In a major surprise, the Sundance Institute announced today that John Cooper will step down as Director of the Sundance Film Festival following the 2020 edition next January. Cooper will retain the title Emeritus Director, a new role that will focus on special projects and overseeing the 40th anniversary of the Sundance Institute in 2021. The search for a new Director will be led by the Institute’s CEO, Keri Putnam.
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Cooper has been part of the Sundance Institute for 30 years spending the last 11 years as festival director following the exit of Geoffrey Gilmore in 2009. Under Cooper’s watch, Sundance worked with Park City to discourage non-festival related marketing events such as gifting suites, that hit their height under the Gilmore era. He also helped steer the festival following the 2008 economic downturn which saw corporate partners come and go. Those achievements weren’t noted in the Festival’s release which instead focused on his creation of the Short Film section and competition as well as the Documentary Premiere, NEXT and New Frontier sections. Cooper also oversaw Sundance Film Festival: London, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong and the Los Angeles NEXT Festival, a smart idea that was probably a few years ahead of the curve.
It must be noted that under Cooper’s tenure Sundance had its greatest success with year-end accolades and the Academy Awards, a trend that slowly started at the beginning of the 21st Century. From 2009-2019 Sundance world premieres earned 11 Best Picture nominations including “Get Out,” “Precious,” “The Kids Are All Right,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Boyhood” and “Call Me By Your Name.” This achievement was second only to the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals during this era. Moreover, it can be argued that Sundance’s influence across the entire industry led to a sea change in how the Academy viewed American Independent film. Without the festival, it’s hard to see non-Sundance films such “Moonlight” winning Oscar’s top prize or “Room,” “Her” or “Dallas Buyers Club” having the success they had with the Academy and commercially.
In a statement from the Institute, Cooper noted, “This journey has been exhilarating. I’ve been lucky to find my perfect job. l always had the founding principles, passed down by Robert Redford, to guide me. I attribute any success I have had to being part of an amazing staff (past and present) who strive together to help storytellers follow their dreams and launch careers. I’ve got such confidence and pride in the team, and am excited by all that the future holds. I look forward to remaining a part of this fantastic organization in my new role, and creating a seamless transition for new Festival leadership.”
Putnam added, “Cooper’s contributions are immeasurably large and he will be missed in this role…but then again, he will be right down the hall in this new capacity. He’ll lend his vision and experience to key projects, as we build towards our 40th-anniversary celebration and look ahead to the coming decades of supporting independent creativity.”
There will no doubt be a tremendous amount of speculation on why Cooper is leaving the festival at this juncture. Especially as Cooper’s long seen heir apparent, Trevor Goth, departed a little over 18 months ago with many believing it was because Cooper was entrenched in his role. From a narrative perspective, Sundance has also faced criticism over the past few years of becoming too much of a launching ground for films already in the Hollywood system whether it be Netflix, Focus Features, Fox Searchlight or A24 releases. The event’s longstanding position as a film market for new filmmakers had diminished with so many slots going to films already set with distribution. There was a slight change in that regard this past festival as Amazon Studios, in particular, spent significantly in some old school bidding wars. With the industry trying to find its footing in the streaming era Sundance seemed to be sending mixed messages by embracing the new players and trying to spotlight new voices at the same time. How it finds a way to make that work beyond the 2020 festival will be someone else’s responsibility.
