By Sarah Keenlyside

“It was a great year for us, we had strong attendance, great films and a lot of attention from the press,” Slamdance Film Festival director Kathleen McInnis told indieWIRE, the day after the festival ended. Slamdance’s final press release heralded record numbers of attendees and an increase in business activity over past years, highlighted by the acquisition of two festival films by distributors.

On January 25, a deal was announced for the Canadian distribution of Mark A. Lewis’ film “Ill Fated” by ThinkFilm, and then on January 27, Paramount Classics announced a deal to acquire “Mad Hot Ballroom”, the festival’s opening night film. The packed Tuesday afternoon screening was also a landmark for the festival as a record number of buyers ventured up to the Treasure Mountain Inn to see it.

This was all good news after a year marked by so many changes for Slamdance that anything could have gone wrong. In September 2004, a scant four months before the festival began, McInnis was named the new director, while Slamdance director Peter Baxter moved on to helm the recently formed Slamdance Media Group.

A longtime programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival, McInnis was a natural choice to lead the festival. She also had a longtime relationship with Slamdance: as a film journalist having covered the festival in its early days, and as a producer screening several films there over the years. “I wasn’t nervous,” she said about her first day on the job. “I wasn’t sure how the team that was in place would respond to me, but when I got there I really felt like I was already part of the Slamdance family.”

Other changes to the festival included the addition of the Teleplay Competition, sponsored by fox21, a division of Twentieth Century Fox Television, and the Big C Gaming Competition for independent game developers. About 4,500 people checked out the gaming venue, which was set up in the lobby of the TMI for the public to play and compare the games. McInnis felt that the gaming component was a huge success and fit well in the festival environment: “There are similarities in the way filmmakers and game designers tell their stories,” she explained. “[The festival] is a great place for them to exchange ideas.”

In the end, The Teleplay Competition winner was “The Cousin’s Club” by Ken Pisani. The Big C Competition winners were “Revolved” by Alter Ego Games, which won the jury prize, and “Scavenger Hunt” by Jackson Dunstan, Jonanthan Bryant, Kevin Neece, Doug DaSilva, Eric Smith, Jemal Armstrong, Lolin Turner, Shane McIntire and Ryan Hammond, which received the audience award.

This year Slamdance also expanded into a second venue in Park City. While the heart of the festival remained at the top of Main Street at the TMI, a new space was added at 608 Main, mercifully located at the bottom of the hill. “I loved being in that space,” says McInnis. “Sometimes you just don’t want to walk up that hill.”

The space housed the festival’s press office, box office, an additional screening room and a filmmaker lounge that hosted nightly gatherings for Slamdance attendees.

But when asked if the festival would use the venue again, McInnis admitted that it remains to be seen, due to the difficulty of securing the space (or another like it) for a reasonable price. “We were so lucky to be there this year,” she said. “We worked for months to find that space, little did we realize that we were bidding against companies like Hewlett Packard.”

But along with rapid growth can come growing pains. “The hardest thing for me was the increased size of the festival,” said McInnis. “We added another venue this year but we couldn’t afford to increase the staff. By the end of the festival the staff was worn out..”

“Unless I’m able to afford more staff, I won’t do the same thing again,” she added.

On the other hand, what impressed McInnis most about the festival is something that not changed at Slamdance over the years: the sense of camaraderie that builds between the filmmakers during the festival.

“These guys go to each other’s screenings,” she said. “They really support each other.” Never was this more evident than at one of the screenings of “Ill Fated” when the reel fell off the projector and the audience gathered around festival co-founder Dan Mirvish’s laptop to watch the remaining five minutes on DVD.

“I liken it to a family dinner,” says McInnis. “Everyone is seated at a great big table where food is going around a million miles an hour and wine is being poured. Other film festivals are like a big banquet. Sure, they may have white tablecloths but it’s just not the same.”

The festival’s closing night ended on a high note for McInnis, with the Grand Jury Sparky Awards going out to Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik’s “On The Outs” for best narrative feature and Jennifer Abel and Jeff Hockett’s “Abel Raises Cain,” for best documentary. Later the crowd at Suede nightclub was treated to a set by DJ Prince Paul and then a special performance by renowned funksters Bernie Worrell (who was the subject of the 2005 Slamdance doc Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth) and George Clinton.

But McInnis’ favorite moment came earlier that night, just before announcing the festival’s winners. “I remember being on stage, looking out at that sea of filmmakers. I remember thinking they were no longer film festival virgins, they had survived and they had had a great time,” she said. “It may sound corny but I felt proud of them.”

[A complete list of winners is availble here on indieWIRE.com]