The Latest
17 Coming-of-Age Films to Watch During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
From 1980s rural Arkansas (Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari) to Los Angeles’s Koreatown neighborhood (Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night) to 1910s Hawaii (Kayo Hatta’s Picture Bride)
and beyond, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander filmmakers have covered
a lot of ground over the years.
To celebrate these filmmakers and their
work during
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States (and Asian Heritage Month
in Canada!), we’ve dipped into our archives to put together a list of
coming-of-age stories and intergenerational family dramas that have
played the Sundance Film Festival or gone through Sundance Institute
programs over the years.
In this genre-spanning (but certainly not exhaustive) list, you’ll find LGBTQ+ romances, heartfelt dramas, immigrant stories, and so much more.
Now Playing: The Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Short Film Tour
Ed. note: The Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Shorts Tour—curated by the Indigenous Program, and presented with our friends at museums, Native cultural centers, and arthouse cinemas—is now playing on our Vimeo channel. You can watch the free seven-film program through June 30.
Save the Date! The 2022 Sundance Film Festival Is Set for Jan. 20–30
We can’t wait to return to Park City, Salt Lake City — and beyond — for next year’s Sundance Film Festival. The 2022 Festival will take place in person and online January 20–30. We are in the process of designing a safe and accessible Festival where our audiences and artists can come together to celebrate and discover new work, and each other.
Sundance Institute Names 20 Fellows Across Feature Film Directors and Screenwriters Labs, Native Lab
PARK CITY, UTAH — The Sundance Institute today named the artists and projects selected for the first group of the upcoming signature summer Labs including 12 fellows for the Directors and Screenwriters Labs and 9 fellows participating in the Native Lab (one fellow will participate in both Labs). The Labs provide a space for writers and directors to spend time developing their craft and selected projects. Elements of this year’s Labs will take place digitally via Sundance Collab.
2021 Sundance Film Festival: London to Take Place 29 July–1 August at Picturehouse Central
LONDON—The Sundance Institute and Picturehouse Cinemas are delighted to announce that Sundance Film Festival: London will return to Picturehouse Central for its sixth year from 29 July to 1 August 2021, as an in-person event. The Festival will once more welcome filmmakers to present their work to cinema audiences, with this year’s programme promising to include upwards of 12 features, panel discussions, Q+As and special guest appearances. The Festival opens with the UK premiere of Edgar Wright’s debut documentary The Sparks Brothers, a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron and Russell Mael.
Your Guide to All the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander–Directed Projects at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival
First-time feature directors. Visionary legends. Artists at the forefront of boundary-breaking immersive XR storytelling.
Now Open: Sundance Institute Artist Opportunities for May 2021
Fiction or nonfiction, beginner or auteur, U.S. or international — wherever you find yourself in your creative journey as an independent storyteller, the Sundance Institute has an artist support program for you.
Out Now: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, and Florian Zeller Hit a High Note with Their Drama ‘The Father’
Florian Zeller’s debut feature, The Father, had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The project — which recently won two Academy Awards for Anthony Hopkins’ lead performance as well as for Zeller’s script — is now available via VOD. See what Zeller had to say about the film during a 2020 screening in Park City.
Now Playing: Glenn Close and Mila Kunis Star in Rodrigo García’s Drama “Four Good Days”
Starring Glenn Close and Mila Kunis, Rodrigo Garcia’s drama Four Good Days played the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Below, read what Garcia and his cast had to say at the film’s world premiere in Park City ahead of the film hitting theaters on Friday, April 30, 2021.
Twenty years after making his first Sundance Film Festival appearance, Rodrigo Garcia arrived in Park City with his fifth Festival film, Four Good Days, jokingly referring to himself as an “indie-saurus” at the drama’s Saturday night premiere.
Release Rundown: From “Us Kids” to “Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir,” Here’s What to Watch in May 2021
Welcome to the May 2021 edition of Release Rundown, where we fill you in on the latest and greatest Sundance-supported films hitting streaming sites, virtual screening rooms, TV channels, and IRL cinemas across the U.S. for the first time.
“The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” Lead Sundance-Supported Oscar Winners
On Sunday evening in Los Angeles, the longest award season in film history came to an end with a couple of monumental firsts at the 2021
Congratulations to the Sundance-Supported Independent Spirit Award Winners
At the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Carey Mulligan’s fearless performance in Emerald Fennell’s dark and daring feminist thriller Promising Young Woman elicited no shortage of dropped jaws at the feature’s world premiere. And on Thursday night at Film Independent’s virtual Independent Spirit Awards, Mulligan was awarded Best Female Lead for her turn as Cassie, a “suspiciously unambitious” med-school dropout on a righteous quest for vengeance. (Fennell — previously known for her work on TV’s Killing Eve — was also awarded Best Screenplay for her debut feature.
The Ultimate Earth Day Watchlist: 30 Must-See Documentary Films from the Sundance Vaults
On April 22, 1970, a group of activists and politicians banded together to plan a nationwide event with the intent of promoting world peace and honoring the wonder and majesty of the planet we call home. More than 20 million people participated in that inaugural Earth Day in the U.S.
Watchlist: 9 Essential Independent Films by Arab American Directors
When filmmakers Najwa Najjar and Cherien Dabis reconnected in 2009, four years after bringing projects through the Sundance Institute’s Rawi Middle East Screenwriters Lab in Jordan, the pair had a lot to discuss. Soon after their international call, the two would fly to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival premieres of their respective debut features, Najjar’s Pomegranates and Myrrh and Dabis’s Amreeka.
During their conversation, both filmmakers talked about how their backgrounds helped shape their work as filmmakers.
A Peek Into the Sundance Archives During Preservation Week
Preservation Week — celebrated every year during the last week of April — is a time to shed light on the importance of archives and to engage in conversations surrounding preservation and its role in maintaining the historical record. As we enter the Sundance Institute’s 40th anniversary this summer, there’s more opportunity than ever for us to look back and share some of our own unique history.The Sundance Archives & Collection is a small but dedicated Institute department committed to encouraging independent artists to preserve their work and educating the community about the Institute’s legacy.