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ARTICLE · 18 FEBRUARY 2019

Sundance 2019: Megadeals Return And Diversity Comes Into Focus

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Hollywood made its annual descent upon Park City, Utah, from January 24, 2019 through February 3, 2019, for another year of deal-making at the preeminent indie playground, the Sundance Film Festival.

United StatesMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Alissa Miller
Alissa Miller
Vanessa Roman
Vanessa Roman
Christopher M. Maddox
Christopher M. Maddox
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Hollywood made its annual descent upon Park City, Utah, from January 24, 2019 through February 3, 2019, for another year of deal-making at the preeminent indie playground, the Sundance Film Festival. From Amazon Studio's resurrection of the Hollywood megadeal, to the unprecedented diverse class of storytellers finding ever-unique ways to capture audiences and critics alike, Akin Gump lawyers brought back the following takeaways from Main Street this year:

Reemergence of Amazon Studios

After several years of eight-figure deals at Sundance, Amazon Studios was noticeably absent in 2018. In 2019, it returned with a bang—acquiring several films totaling more than $46 million in acquisition costs. In fact, of the five largest sales at Sundance this year, Amazon Studios was behind three—Late Night (acquired for $13 million), The Report (acquired for $14 million) and Brittany Runs a Marathon (acquired for $14 million). While it is unclear what is driving this spending

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