MOVIES: CineVegas director gets top Sundance programming job

   Trevor Groth’s been artistic director for the CineVegas film festival for a lucky seven years.
  But he’s been at the Sundance film festival for 16 — and has just been promoted to director of programming for the prestigious fest, held annually in Park City, Utah.
  At Sundance, Groth succeeds John Cooper, who in March was named the festival’s director.
  Despite Groth’s expanded Sundance responsibilities, he’ll continue as CineVegas’ artistic director — which is a good thing, considering CineVegas’ 11th annual edition unspools June 10-15 at the Palms.
  Prior to his Sundance promotion, Groth had been a senior programmer there, handling both narrative and documentary features in addition to heading the festival’s short film section.
  In his new Sundance role, Groth will lead the six-member programming team responsible for the Sundance festival’s on- and off-screen events.
  “Having started out as a volunteer at the (Sundance) festival when I was in high school to now being the director of programming has been an exhilarating journey,” Groth said in a news release. “I have had a bird’s-eye view of the rise of the American independent film movement over the last 20 years that Sundance played a key role in supporting.”
  Among the movies that Groth has had a key role in supporting at Sundance: “Hard Eight, “Pi,” “Memento” and “Napoleon Dynamite,” which also went on to charm CineVegas audiences.
  Sundance director Cooper said of Groth: “Trevor possesses excellent taste in film and with it a keen eye for finding those rare diamonds in the rough. He has long championed the offbeat and the experimental, but as a means of drawing in audiences, not alienating them.”
  That’s a philosophy Groth also follows at CineVegas — and one local film buffs will see in action starting June 10 with the opening-night attraction, “Saint John of Las Vegas.”
  For more on CineVegas, click on www.cinevegas.com.