PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Television Festival this is not. That snarky, small-screen nickname is nonetheless being tossed around by some of the Hollywood attendees who are gathering here for the 31st Sundance Film Festival, which starts on Thursday. The reason: Like the rest of moviedom, the independent-film world is grappling with the incursion of television as a creative and financial force. Independent film used to define the cutting edge in entertainment, but the indie crowd has lately ceded ground to television, which is turning out risk-taking shows like Amazon’s “Transparent,” created by a Sundance film alumna. A vast majority of the 123 movies that will play Sundance this year will end up finding an audience not in a theater but on a video-on-demand system. The shift leaves Sundance, longtime attendees say, on the edge of an identity crisis. The festival, fiercely proud of its heritage as America’s foremost showcase for independent cinema, is working to hold on to that identity. At the same time, it is tentatively embracing an art form, television, in which innovation and energy abound. In other words, it is trying to remain relevant. The signs of this push and pull are everywhere, starting with “Animals,” an independently produced and financed television series. The first two animated episodes, about lovelorn New York rats and gender-questioning pigeons, will make their debut at Sundance on Monday as a special event. Moreover, “Animals” is hoping to use the festival to land a distributor — a first for a television series, Sundance staff members said. A TV show being shopped at Sundance? It is not as strange as it sounds, at a time when analysts estimate that digital and video-on-demand services are replacing art houses as the primary outlet for more than 90 percent of independent films. The most active Sundance buyers this year are expected to include distributors that tend to lean on video on demand, like IFC, Magnolia and Radius-TWC, the boutique division of the boutique Weinstein Company. Twelve Sundance documentaries are already spoken for by HBO, CNN, Showtime and Netflix. “Your local art house cinema is moving to your living room,” said Jason Blum, a producer whose film “Whiplash” opened Sundance last year and who notably just announced a major expansion into television. At the same time, more independent directors and writers are hoping to use Sundance as a launching pad not for a film career but for a television one. “Now the dream is to write and direct an indie film, get into Sundance and then use that to become a big-time TV series creator, like Lena Dunham, or a show runner or a TV director,” said Reed Martin, author of “The Reel Truth,” a guide to making an independent film. “TV is where all the money is, and where a lot of the creative risk-taking is celebrated these days,” he added. The indie brain drain is noticeable. The filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass, long Sundance darlings, have recently been busy creating the series “Togetherness” for HBO. (They are also executive producers of “Animals.”) Woody Allen, who was indie before indie was a thing, is making a digital series for Amazon, where Jill Soloway — who directed the 2013 Sundance entry “Afternoon Delight” — is the creative force behind “Transparent.” John Ridley is following up his Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave” screenplay with “American Crime,” which arrives on March 5 on ABC. So where does all of this leave Sundance? On the one hand, festival organizers are thrilled about the rise of television as fertile ground for the independent-cinema crowd. Sundance’s oft-repeated goal is to “support independent storytellers,” regardless of the medium. The nonprofit Sundance Institute last year added a television writing lab to its roster of workshops. More than 900 people applied for 10 openings, according to Keri Putnam, the Sundance Institute’s executive director. “We spend a lot of time listening to our community of artists, and what we began to see, like everybody else, was the surge of opportunities for independent voices on television and online platforms,” Ms. Putnam said. “This feels like a very natural expansion of our work.” Similarly, the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last year started a program dedicated to online series, and the more commercially oriented South by Southwest festival in Texas added a television section. But Robert Redford, Sundance’s founder, and his crew also want to protect their movie base, which is one reason they work so hard to stage world premieres (106 this time around, out of 123 features total). When film executives no longer need to make the trek to Utah to see new offerings — when everyone can simply view them on Vimeo link from New York and Los Angeles, as some already do — Sundance stops being a must-attend event. Some festival officials even avoid the word television, referring to it instead as “episodic storytelling.” “We have no formal plans to add an episodic festival section,” Ms. Putnam said. Still, “Animals” represents an important toe in the water. That seven-episode series is not the first TV project to be shown at Sundance. In 2013, the festival screened Jane Campion’s seven-hour “Top of the Lake” mini-series in its entirety, billing it as a “cinematic event.” Last year, the festival’s experimental New Frontier section included Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s “HitRECord on TV,” a variety-show outgrowth of a website. But both of those shows already had cable distribution locked up in advance and were trying to use Sundance to generate tune-in buzz. The same is true of “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” a six-part documentary series headed to HBO next month; Sundance will screen the first episode on Tuesday. “Animals,” in contrast, is being dangled for sale by agents at ICM Partners, alongside films like “People, Places, Things,” a potential crowd-pleaser about a newly single graphic novelist with twin daughters. The element of commerce is important. Sundance first hit its stride in the 1980s partly because independent-film executives, split between New York and Los Angeles, came together in the middle to wheel and deal. The festival’s heat has always come from the money changing hands. “We truly have no idea what to expect,” said Mike Luciano, who wrote and directed “Animals” with Phil Matarese. “It could end up on traditional TV. It could go to one of the interesting home streaming options. That’s what’s exciting about it.” 猶他州帕克城——這裏並不是在舉行“聖丹斯電視節”。 第31屆聖丹斯電影節(Sundance Film Festival)於週四拉開帷幕，一些出席的好萊塢人士經常用這個和小屏幕有關的難聽外號來稱呼它。這可能是因爲，和電影界的其他部分一樣，獨立電影界也在努力應付電視作爲一種創作力量和經濟力量的入侵。 獨立電影界曾經代表了娛樂業的最前沿，但是近來，獨立電影界已經開始把自己的領地割讓給電視界，比如亞馬遜冒險推出的劇集《透明家庭》(Transparent)，就是由聖丹斯出身的班底主創的。今年在聖丹斯電影節上映的123部影片中，大部分不會在影院播出，而會在視頻點播系統中播出。 聖丹斯的長期參與者們認爲，這個變化令該電影節面臨身份危機。聖丹斯電影節是美國獨立電影的最佳展示機會，組委會深以這個傳統爲驕傲，致力於保持住這一身份。與此同時，它也暫且接受電視這種充滿革新與能量的藝術形式。 換言之，它試圖保持確當性。 處處都顯現出這種掙扎，先是《動物們》(Animals)，這是一部獨立製作、獨立覈算的電視劇。前兩集是動畫，講述失戀的紐約老鼠與對性別有疑問的鴿子，它們將於週一作爲特別活動在聖丹斯首播。此外，《動物們》希望利用電影節尋找分銷商——聖丹斯的工作人員們說，這樣的做法對於電視劇來說還是第一次。 在聖丹斯電影節上賣電視劇？其實這並不像聽上去的那麼奇怪，如今，分析師們評估，數字與視頻點播服務正在取代藝術影院，成爲90%的獨立電影的主要出口。今年，預計聖丹斯電影節上最活躍的購買者中也會包括依靠視頻點播的分銷商，諸如IFC、Magnolia和Radius-TWC，其中Radius-TWC是業界精英溫斯坦影業(Weinstein Company)旗下的精英部門。 在聖丹斯播出的紀錄片中，已經有12部被HBO、CNN、Showtime和Netflix預定。“本地的藝術影院來到了你的起居室裏，”製片人詹森·布拉姆(Jason Blum)說，他的影片《爆裂鼓手》(Whiplash)是去年聖丹斯電影節的首映影片，最近他也在電視上獲得了較大知名度。 與此同時，更多獨立電影導演和編劇不僅希望把聖丹斯作爲促進電影事業發展的平臺，在電視事業上也是如此。 “現在人們的夢想是編寫並執導一部電影，在聖丹斯放映，然後憑藉這份資歷，成爲黃金時段電視劇的主創，比如莉娜·杜漢姆(Lena Dunham)，或者成爲電視節目主持人或者導演，”裏德·馬丁(Reed Martin)說，他是獨立製片指南書《膠片真相》(Reel Truth)的作者。“現在的資金都投向電視，近來電視也鼓勵很多創意方面的冒險，”他補充。 獨立電影界的人才流失很明顯。獨立電影製片人馬克(Mark)和傑伊·杜普拉斯(Jay Duplass)是聖丹斯頗受寵愛的常客，最近正忙於爲HBO臺拍攝《患難與共》(Togetherness)。此外兩人也是《動物們》的執行製片。伍迪·艾倫(Woody Allen)早在獨立電影成氣候之前就已經是獨立電影人了，如今他在爲亞馬遜拍攝一部數字電視劇；此外曾執導2013年聖丹斯參賽影片《午後樂事》(Afternoon Delight)的吉爾·索洛維(Jill Soloway)也在爲亞馬遜工作，擔任《透明家庭》的主創。 約翰·裏德利(John Ridley)曾因撰寫《爲奴12年》(12 Years a Slave)的劇本而獲得奧斯卡獎，如今他爲《美國重案》(American Crime)做編劇，該劇將於3月5日登陸ABC臺。 所以聖丹斯還剩下什麼呢。 一方面，電影節組織者們爲電視業的興起而興奮，它爲獨立電影業提供了豐富的觀衆基礎。聖丹斯電影節經常重申自己的目標是：“支持獨立的故事講述者”，不管講述者採取的是什麼媒介。去年，非盈利性的聖丹斯學院在自己的工作室中加入了一個電視劇本創作實驗室。 聖丹斯學院的執行理事吉萊·帕特納姆(Keri Putnam)說，有900多人申請了這個實驗室的10個空缺職位。 “我們花了很多時間聽取同行藝術家的意見，我們開始和所有人一樣意識到，在電視和其他網絡平臺中，開始涌現出大量獨立的聲音，”帕特納姆說。“於是我們的工作自然而然就延伸了。” 同樣，紐約的翠貝卡電影節也在去年開設了一個項目，專門用於網絡劇集；更爲商業化的得克薩斯州西南偏南電影節亦增設了電視劇單元。 但聖丹斯電影節的創始人羅伯特·萊德福特(Robert Redford)和他的工作人員們仍然希望維護電影基礎，所以他們才努力搞了那麼多全球首映（在本屆聖丹斯電影節上映的123部長片中，共有106部是全球首映）。如果電影業的執行官員們不必長途跋涉，趕到猶他州來看新片，如果任何人都可以呆在紐約或者洛杉磯，從Vimeo網站觀看這些影片（其實有些人已經這麼做了），到那個時候，聖丹斯就不再是什麼非參加不可的活動了。 有些電影節組織者甚至諱談“電視”這個字眼，稱電視劇爲“分集講故事”。 “我們還沒有正式推出增設分集電影單元的計劃，”普特納姆說。 不過，《動物們》代表一次重要的嘗試。 這部劇集有7集，不過它並不是第一次出現在聖丹斯上的電視節目。2013年，聖丹斯電影節完整放映了簡·坎皮恩(Jane Campion)七小時的迷你劇《湖畔之巔》，並將之列入“電影活動”。去年，電影節的實驗項目，“新邊疆”單元播放了約瑟夫·高登-萊維特(Joseph Gordon Levitt)的《HitReCord on TV》這是一個出自網站的綜藝秀。 但這兩個電視節目都已經事先預定在有線臺播出，旨在利用聖丹斯平臺做宣傳。《噩運：羅伯特·博斯特的生與死》(The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst)也是如此，它是一部六集紀錄片，將於下月在HBO播放，聖丹斯電影節將於週二播放前兩集。 《動物們》則正相反，它正由ICM夥伴公司對外出售，該公司出售的電影還包括《人物、地點、事件》(People, Places, Things)，這是一部潛在的討好大衆的電影，主角是一個新近失去伴侶的圖文小說家，帶着雙胞胎女兒生活。 商業元素很重要。聖丹斯電影節能在20世紀80年代達到第一個全盛時期，部分是由於原本分裂爲紐約與洛杉磯兩派的獨立電影製片人們聚集到這個中間地帶，一起做買賣。電影節的激情一貫來自金錢交易。 “我們確實不知道未來會發生什麼，”邁克·盧西亞諾(Mike Luciano)說，他是《動物們》的編劇，並與菲爾·馬塔萊斯(Phil Matarese)聯合執導了該劇。“它可能在傳統電視臺播放，也可能成爲有趣的家庭流媒體之選。所以才這麼讓人興奮。”
