Regina producer shepherds 2 films through Sundance

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 | 2:53 PM CT

CBC News

Downloading Nancy, a film co-produced by Regina's Stephen Onda, opened at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday in the feature film competition.

Directed by well-regarded music video director Johan Renck, it stars Maria Bello as an unhappy woman who asks a man she meets over the internet to kill her.

Maria Bello plays an unhappy web surfer in Downloading Nancy, which was shot in Saskatchewan.
(Sundance Film Festival/Associated Press)

"It's a very dark picture, Downloading Nancy... one that was inspired by a real-life event and the audience was mesmerized and the picture worked very well," said Onda, speaking from the independence film festival in Utah.

"I'm not sure how big the theatre was — maybe it sat 350 people and they were rooted to the decks. What happens here is people do vote with their feet and they will walk out, but the audience was held to their seats," he said.

Sundance all about the audience

It's Onda's first trip to Sundance, and he's concious that audience reaction is crucial to the success of a film.

"Sundance is a very unique experience. It's a very small little ski village — Park City, Utah — so you're covered by snow and cold and shivering and obsessed with the 16,000 extra people in this small little village. It's really an audience kind of festival," he said.

"This festival is very much about the critical element of the films themselves and so it's people basking in nearly 200 movies on offer."

Onda worked with a Los Angeles partner to produce the film, which was shot with a Saskatchewan crew.

"There are 24 films that have been selected for dramatic competition so it's quite a salute to both the lead producer and our director Johan Renck," he said. "It's a real salute to the crew and the cast that support the project in Saskatchewan."

Another film already sold

A second film he co-produced is screening out of competition.

Nick Stahl, left, AnnaSophia Robb, and Charlize Theron, right, in a scene from Sleepwalking, which is screening at Sundance starting Tuesday.
(Kerry Hayes/Overture Films/Associated Press)

Sleepwalking, with Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson and Dennis Hopper, has its Sundance premiere on Tuesday.

But the film, about an 11-year-old girl struggling to come to terms with her mother's abandonment, already has been sold to the U.S. market — on the basis of a trailer shown at last year's festival.

Onda is attending parties, meeting other producers and has already had a Paris Hilton sighting — "quite unusual for a Prairie boy," he said.

But the key part of the festival for a Canadian producer is meeting filmmakers with interesting ideas that could lead to new productions.

"What's happened in motion pictures throughout the world is everyone is seeking to attract quality products to be made in their neck of the woods and so we all work hard at distinguishing ourselves," Onda said.

"One of the best ways is to create an award-winning product [and] help be the catalyst that allows films like Downloading Nancy and Sleepwalking raise to an international profile."