A stark black-and-white photograph from 1992 shows a group of young filmmakers and critics (among them Tom Kalin, Isaac Julien, Todd Haynes, Sadie Benning, RubyRich and Derek Jarman) after a panel at the Sundance Film Festival entitled “Barbed Wire Kisses.” The photo marks not just a moment in history, but a moment when a history would begin. Later that year B. Ruby Rich would call this gathering the “New Queer Cinema” in an article for the British film magazine Sight and Sound, a term that would simultaneously serve as nostalgia for an artistic movement that never arrived and a promise of what independent cinema could become.

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Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) today announced the winners of the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards. The four winners were selected from among 12 finalists by members of an international jury which included: Gregg Araki, Jeremy Pikser, Erin Cressida Wilson, Martin Rejtman, Andrucha Waddington, Shekhar Kapur, and Anand Tucker.

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Marcus Hu is the co-president of Strand Releasing, which has distributed both theatrically and on DVD with a wide-range of films from the Sundance Film Festival. He shared a few observations about what hasn’t changed at Sundance.

1. Going to one of the most anticipated acquisition screenings and seeing the domino effect of execs fleeing.

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Sundance Institute announced that Derek Jarman’s EDWARD II (1991) and Gregg Araki’s LIVING END (1992) will be shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival to mark the tenth anniversary of the Festival’s From the Collection category. Drawing from one of the most important archives of American independent cinema, the films exemplify the independent spirit and artistry on display at Sundance Film Festival.

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On Jan 18, the Sundance Film Festival kicks off for another 10 days of packed parties, tragic fashion, smoke-filled business deals, overpriced restaurants, sightings of Paris Hilton, and, oh yes, films This year offers one of the most ambitious slates in recent years. Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival highlights that “in this year’s Festival there is a breadth of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling that is transforming the old idea of the American indie film.” (In Variety [www.variety.com], Gilmore went on to define that diversity.)

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