What is the cheapest/best pro camcorder to use to have a chance to get in a good film festival (sun dance)?

As a writer, you should know it is not the quality of the pen or the paper that makes a good story. It is the quality of the writer. This also applies to filmmaking. Filmmaking is the same storytelling that writers do. The exception is that filmmaking normally concentrates more on visual aspects except during documentaries which are more audio based. Screenwriters must also deal with time and constantly calculate how long it takes to act out a scene versus the amount of time it takes to act out or visually explain the rest of the story to the audience. You can think of this as a play that must conclude in an exact time frame (usually around 90 minutes). Hence the reason many screenwriters prefer the term screenplays over scripts. Any camera will do as long as it fits your storytelling and film situations. The production crew for The Blair Witch project used three camcorders. Two were commonly found professional models at the time (the early days of independent film), but the camera that recorded the most talked about scenes in the movie was a much cheaper consumer camera. The camera was used for a week or two. It was then returned to Circuit City for a full refund. Even if they kept the camera, it would still have been an investment of a couple hundred dollars for a return of over several million!

A good story well told matters more than equipment. Look at the likes of Nick Broomfield for inspiration. His films are never technically accomplished but are well told and well edited. He shot on fim until relatively recently and with a seperate sund recordist (him) and camera operator. His films work because he picks interesting subjects and thinks about the story he is telling before he turns a frame. MiniDV is great quality for little cash. The Sony FX1 would be the minimum camera I would look for anything requiring serious manual camera control (shutter, gain, white balance, but PARTICULARLY audio, focus and exposure) This also opens the door to true widescreen and high definition. The best advice I would give would be to hook up with a camera op with their own gear. You concentrate on the story, let them concentrate on making it look competent. If you try and do it all yourself everything will suffer and you'll end up hating the project.

the camera doesn't matter... you need to tell a great story... period... and that still won't guarantee any entry into sundance... sundance and cannes are the largest and most prestigious festivals ...