The march is the big story of Sundance on opening weekend. Mirroring the overwhelming turnout around the country protesting Donald Trump, a sea of activism swamped Park City on Saturday morning.
For more on the march, click here:
Judd Apatow, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow
Before the weekend, the Sundance schmooze started early.
On a special #DeltaFestivalShuttle from LAX, the Apatows were among a group of industry traveling together in “a members only club of creatives in the sky,” as Delta slugged the Thursday morning flight.
Oh, hello.
This is not a site you see on an average travel day.
“All complimentary drinks are being charged to David Kramer’s credit card,” a flight attendant announced, referencing the UTA Managing Director. (UTA works with Delta and helped organize the Festival Shuttle.)
The crowd (read: passengers) loved it.
Funny or Die CEO Mike Farah (right).
For the 12th time, Delta corralled creatives from the industry and smartly built a community around giving people what they need (a flight to Sundance) when they need it (on Day 1) with people they want to be with (their peers), while taking the opportunity to engage the audience on how they can work with location-based productions or pitch Hollywood on getting them to Reagan National in “lie flat seats”.
Case in point: “Funny or Die” has a D.C. office.
Ravi Patel and Some Nourishment
The “Meet the Patels” subject walked the entire plane handing out his brand of snack bar, “This Bar Saves Lives”.
Patel told The Party Report he’s been working on it for years and that it’s now in every Starbucks.
Jessica Williams
The “Daily Show” alum departed happy though she did not win any of the in-flight raffles to places like Aspen and Shanghai.
Mosaic manager Emily Rose should have had one of the biggest smiles. After winning the mile-high raffle for tickets to Tokyo on the shuttle last year, Rose’s name came out of the hat again this year for a trip to Cabo. Streamy Awards founder Drew Baldwin had a major haul, winning the raffle to fly in a Delta One “executive cabin” suite to Sydney.
Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen
The women from hot title “Ingrid Goes West” cuddled up before the film’s Friday night premiere at the Library. As DJ Michelle Pesce spun Lauren Hill and Ludacris at the rocking after party, even buyers were lined up outside the Stella Artois Lounge to get in. It hit capacity quickly.
Kristen Stewart and IMDb Interview Host Kevin Smith
IMDb and founder Col Needham made a smart choice here. With every trade paper and entertainment outlet hosting carbon copy interview suites, installing Smith to host cast interviews is an emotional spritzer for talent on the press circuit.
Timecheck: Smith first brought “Clerks” to Sundance back in 1994.
Kristen Stewart
Chelsea Handler: “Kristen, you’re going to have to do a lot of press for your directorial debut at Sundance. We know you don’t like taking pictures.”
KStew: “No problem. I’ll just make the ‘teenagers drinking beer face’ in every one!”
Zoey Deutch met two men at the IMDb studio: host Kevin Smith and Frosty.
Looks like she’s already decided on her valentine.
Pierce Brosnan and AMC President Charlie Collier
The former James Bond has a 10-episode prestige drama coming to AMC in April called “The Son.” But first, time to enjoy sister network Sundance TV’s festival kick off party.
Jason Ritter solves one of Sundance’s toughest problems: when, where and how can you eat?
Ritter collared some on-your-feet calories at Applegate’s Reel Food Cafe on Friday (Jan. 20)
Jorma Taccone and Michelle Morgan
With the end of “Girls” around the corner, Taccone’s stunted arc as most-punchable-millenial-in-NYC Booth Jonathan back in the first season is a lost TV treasure.
Paul Scheer and Dave Franco
Adam Pally and Molly Shannon
“The Little Hours” co-stars visited AT&T’s Village at the Lift on Friday (Jan. 20)
Jennifer Beals also passed through IMDb on the first day.
A sign of the times:
The space that used to be Grey Goose’s HQ for several years is now YouTube’s home on Main Street.
Consumer and industry events are taking place day and night.
Molly Kate Kestner
The 21-year-old singer from Minneapolis headlined the space on Friday night with what was supposed to be a five song set. The crowd chanted “one more song,” and the Winehouse/Celine Dion/Sara Bareilles-sounding songwriter obliged.
Signed to Atlantic, the recent transplant to L.A. first gained fame on YouTube (359k subscribers) while she was still in high school.
Angelenos: Keep your eyes open. We hear a Hotel Cafe residency in Hollywood is coming.
Nigel Barker and Ray Romano
“The Big Sick” event at the Chase Sapphire space on Friday night also drew John Cho, Kumail Nanjiani and Holly Hunter.
With fewer hospitality venues than in the past (Samsung and Eddie Baeur hospitality venues are gone and TAO moved off Main Street), there was significantly less foot traffic and places to go on Friday night.
This led to lines at most venues, like Pepsi’s Creators League Studio…
Matt Bomer and Bill Pullman
But these two guys did not have to wait in that line.
Streamy Awards and Tubefilter Founder Drew Baldwin
A YouTube print magazine sounds like a paradox. It’s not.
We have not seen this in years: the bottom of Main Street dead empty around 1 a.m. For the past several years, this is where the throng of TAO-goers would cue up.
DJ Vice and Diplo
Diplo, who played his own show at Park City Live earlier in the night, was the surprise guest at TAO’s new location at The Yard.
For those who did not make it past the snowy pack of partygoers trying to gain access, this is what it looked like inside.
Tequila Don Julio is this year’s sponsor. They rolled out distinct new magnums of 1942 for the VIPs, a welcome warmup on a night when Ubers were surging 9.5x due to the snow.
