The Sundance Film Festival: 11 Days at the Center of the Indie World

For 11 days every January, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, becomes the focal point of the independent film world as established directors and stars mix with up-and-coming talent, while theatrical distributors prowl the festival looking for the next indie hit and film lovers just have a good time being the first audiences to see new movies.

Sundance also is a launch place for films that already have distributors, who show off their films hoping to build buzz among audiences and the legions of cinema journalists and bloggers who attend the festival.

And Sundance isn’t just about movies. Festival director John Cooper says organizers added more music to the 11-day festival this year to encourage relationships between independent filmmakers and musicians.

The Sundance Film Festival continues through January 29.

David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga from the film “Goats.”

William H. Macy of “The Surrogate.”

Carol Alt of the film “About Face”.

Director and producer, Alison Klayman, of the film “Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry.”

Richard Gere from the film “Arbitrage.”

Laetitia Casta from the film “Arbitrage.”

Dakota Johnson from the film “Goats.”

Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford.

Neil Young from the film “Heart of Gold.”

Nicole “Coco” Austin and Ice-T, from the film “The Art of Rap.”

Singer Paul Simon and director Joe Berlinger of the film “Under African Skies.”

Elizabeth Olsen of “Liberal Arts.”

Kirsten Dunst and Lizzy Caplan of “Bachelorette.” (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press)

Actor Grant Harvey of “Save The Date,” and director Lauren Greenfield of “Queen of Versailles.”

Actor Christopher Abbott from “Hello I Must Be Going,” and director Malik Bendjelloul of “Searching for Sugarman.”

“Red Hook Summer” filmmaker Spike Lee.

Musicians Skylar Grey and James McCartney.

Paul Dano, Shaylena Mandigo and Jon Heder of “For Ellen.”

Parker Posey of “Price Check.”

Eric Mabius of “Price Check.”

Will Bouvier, Lake Bell, Katie Aselton, Kate Bosworth, Anslem Richard and Jay Paulson of the film “Black Rock.”

Danny Glover from the film “LUV.”

James Marsden, Frank Langella and Liv Tyler of the film “Robot and Frank.”

Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally of the film “Smashed.”

Caity Lotz from the film “The Pact.”

Mary Elizabeth Winstead from the film “Smashed.”

Aaron Paul of the film “Smashed.”

Director Matthew Akers and artist Marina Abramovich from the film “The Artist is Present.”

Damien Echols and Lorri Davies of the film “West of Memphis.”

Jake Johnson and Aubrey Plaza from the film “Safety Not Guaranteed.”

Olivia Thirlby, Rosemarie Dewitt and India Ennenga from the film “Nobody Walks.”

Alexia Rasmussen from the film “The Comedy.”

Kate Sheil from the film “The Comedy.”

Ruth Bradley and Richard Coyle of “Grabbers.”

Emily Blunt and Rosmarie DeWitt from the film “Your Sister’s Sister.”

John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy from the film “The Surrogate.”

Julie Delphy and Chris Rock from the film “2 Days in New York.”

Lou Diamond Phillips of the film “Filly Brown.”

Musicians Deadmau5, Tommy Lee and Sofia (SOFI) Toufa.

Photo credits: Victoria Will, Danny Moloshok and Chris Pizzello/The Associated Press.