appropriation of his New Frontier section but instead, a better way to showcase certain titles that would have got lost in shuffle. The announcement of a new section called NEXT (or going by the symbol < = > ) is John Cooper’s first major move as the head honcho of Sundance and it’s exactly what this festival needed.

NEXT will feature six to eight films selected for their innovative and original work in low and no-budget filmmaking (which most likely means: no stars, a lack of buyer interest, and a way for such a film/filmmaker to realistically make a double dip at Sundance and SXSW).  

Cooper in his own words…“The filmmakers who are working in this realm and who I have spoken to about this have a ‘creative impatience’ that I find invigorating,” Cooper added. “These are not just the films that have been labeled mumble core…or dogma or even guerilla. They are an emerging counter culture within our counter culture.”

Look for IONCINEMA.com’s coverage of the 2010 edition which takes places between the 21st and the 31st of January.