The 2008 festival, which begins its 11-day run Thursday, offers another for the list: "Bottle Shock," based on the true story of a Napa Valley winery and its surprising win at the prestigious 1976 wine tasting in Paris, France - better known as "the judgment of Paris."
Shot entirely in the California wine country and directed by Randall Miller ("Nobel Son" and "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School"), "Bottle Shock" is being shown as part of the festival's noncompetition Spectrum program. The first screening is Friday at the Library Center Theatre in Park City. (See schedule below.)
It is the story of Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) who, in 1976, risked everything to create the perfect chardonnay at Chateau Montelena, his vineyard in the not-yet-famous Napa Valley.
Son Bo (Chris Pine), doesn't seem to have inherited his father's love of the family business and the two are often found in a backyard boxing ring trying to knock sense into one another.
A twist of fate brings together the Barretts and Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman), a British expatriate and the founder of France's first private wine school. The meeting eventually leads to a comparative tasting between France and the U.S.'s best white and red wines, the outcome of which puts California on the world wine map.
Chateau Montelena's win in the white-wine portion of the tasting was the first time an American wine had bested a French wine and - maybe even more startling - all the judges were French.
Ironically, the movie supposedly never mentions Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, the Napa Valley winery that won the red-wine portion of the tasting that year.
Current vintages of the Chateau Montelena chardonnay are on Utah state wine store shelves, selling for $36. Twenty additional cases of the 2002 and the 2003 vintages have been shipped in for the movie and parties surrounding the movie, said Utah wine broker Gus Magann, of Vine Lore.
The state also has shipped in 30 additional cases of the winery's 2003 Estate Cabernet, which sells for $94.
It's worth every penny today as it was 32 years ago, says Jerry Giloman, owner of the Riverhorse in Park City. "This is our 20th year in business and there probably has never been a day that I haven't had a Chateau Montelena wine on the shelf."
During the first weekend of the festival, Giloman's restaurant, at 540 Main, will be transformed into the "Bon Appetit Supper Club on Main." Some of the country's best chefs will fly into Utah to prepare private dinners for the cast and crew of various Sundance movies, including those from "Bottle Shock."
"Bottle Shock" was in a production race with another movie on the same subject. "Judgement of Paris," based on journalist George M. Taber's account of the '76 tasting, is still in production and is expected to be released later this year.
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* KATHY STEPHENSON can be contacted at kathys@sltrib.com or 801-257-8612. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
