With the conclusion of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, many sales agents, distributors and mediamakers breathed a collective sigh of relief that more than twenty six deals were negotiated prior to and during the ten day event with some deals about to close in the festival’s aftermath. However, one can take a look at the nature of these deals and notice that some dealmaking patterns emerge. It is true that there were some of the fabled multi-million deals made for certain films at the festival; however, such deals were in the low to mid seven figure range and were finalized sometimes over the course of two or three or more days during the festival. Such deals included “My Idiot Brother,“ starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer and Zooey Deschanel. With the film’s indie star power and audience-pleasing albeit offbeat humor, The Weinstein Company acquired the U.S. rights along with such foreign territories as Germany, France, Japan and the U.K. for a reported $6 million with a reported $15 million prints and advertising (“P&A”) commitment. Still there are some interesting aspects to this deal such as The Weinstein Company’s acquisition of more than U.S. or North American rights, thereby thinking globally as well as The Weinstein Company partnering with financier Ron Burke to make the deal happen. Ron Burke was one of the potential investors when the Weinsteins had planned to reacquire Miramax from Disney. In a somewhat similar vein, during the first weekend of the festival, Paramount Pictures partnered with multi-billionaire Steve Rales’ production company Indian Paintbrush (which funded “The Darjeeeling Incident” and the sly animated film “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”) to secure the worldwide rights for a reported $4 million with a reported $10 million marketing and release commitment to Sundance Grand Jury Dramatic Award winner “Like Crazy,” starring Anton Yelchin (the recent “Star Trek” reboot) and British newcomer actress Felicity Jones (who earned a Sundance Special Jury Prize), The film charmed several audiences at the Sundance screenings with its carefully-calibrated romance about a young American man meeting a British young woman during Los Angeles college course although her student visa will be expiring soon.

Other acquisition bedfellows included Roadside Attractions which acquired U.S. theatrical, DVD and some digital platform rights with HBO which acquired the overall U.S. rights initially for James March’s chimpanzee as family member documentary “Project Nim.” Roadside Attractions also partnered with Lionsgate (which has a minority interest in Roadside Attractions) to acquire North American rights for a reported $1 to $2 million to J.C. Chandor’s Wall Street thriller “Margin Call” starring Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons. Lionsgate is equipped to handle DVD rights through its home entertainment division and pay television rights through the Epix pay channel formed by it, Paramount and MGM. Roadside Attractions also acquired on its own the North American rights to Miranda July’s follow up film “The Future” (with Lionsgate probably handling the DVD rights).

Other acquisition collaborations included Magnolia Pictures and the non-distributor, social-themed oriented production company Participant Pictures (“An Inconvenient Truth,” “Waiting for Superman,”  and “Good Night and Good Luck”) securing the U.S. rights to the documentary “Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times;” IFC and Sony Worldwide Acquisition (a separate company from Sony Pictures Classics) acquiring the North American rights for a reported $1.5 million to George Ratliff’s “Salvation Boulevard,” a darkly comic examination of religion with a “39 Steps”/”The Fugitive” twist, starring Pierce Brosnan and Jennifer Connelly. Such companies play to their respective distribution strengths and permit the sharing of “upside” risk when actors explore roles in non-studio films.

Some company acquired rights although they are not conventional distributors. Participant Pictures acquired rights to Sundance Audience Award winner “Circumstance,” which examined two young Iranian women as they explore western culture and their sexuality. Liddell Entertainment secured domestic rights and most international rights in the horror remake “Silent House” starring indie rising star Elizabeth Olsen for a reported $3 million. Liddell Entertainment not only has produced independent films and television series previously but it has strategically partnered with and provided the “P & A” monies to such distributors as Roadside Attractions for the U.S. release of “Biutiful” which stars Javier Bardem.  This scenario serves as another example of companies pooling and thereby maximizing their respective resources and limiting financial risk.

Several distributors acquired U.S., North American or occasionally worldwide rights to Sundance entries in the low seven figure range such as  Fox Searchlight which had a constant presence at the festival when it secured the rights to several film s including Gavin Wiesen’s “Homework” starring Freddie Highmore, indie staples Emma Roberts (“Twelve,” “It’s Kind of A Funny Story”) and Elizabeth Reaser for a reported $3 million-plus  advance (and a reported $2 million marketing and release commitment), and Sean Durkin’s “girl escapes a cult” film “Martha Marcy May Marlene” also starring Elizabeth Olsen for a reported $1.6 million for worldwide rights. Home entertainment company Anchor Bay paid a reported $2 million (and an undisclosed sum for a theatrical marketing commitment) for domestic rights to Ditto Montiel’s crime drama “The Son of No One” starring Channing Tatum and Katie Holmes with a featured role by Al Pacino although the film received less than enthusiastic word of mouth at its Sundance screenings. Although Millennium has First Look Pictures as a sister company to handle domestic rights, Millennium appears to have decided to seek a strong independent DVD distributor in the case of Anchor Bay.

Other Sundance deals included Focus Feature’s sole acquisition: of worldwide rights for a reported $800,000 to “Pariah,” Dee Rees’ study of an African American woman acknowledging that she is a lesbian to herself, her parents and the world. Focus Features seems to be investing in Rees’ talent as well as her film since the deal included Rees’ next project. IFC continues its volume exploration of relatively low budget films for niche audiences as well as maintaining its relationship with “mumblecore” leading figure director Joe Swanberg by its Sundance Selects’ acquisition of the domestic rights to his “Uncle Kent” flipcam feature. IFC also acquired the rights to Michael Tully’s Septien” which even its sales agent admitted is an unconventional and problematic film to market.

Such companies as HBO saw the future value of certain independent films beyond their own respective commercial and artistic value and strengths by deciding to acquire the remake rights to the Irish clan feud and bare-knuckle brawling documentary “Knuckle” and to develop it as a television series to be produced by David Gordon Green’s Rough House Pictures with Fox Searchlight doing the same when it secured worldwide remake rights to “The Bengal Detective” for an English language version

Newcomers such as The Motion Picture Group (which theatrically released Deborah Kampmeier’s Southern Gothic tale “Hounddog”) acquired the worldwide rights to first-time filmmaker Rashaad Ernesto Green’s coming of age in the Bronx feature “Gun Hill Road” for a reported low seven- figure advance, and veteran distribution player M.J. Peckos’ Dada Films secured U.S. theatrical rights for Bill Haney’s small town versus coal company documentary “The Last Mountain.”

It will be interesting to see whether the sales agents, distributors and licensees that attended this year’s Sundance, with their more flexible, strategic, (often collaborative, rights splitting) dealmaking approach to these festival films, can make the jump of taking the festival’s audiences’ reactions for these films and parlay them through equally innovative marketing to the arthouse and multiplex theatres this year in the U.S. and throughout the world.