Sundance NEXT FEST 2014 with Trevor Groth

The Insiders

Episode 6

Episode Synopsis

Sundance NEXT FEST and the lineup of films playing at the Los Angeles festival including Life After Beth, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, Listen Up Philip, Imperial Dreams, The Guest, and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night are discussed with the Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming Trevor Groth. We also look at Robert Redford and the inception of Sundance along with how indie filmmakers like Bryan Singer and Steven Soderbergh break into the mainstream of the film industry with films like The Usual Suspects and sex, lies, and videotape in this interview for The Insiders.

Guest Bio

As Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, Trevor Groth supervises the Programming staff, collaborates with the Director of the Festival on strategic planning and oversees the selection process for both films and jury members. He also programs film and music for Sundance London and oversees the Sundance Institute’s ShortsLabs.

Groth’s first job in film was as a development assistant for the Sundance Institute in 1992. He joined the programming staff a year later and has worked there ever since. During that time, along with programming at Sundance, he has been a consultant for numerous international festivals and film organizations including Artisan Entertainment, Australian Film Institute, IFILM and the Off-Plus Camera Film Festival in Krakow. From 2001-2009 he served as Artistic Director for the CineVegas Film Festival. Working closely with Dennis Hopper, who was Chair of the Creative Advisory Board, he shaped the festival into one of the most distinctive and “dangerous” film festivals in the world. In 2009 he was one of ten festival directors asked to contribute to the Phaidon Press publication Take 100: The Future of Film: 100 New Directors.

Groth graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in Telecommunications and Film.