O Brother, Where Art Thou?
based on the notoriety and buzz that came with the prize. In one of the more famous stories, Steven Soderbergh worked for the festival in 1988 as a volunteer driver and returned in 1989 with his debut film, Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Since then he’s become one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood with such films as Ocean’s 11, Erin Brockovich, and Traffic. 1992 at Sundance propelled the rise of Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs. In 1994 Kevin Smith won the peer-voted Filmmakers Trophy with Clerks, and he’s been a force ever since. The largest recent phenomenon to burst forth from the Sundance Film Festival was the Blair Witch Project, which was shown in 1999 during the midnight screening schedule. It went on to make $140 million at the box office.
