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2008 Sundance Film Festival Announces Short Films Available on Xbox Live

Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel announced today the program of 2008 Sundance Film Festival short films available far beyond the streets of Park City for free on www.sundance.org/watch and for sale on the iTunes Store, Netflix and Xbox 360.

This year's short films include sophisticated animation, compelling nonfiction work, action-packed dramas, outrageous comedies, and everything in between. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17-27, in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

Premiering January 18 and running all 10 days of the Festival, audiences worldwide can view one short film each day of the Festival for free for 24 hours at www.sundance.org/watch. At the same time, Sundance Institute helps build audiences for short films through partnerships with the iTunes Movie Store, Xbox LIVE, the online entertainment network for Microsoft's Xbox 360, and through Netflix's instant watching feature on the company's member Web Site. Presented in collaboration with Sundance Channel, a selection of 45 short films from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival shorts will launch simultaneously on all three platforms beginning January 18, 2008 and run through 2011.

The Festival's Shorts Programs showcase the creative, boundary-pushing work of filmmaking's newest talents. Short films screen in Festival theatres prior to a feature film or as part of one of the Festival's eight short film programs. The Short Film Program, both at the Festival and online is presented by Festival sponsor, Adobe Systems.

Short films have always played an important part in the Sundance Film Festival and were inaugurated as an official program in 1991. The shorts program at Sundance has long been established as a discovery for directors, including Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, David O. Russell, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Holofcener, and Alexander Payne.

Beginning January 18, visit www.sundance.org/watch to view 10 short films over 10 days from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, each streaming free online for 24 hours beginning at 12:01 am MST each day. From a sublimely sweet love story set among zombies and a thriller about an Inuit hunter witnessing a murder to the tale of a man's affection for his miniature guide horse and the true story of a man looking for answers to his failed marriage, these shorts truly celebrate the innovation of the short filmmaking craft.

Films Available on the iTunes Store, Netflix, and Xbox 360:

Sundance Institute is helping to build audiences for short films through partnerships with Apple's iTunes Movie Store, Xbox LIVE, the online entertainment network for Microsoft's Xbox 360, and the Netflix member Web site. Starting January 18, 2008 through 2011, audiences can own and watch 45 of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival short films at the iTunes Store, Netflix or Xbox 360.

Sundance Film Festival Short Films will be priced at $1.99 each with www.iTunes.com/sundance being the primary download-to-own platform for viewing on an iPhone, iPod, Mac, PC or widescreen TV with Apple TV. Also available on the iTunes Store are free podcasts that go behind the scenes of the Sundance Film Festival, including panels with filmmakers, journalists and industry leaders and live music performances straight from Park City.

Netflix is making the Sundance shorts available to its subscribers at no additional fee through its instant watching feature, which offers thousands of films and TV episodes to be viewed instantly on PCs.
Xbox 360 will offer yet another $1.99 download-to-own platform through Xbox LIVE. Xbox LIVE is the leading provider of high definition on demand content, offering movies for video on demand and TV shows and music videos for download-to-own. More information about content being offered on Xbox LIVE is available at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/?WT.svl=nav.

SOURCE Sundance Channel