The Sundance Film Festival has wrapped for the year, which means it's also time to check for survivors in the debris at its snaggle-toothed cousin, the Slamdance Film Festival. Begun in 1995 by a posse of spirited malcontents who were relative pioneers in the growing field of regarding Sundance as compromised and cut off from the "real" independent film scene, Slamdance — held, like Sundance, in Park City, Utah — concentrates on showcasing first-time filmmakers, with a special love for anyone or anything who tried, and failed, to get into Sundance. It started small but has since produced its own roster of notable discoveries, including Christopher Nolan's Following, Marc Foster's Monster's Ball, Jared Hess's Napoleon Dynamite, and the crowd-pleasing documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. This year's festival "received over 3,500 submissions from 25 countries for less than 100 programming slots." The big award winners this tear include Tom Quinn's The New Year Parade (Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature), Ryan Piotrowicz's The Project (Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature), and Greg Kohs's Song Sung Blue (which took both the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature). Jonathan Lisecki's Woman in Burka claimed the "Spirit of Slamdance" Award, "for exhibiting passion and talent as a filmmaker, commitment to the independent community, and enthusiastically embracing all Slamdance has to offer." Among the screenplay awards, Tony Mosher's script for The Punished snagged the plum award for Best Horror Competition Screenplay: it comes with a pledge by Angel Baby Entertainment and Maverick Films to actually get the film produced.