The Sundance Institute has been hosting its labs since the summer of 1981, when its inaugural class of fellows arrived at the Sundance Mountain Resort to workshop their independent features. This year, we celebrate our 40th anniversary with an all-new group of artists in our Directors and Screenwriters Labs, our Episodic Lab, our Native Lab, our Producers Lab, and our Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship. See each program’s list of fellows below, and click the links to learn more about them all.

Los Angeles, CA, August 4, 2021—In early 2021, nearly a year into a global pandemic, Sundance Institute commissioned Jesse Cameron Alick, the newly-appointed Associate Artistic Director for the Vineyard Theater in New York and past creator advisor to the Institute’s Theater Program, to launch an in-depth field study to hear directly from theater makers about the most urgent needs of artists and the field. The commission began as part of the Institute’s effort to re-imagine its own work in the field of theater and live performance. The report that resulted yielded the work published today: Emerging from the Cave: Reimagining Our Future in Theater and Live Performance, available at emergingfromthecave.

A message from Festival Director Tabitha Jackson on the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, scheduled for January 20–30, 2022.
Dear Friends,
This time last year, I wrote to share some early thoughts about how we were approaching my first Sundance Film Festival as director — and the first Sundance to be held in the midst of a pandemic.
Since 1985, artists and audiences have gathered at the Festival to affirm the transformative power of independent film and media.

LOS ANGELES — The Sundance Institute Board of Trustees today announced that Ebs Burnough will serve as the nonprofit’s next Chair, Board of Trustees, starting in October 2021. Ebs was appointed as the Board’s Vice Chair in 2020, and he will succeed Pat Mitchell when her term as Chair expires in October 2021. She will continue on as a Trustee when Ebs assumes the role of Chair.

LOS ANGELES — As part of the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s continued commitment to supporting artists from historically excluded communities, the Institute announced today its latest grantees for both the Uprise Grant Fund and Arts Organization Grants. The Uprise Grant Fund supports BIPOC artists whose careers and creative development have been harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-eight U.

LOS ANGELES — The class of 2021 has arrived: The Sundance Institute and Adobe announced this year’s Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellows today, chosen from a global pool of more than 1,650 applicants from ages 18–25. Hailing from a broad geography, and rooted in a diverse array of creative disciplines from documentary to fiction, these 10 emerging artists will engage with a year of mentorship and support from the Sundance Institute and Sundance Ignite founding partner Adobe.
Fellows were selected from a one- to 15-minute short film submitted to the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Short Film Challenge, hosted on the Institute’s digital community platform, Sundance Collab.

Park City, Utah – Sundance Institute today announced the participants for its weeklong Producers Lab, taking place July 25 – 29, and the participants in the Producers Summit, August 2 – 5, both taking place digitally on Sundance Co//ab. Five fiction film and five nonfiction producers and their projects have been selected for the Producers Labs, and more than 50 industry leaders and 65 independent filmmakers will participate in the Producers Summit. Under the leadership of Creative Producing and Artist Support Director Shira Rockowitz and Documentary Film Program Deputy Director Kristin Feeley, the Institute’s Producers Program champions the current and next generation of producers across fiction and nonfiction film and encompasses a year-round series of Labs, Fellowships, granting and events.