Every year for the past four years, Seattle has thrown a party in Park City to raise awareness of the city as a place for filmmaking. We’re not the only ones who do this, either. I popped into the San Francisco party for some drinks and to hear about what kind of initiatives they’re pushing. They’ve got this new thing called SF360, where they’re teaming up with indieWIRE to create daily reports on the San Francisco film scene. I also had some free wine and played this racing videogame (it wasn’t even the X-box 360!) before heading over to the Seattle Party.

Perhaps we should have called it the Sub Pop Party, with the musical acts Band of Horses, Fruit Bats and Iron & Wine featured at the party. For some reason the Master of Ceremonies was Kate Walsh from the “set in Seattle but filmed elsewhereâ€� show “Grey’s Anatomy.â€� That was fairly ridiculous. The bands were good, but as a spoiled member of the press and regular Sundance hobo, I was disappointed at the lack of free drinks at this event.

Apparently, several Seattle venders are also hosting two VIP dinners, but I haven’t heard who was on the guest list for those. I do know that they’re being hosted by Seattle film promoter/publicist Warren Etheredge, who had nice things to say about the Park City emergency room after breaking (or spraining) his arm slipping on the ice walking from the shuttle to his condo.

-Andy Spletzer
reporting from Sundance
Park City, Utah