Most of you who follow indie film probably know that Sundance announced its 2013 slate this week. What you might not know is that two of the films in the dramatic competition, yes TWO, were produced in Dallas.

The films are David Lowry's AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS and Shane Carruth's UPSTREAM COLOR.

Only a handful of films get accepted into Sundance, and from those only a handful get picked to be in the competition, so this is a pretty big deal for David and Shane, and for Dallas. (Btw, Shane's film PRIMER won Sundance in 2004).

But what's even more interesting to me is that BOTH of these films shared a studio space for portions of their pre-pro, production and post.  That studio is IDEAMAN STUDIOS in Dallas, where I office out of along with owner David Maddox and several other producer/director/editors. And this was largely due to Toby Halbrooks who produced David's movie and also co-produced (among other duties) Shane's movie (Casey Gooden produced it). Oh, and did I mention that David edited Shane's film?  And that Tom Walker worked on both in art direction. A lot going on around Ideaman this past year.

So this post is not to brag about this per se, but to congratulate the filmmakers on these very cool accomplishments and to recognize the flourishing indie film scene in the great state of Texas - and specifically Dallas - who I feel is often left off the "best" indie film scene lists compiled by the "experts" each year.

See you in Park City...

-Blake