Regarding the festival , Redford said " I never dreamed when we started — we did n't even know that we would last — and then when it lasted and grew , it became huge . I never anticipated that it would get to this size . " Kenneth Turan mentioned the number of films submitted and the few selected , saying " the sameness of those chosen from year to year is disheartening . " He wrote " it almost feels as if programmers are filling specific , pre-ordained slots " , and mentioned there are always too many teenage coming-of-age films . He said the festival is " inevitably a mixed bag , where excitement combines with frustration ... " Turan wrote that " Sundance remains the nonpareil launching pad for tiny films that would never reach maximum altitude otherwise " , saying that " without the heat generated by this festival " , there is no way '' Beasts of the Southern Wild '' would have gotten four Oscar nominations . He praised the New Frontier exhibitions . Turan wrote , " As always , the spectrum in documentary was most impressive . " And said Sundance " is looking more and more like the best doc festival in the world . " At the 85th Academy Awards , four of the five nominated documentary features premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival , and the fifth , '' The Gatekeepers '' , was shown at this year 's festival
2012 Sundance Film Festival
2012 Sundance Film Festival
2013 Sundance Film Festival