Opinion: Sundance, cinema is for students

On the second-to-last day of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 31, four of us from The Utah Statesman stood in the awards press line as a 20, 21, 22 and 23-year-old surrounded by seasoned reporters, film directors and PR managers alike. It was in the hustle and bustle that it immediately became apparent we were the youngest team in the line that weekend by at least a decade.

As we arrived in the line, we were quickly swept up in the go-go-go energy of finding our place, getting out cameras, setting up mics and preparing for interviews.

We were given a spot at the end of the press line to do interviews and accepted anyone who would stop to talk to us. The film directors and producers who did were happy to, despite our limited knowledge and generic questions. 

The four of us ran into zero other student reporters the whole weekend we were at the festival and often discussed how lucky we were to be there on press passes. We concluded student reporters were a rare breed to be seen at Sundance. 

There was a more diverse age range in the audiences of the films we saw, but much of the press had left the festival by then. We, as students and first-time attenders of Sundance, were happy to get into any film we could. 

Our group often discussed the limitations we felt by only being able to go for those two days. We were challenged by coordinating schedules with school and other jobs, a barrier other publications may not have had. 

We made the most of the two days we were there by seeing six projects in total: two documentaries, two dramas, one supernatural horror and an episodic series. We were left to our own devices to plan coverage as the availability of films rolled in. 

For the four of us, this was one of — if not the — first real industry experience we had. It was intimidating, exhausting and borderline embarrassing at times. No one wants to feel like a young kid who doesn’t know what they’re doing, but we all have to start somewhere. 

All of us were wide-eyed throughout the entire experience. It was truly amazing to look up and down the press line and see the names of different publications we had the opportunity to stand next to. 

With the potential for Sundance to leave Utah in the coming years, this could be one of the last times the Statesman will have Sundance coverage. I felt it important to acknowledge the impact attending Sundance has on student journalists such as myself and vice versa. The Sundance Institute has the rare opportunity to learn from students as journalistic coverage advances in the ever-evolving industry. 

If the festival does move and new universities apply to send their students, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them, and I implore the Sundance Institute to take that into account. To those who may feel student coverage at Sundance is unnecessary or unimportant, I would like to remind them the institute could be the first impression of the film and press industry on future generations, so I pray you do not let it be a bad one.