IndieWire has published its extensive survey regarding the cameras and lenses that shot 40 narrative films at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. We took the data and organize it in order to find a segmentation and tendency, by also comparing it to the previous years. The ARRI ALEXA Mini remains the king. However, diversity is significantly reduced. No RED, no Blackmagic, and no mirrorless. That’s unfortunate.
Sundance Film Festival 2023
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016 (yeah – that’s insane). It takes place each January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort (a ski resort near Provo, Utah), and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. The 2023 Sundance Film Festival is taking place from January 19 to 29, 2023.
The Cameras that shot the selected narratives
IndieWire has reached out to the filmmakers who brought scripted narrative features to the festival and asked which cameras, lenses, and formats they used, and why they chose them to create the looks and meet the production demands of their films (the full article is here). YMCinema took the raw data and built a chart in order to explore the segmentation and tendency of the chosen cameras. The results are very much different in comparison to previous years. Here’s the list below (Name of narrative feature, DP, cameras, and lenses):
- “The Accidental Getaway Driver”: DP- Michael Cambio Fernandez. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Hawk Anamorphic
- “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt”: DP – Jomo Fray. Cameras – ARRICAM. Lenses: ARRI Master Primes
- “birth/rebirth”: DP – Chananun Chotrungroj. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses: Panavision Primo Anamorphic primes
- “Bravo, Burkina!”: DP – Jake Saner. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses: Cooke S4
- “Earth Mama”: DP – Jody Lee Lipes. Cameras – ARRIFLEX. Lenses – ARRI Master Primes, Angénieux Optimo
- “The Eight Mountains”: DP – Ruben Impens. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Zeiss Supreme and Angénieux zoom FF
- “Fair Play”: DP – Menno Mans. Cameras – Sony VENICE. Lenses – Cooke Anamorphic
- “Fancy Dance”: DP – Carolina Costa. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA LF. Lenses – ARRI Signature Primes
- “The Fishbowl”: DP – PJ Lopez. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Zeiss Supreme Radiance
- “Fremont”: DP – Laura Valladao. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Cooke Speed Panchros
- “Girl”: DP – Tasha Back. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Cooke Anamorphics
- “Heroic”: DP – Carolina Costa. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Zeiss Super Speeds
- “In My Mother’s Skin”: DP – Russell Morton. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Cooke Panchro/i, TLS Petzval 58mm, Angénieux Optimo
- “Jamojaya”: DP – Ante Cheng. Cameras – ARRICAM, Sony VENICE. Lenses: Kowa Cine Prominars, Canon Rangefinder Primes, Canon K-35
- “Landscape with Invisible Hand”: DP – Lyle Vincent. Cameras – Sony VENICE. Lenses – TLS rehoused Bausch & Lomb Super Altars
- “L’immensitá”: DP – Gergely Poharnok. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Zeiss Supreme Prime
- “A Little Prayer”: DP – Scott Miller. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Canon K35
- “Mamacruz”: DP – Fran Fernández-Pardo. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Cooke S7
- “Mami Wata”: DP – Lílis Soares. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Zeiss CP3 and Angénieux zoom
- “Mutt”: DP – Matthew Pothier. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Leica Noctilux and Summicron
- “Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls”: DP – Dan Adlerstein. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Atlas Orion Anamorphics
- “Passages”: DP – Josee Deshaies. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Cooke S4
- “Past Lives”: DP – Shabier Kirchner. Cameras – Panavision XL2. Lenses – Panavision Vintage, Panavision Ultra speed, and Primo Zooms
- “The Persian Version”: DP – André Jäger. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Cooke S7/i
- “The Pod Generation”: DP – Andrij Parekh. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Tribe 7 Blackwing primes
- “Polite Society”: DP – Ashley Connor. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Cooke Anamorphic
- “Radical”: DP – Mateo Londono. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Canon K-35, Zeiss Compact Zoom
- “Rye Lane”: DP – Olan Collardy. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Xtal Xpress Anamorphic
- “Scrapper”: DP – Molly Manning Walker. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Meru anamorphic
- “Shayda”: DP – Sherwin Akbarzadeh. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Panavision Primo
- “Shortcomings”: DP – Santiago Gonzalez. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – TLS rehoused Canon Rangefinders, Hawk V-lite Anamorphics
- “Slow”: DP – Laurynas Bareiša. Cameras – Aaton XTR S16. Lenses – Zeiss Ultra 16
- “Sorcery”: DP – Maria Secco. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Cooke S7
- “The Starling Girl”: DP – Brian Lannin. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Zeiss Supreme Primes
- “Talk to Me”: DP – Aaron Mclisky. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Zeiss Supreme Primes
- “Theater Camp”: DP – Nate Hurtsellers. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Canon s16
- “A Thousand and One”: DP – Eric K. Yue. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Panavision Super Speeds, Panavision Primos
- “When It Melts”: DP – Frederic Van Zandycke. Cameras -ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Cooke Anamorphics 1.8x FF SF
- “You Hurt My Feelings”: DP – Jeffrey Waldron. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini. Lenses – Panavision Primo
- “Young. Wild. Free.”: DP – Cary Lalonde. Cameras – ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. Lenses – Panaspeed PV70
Sundance 2023’s narratives: Camera chart
Explore the camera chart below which is based on that data:
Discussion
Many notable independent filmmakers received their big break at Sundance. The most recent example is CODA, which became the first Sundance film to win an Oscar for Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards. Moreover, in the era of streaming giants, the selected films have the chance and opportunity to get acquired by Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount +, and more. Hence, independent filmmakers don’t take prisoners and invest vast resources in making the best film they can. Although Sundance is (still) considered a stage for independent creators, it’s not, since only a fraction of the movies are selected. You can’t just shoot for Sundance on a smartphone anymore, especially if you want your film to get selected for the Narrative category. Filmmakers know that, and that’s the reason for choosing top-notch cinema cameras even for an independent project. As opposed to previous years’ results, there’s zero presence of RED, Blackmagic, and mirrorless cameras. It looks like the filmmakers didn’t want to take any chances. That’s unfortunate since there seems to be a fixation or a wrong hypothesis that in order to get selected by Sundance, the indie project must be shot on an ALEXA. In previous years there was a decent presence of other camera manufacturers and models like Blackmagic URSA and Pocket, RED DSMC2 bodies, and more Sony cameras other than VENICE, including Alpha mirrorless models. It seems to be a superstition belief in the air that in order to get to Sundance, your project must be shot on ALEXA. Or it’s possible that those creators just want the most reliable tool for the job, and with the best image quality overall? Moreover, it must be noted that the rental cost of an ARRI Mini is not so high. In fact, the cost has been dramatically reduced, which means that even independent creators can afford to use an ALEXA and without breaking the bank. Nevertheless, we’re pretty sure that many filmmakers shot their films on other lower-end cameras. If so, where are these projects? Tens of thousands of films were submitted, and many of them were shot on other cameras. So why only those that were shot on ALEXA cameras were selected? In our personal opinion, Sundance has switched from a film festival for independent creators to a luxury festival. Don’t you think? Anyway, these are the cameras that shot the narrative features. We’ll do another article focusing on the Sundance 2023 documentaries. We are hoping to see some Canon there, and other cameras as well. We’ll publish the results soon, Stay tuned.
This is a terrible take. There’s no “superstition” or “luxury” in choosing an Arri camera over a Red. Film production is a grind, especially at the indie / tier level, and Arri cameras are simply more reliable, built better, and easier to work with. I would argue the images are better but that’s subjective. Over a 5-6 week shoot, the cost difference is going to be negligible between most digital cinema cameras. I can guarantee 75% of these films in next year’s group will be shot on alexa 35. If you dont understand why people who actually work in the film industry can’t stand red cameras, you probably haven’t spent too much time working with them under pressure.
Hi Matt.
I didn’t mean to start a debate about RED vs. ARRI regarding Sundance. But more than RED/ARRI vs others. In recent years we saw even Blackmagic on that list. But this year, it seems independent creators shoot only on high-end cinema cameras. Sundance is not THE indie festival anymore. Being selected is like winning an Oscar…
I think the answer to that point then is just that the cost of shooting on an arri digital camera has come so far down that there’s no reason to waste your time on a black magic / kine / red / whatever. Even on the barest of budgets to make a full film, say 50K or what not, you can probably find a mini on share grid or some cheap website that has 10,000 hours on it and still works perfectly well.
“why people who actually work in the film industry can’t stand red cameras”
I don’t know, explain further.
Most people are going to shoot with whatever tool the movies that win awards shoot with. Most indie DPs I know who get into Sundance are really not technically savvy, and just go with whatever trend is current, whether it be using uncoated lenses+diffusion filters, or shooting on Alexa “because of the colors”. Most DP folks are making their decisions to look good on instagram or because their favorite DP uses “so and so”. I would say Steve Yedlin is a DP that really knows what he is talking about and knows why he would rather shoot with an Alexa than a Venice.
RED cameras are better than ever before and it’s already been shown that the V-Raptor has slightly more DR than the Venice and Venice 2, but RED really did hurt themselves in the past with bad management, bad behavior, and did not listen to the needs of camera teams. Because of that, people now don’t shoot much on RED. It’s a shame really, because the V-Raptor far exceeds anything image wise that has come out of that company.