Any Given Sundance

"Any Given Sundance" (a play on the title of the film Any Given Sunday, but otherwise unrelated) is the eighteenth episode of the nineteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.

When she complains to Principal Skinner, who has a secret cinema passion, he tells her a good film should have plenty of drama.

With Skinner granting her access to the school's A/V equipment, Lisa begins to film her family doing their everyday activities.

The Sundance organizers agree to premiere Lisa's film, as she is an intellectual misfit, and her movie is not a mainstream production.

Lisa feels sorry for what she did to the family, and while deep in thought, Jim Jarmusch approaches her and says he can relate because his movies are also about "social misfits experiencing the dark side of the American dream".

[1] During the tag scene, Skinner and Chalmers meet John C. Reilly, who unsuccessfully tries to audition for Chalmskinn's next movie, Ghost Willie.

[5] In 2012, Matt Zoller Seitz considered the episode one of the many "flashes of greatness" in The Simpsons' later years after 2000, stating that "Season nineteen's 'Any Given Sundance'... should be required viewing in film schools.