The Latest
2019 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: 112 FEATURES ANNOUNCED
RECORD-BREAKING 14,259 SUBMISSIONS FROM 152 COUNTRIES
Pahokee, photo by Patrick Bresnan
Park City, UT — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the showcase of new independent
feature films selected across all categories for the
2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival hosts
screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort, from January 24 – February 3, 2019.
The Festival is the Institute’s public program flagship alongside Festivals in London and Hong Kong and other
screenings and events elsewhere throughout the year.
Sundance Institute Announces Inaugural Class of Momentum Fellows
Reimagined Program Expands Former Women at Sundance Fellowship to Include Artists from Underrepresented Communities; Alexandria Bombach (On Her Shoulders) and Yance Ford (Strong Island) Among Artists Supported
Los Angeles — Sundance Institute announced today the eight members of the inaugural class of the Momentum Fellowship, a full-year program of deep, customized creative and professional support for writers, directors, and producers from underrepresented communities working across documentary and feature filmmaking, episodic content, and virtual reality, who are poised to take the next step in their careers.
The Momentum Fellowship evolved from the former Women at Sundance Fellowship, a highly successful model that merited evolution and expansion for impact across a greater cohort of underrepresented communities. Those eligible for this larger, more intersectional program now include artists identifying as women, non-binary, and/or transgender, artists of color, and artists with disabilities.
2019 Sundance Film Festival: Amid Record High Submissions, Announcing New Hires, Talent Forum, Data-Driven Demographic Initiatives & Critic Stipends
Park City, Utah — With less than two weeks until the program is announced, and less than three
months until Day One, Sundance Institute today announces new hires on its programming team and new initiatives to
deepen support for independent storytellers and broaden access to the Festival. The 2019 Festival will showcase work
drawn from over 14,200 submissions, a record high.
Kim Yutani, the Festival’s recently-named Director of Programming, said: “This
year’s record-breaking number of submissions are phenomenally strong: we’re invigorated and inspired by
the work we’ve been seeing.
Native American Heritage Month: 5 Native and Indigenous Artists Invited to Join the Academy
In November, organizations across the United States observe National Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month. During this month and throughout the year, Sundance Institute acknowledges the ancestral keepers of the land in the communities where we work and supports the important artistic contributions that Native and Indigenous storytellers have made in film, theatre, film music, episodic storytelling, and emerging platforms.
As part of this month’s celebration of the ongoing and enormous creativity and vitality of Native and Indigenous artists, Sundance Institute and the Native Program pay tribute to five outstanding Native and Indigenous artists who have been invited to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
So You Want to Be a Film Producer? Checking in with Producer Lauren McBride and “Selah and the Spades”
The role of the film producer is often obscured by the far-reaching definitions of the job—which are expansive to say the least. To coincide with the launch of the 2019 application for the Feature Film Creative Producing Lab and Fellowship, we checked in with 2017 fellow Lauren McBride—and her project, Selah and the Spades—to shed light on her journey of producing an independent film.
Selah is a film directed by Screenwriters and Directors Lab fellow Tayarisha Poe and follows 17-year-old Selah, who rules the student body of The Haldwell School with an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove.
ReFrame and IMDbPro Award 62 TV and Streaming Series with the First-Ever ReFrame Stamp for Television
ReFrame and IMDbPro Recognize Gender-Balanced TV Programs including “GLOW,” “Insecure,” “Jane the Virgin,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “This Is Us”
Los Angeles, CA — ReFrame™ (ReFrameProject.org), a coalition of industry professionals and partner companies founded by Women In Film and Sundance Institute—whose mission is to increase the number of women of all backgrounds working in film, TV and media—and IMDbPro (imdbpro.
Sundance Institute and Adobe Announce 2019 Sundance Ignite Fellows
Fifteen Filmmakers Ages 18 to 24 Selected from Short Film Competition to Receive Year of Creative and Professional Mentorship, All-Expenses-Paid Trip to 2019 Sundance Film Festival
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute and Adobe announced the class of 2019 Sundance Ignite Fellows today, chosen from a broad global pool of more than 1,200 applicants. The fifteen 18-to-24-year-old filmmakers selected for this one-year fellowship hail from three continents, with creative groundings spanning from personal documentaries to commercial content to narrative shorts.
“This year’s Sundance Ignite fellows are an immensely talented group of emerging artists, creating stories that are at the forefront of what’s next in our culture.
Shortscast: A New Podcast Exploring the Crazy World of Short Film
The Sundance ShortsCast is now live on Soundcloud, where you can listen to upcoming filmmakers discuss the unique and crazy backstories behind their short films that played the Sundance Film Festival. These bite-sized podcasts were recorded during the Festival and go up every Monday and Wednesday. To kick off the series, we checked in with ShortCast host and Sundance Film Festival senior programmer Mike Plante.
Art Over Here, Science Over There: Thoughts on a Messy Border
Theo Anthony is a 2017 Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Fellow and the recipient of an artist grant as part of the Science Sandbox Nonfiction Project at Sundance Institute, which aids innovative artists in creating science-focused works.
Over the last six months or so I’ve been sluicing my way through Loraine Daston and Peter Galison’s beautiful and rigorous book Objectivity. If you’ve talked to me for more than 15 minutes since then, I’ve probably told you about it.
How Wide Is the Eye of the Needle? Exploring the Intersection of Art and Impact
In October, the Stories of Change Lab convened a select group of independent storytellers and social entrepreneurs supported by the Skoll Foundation. The goal of the lab is to nurture collaboration among artists and changemakers in ways that protect the artists’ autonomy and can meet the social impact goals of the social entrepreneurs. Is this a narrow needle to thread? To examine this question, we asked the project team working on Water Inequality in Kenya, a short film at the lab, to share their thoughts on the intersection of art and impact in 50 words or less.
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Announces Latest Grantees
Independent Vision and Voice Recognized Across All Stages of Production
LOS ANGELES — Thirty-three nonfiction works from seventeen countries comprise the latest Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and Stories of Change Grantees, announced today. 81% of the supported projects have at least one woman producer or director; 48% originate from outside the US.
“From renowned Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel addressing the legacy of 500 years of colonial history in her first feature documentary, to first-time Chinese director Runze Yu exploring a profoundly intimate domestic space, these are the vivid individual threads that form the narrative tapestry of our culture and we are proud to support them.
Sundance Institute Names 2018 Art of Nonfiction Fellows and Grantees
From Unrestricted Grants to Custom-Tailored Support, Documentary Film Program Celebrates Innovative Approaches to Nonfiction Filmmaking
Los Angeles — Ten independent filmmakers working at the vanguard of inventive artistic practice in story, craft and form will receive distinctive opportunities from Sundance Institute’s Art of Nonfiction Fellowship and Fund.
“This year’s cohort reflects our continuing desire to explore the space in between,” said Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Documentary Film Program. “The space between art and film, between photography and moving image, between poetry and social justice, between artist and audience.
Turning a Movie Into a Movement: How ‘The Devil We Know’ Is Taking on the Chemical Industry
Want more stories from Sundance Institute’s Creative Distribution Initiative? Head here.This is not hyperbole: Nearly every person who has watched our new documentary, The Devil We Know, has vowed to toss their Teflon pans. Viewers often ask us what cookware they can use that doesn’t contain the chemical PFOA, which is at the heart of our film.
Hans Ulrich Obrist on What it Means to Be a Curator in a Time of Rapid Change
In an age when streaming corporations are creating and exhibiting great films and challenging the idea of what independent film is, when traditional borders between television, film, and art are liquefying, and when the act of creating art is under new consideration thanks to developments in artificial intelligence—what does it mean to be a programmer or curator? I sat down with some of my favorite programmers and curators for a series of face-to-face interviews to discuss working in a time of great change and innovation. It feels like we programmers are on shifting grounds. The usual parameters that lend meaning to our society and to our work are changing and I wanted to hear how these developments were affecting the world’s best practitioners.
Five Independent Artists Bring Art and Science Together
Sundance Institute and Science Sandbox Celebrate
Innovative, Nonfiction Storytelling With Tailored Financial and Creative Support
Park City — Sundance Institute, in collaboration with Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons
Foundation, announced the inaugural five filmmakers and projects being supported by the Science Sandbox Nonfiction
Initiative, a new program aiding innovative artists in creating science-focused works and in connecting those
projects with audiences. The program aims to elevate the voices of independent artists who are working at the
intersection of science and nonfiction storytelling, encourage critical thinking, promote educated discourse and
highlight the overlap of science and art.
The five selected artists will receive non-recoupable grants and access to Sundance Institute’s year round
continuum of support, which can help address creative, financial and production issues.