The Latest

​Sundance Institute Selects Seven Artists for 2016 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation​

New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the seven artists selected for the 2016 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, February 1-19. The retreat is one of the 25 residency Labs the Institute hosts each year for independent artists in theatre, film, new media and episodic content, and is made possible through the generosity of the Ucross Foundation. Over 90 Sundance artists have benefitted from time at Ucross Foundation including Charlayne Woodard, Jeanine Tesori, Doug Wright, Annie Baker, Adam Guettel, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tanya Saracho.

Sundance Institute Announces Feature Film Awards For 2016 Sundance Film Festival

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute tonight announced the prizes in feature filmmaking at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, with top awards going to Between Sea and Land, The Birth of a Nation, First Girl I Loved, Jim: The James Foley Story, Sand Storm, Sonita and Weiner. The Birth of a Nation and Sonita won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for their respective sections, marking the third time in Festival history two films have done this in the same year, and continuing a four-year streak of at least one film winning both awards for its section. Full video of the ceremony, hosted by director Taika Waititi in Park City, Utah, is at youtube.

2016 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony

Hi everyone, and welcome to the live blog for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony. For the fourth consecutive year, we’re Eric Hynes, Jeremy Kinser, and Nate von Zumwalt, and we’ll be your eyes and ears for tonight’s festivities. We’re stationed to the right of the stage, perpendicular to the sea of folding chairs that await ticketholders.

Daily Roundup: Anne Fontaine Builds a World of Secrets in Agnus Dei

Sundance.org is dispatching its writers to daily screenings and events to capture the 10 days of festivities during the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Check back each morning for roundups and insights into our experiences throughout the Festival.

Sundance Institute Announces $60,000 in Sloan Science in Cinema Awards

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today awards for the most promising new independent films about science and technology, including Embrace of the Serpent directed by Ciro Guerraas the recipient of the Sloan Science-in Film-Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Mark Levinson (The Gold Bug Variations) has been awarded the Sundance Institute / Sloan Fellowship, and Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler (Bell) will receive Sundance Institute / Sloan Commissioning Grants.These activities, as well as a panel at the Festival, are part of the Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P.

Sundance Institute Announces Short Film Awards For 2016 Sundance Film Festival

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the jury prizes in short filmmaking at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The Short Film Grand Jury Prize, awarded to one film in the program of 72 short films selected from 8,712 submissions, went to Thunder Road by director and screenwriter Jim Cummings. The awards were presented at a ceremony in Park City, Utah; full video of the ceremony is at youtube.

Aaron Brookner Celebrates A Beloved Family Member And A Bygone New York In ‘Uncle Howard’

Director Howard Brookner made his initial mark on the cinematic landscape in 1983 with Burroughs: The Movie, a widely praised look at legendary beat generation writer William S. Burroughs, which also served as a document of New York’s fabled downtown scene during what many consider its artistic heyday. Brookner’s follow-up was another acclaimed non-fiction film, 1986’s Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars, about the famed theater director.

Thomas Middleditch Embarks on a Misguided Boys’ Weekend in ‘Joshy’

The emotional vacancies apparently part and parcel to male companionship, whether a dated social construct or otherwise, are well documented in film and television (see another Sundance Competition film for just one portrayal). But Jeff Baena’s comfortable writing and direction in Joshy manage to fashion a smart and renewed comedic take on that age-old stereotype by subtly expounding the vagaries and variations that make it so.
Thomas Middleditch – well known for his vaunted role on HBO’s Silicon Valley – stars as the film’s titular lead, Josh, who is going forward with his bachelor party despite his fiancé’s suicide months earlier.

7 Films to Watch During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program is proud to highlight its support of seven projects that raise awareness of modern-day slavery and human trafficking at home and abroad. Human trafficking is the violation of human rights in which lives are traded, sold, exploited, abused and ruined. Here are some facts, courtesy of dosomething.

Three Premieres Broach the Gun Violence Epidemic in America

Sundance.org is dispatching its writers to daily screenings and events to capture the 10 days of festivities during the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Check back each morning for roundups and insights into our experiences throughout the Festival.

‘Kate Plays Christine’ Blurs Lines in Revisiting Anchor’s On-Air Suicide

After watching a film in which the lines between documentary and fiction, behavior and performance, reportage and speculation, are deliberately blurred, it was fitting that the discussion after the world premiere of Robert Greene’s Kate Plays Christine at the Temple Theater last night felt like a spillover from, or even a fulfillment of, the movie. In all respects, it was questions begging other questions, with on and off-screen lives and motivations and methods remaining meaningfully elusive.

Kate Lyn Sheil and Robert Greene.