The Latest
So You Want to Be a Film Composer? A Day at Sundance Institute’s Film Music Master Class
Last weekend, Sundance Instite’s Film Music Program, in collaboration with the University of Miami Frost School of Music, presented a free daylong master class for composers, filmmakers, students, and other industry professionals. The program offered access to some of the top creators working in film and television, and was hosted by composer and Film Music Program director Peter Golub. As an opener, Golub discusses Sundance Institute’s recent programs in Miami, the Knight Foundation’s support of the day’s event, and divulges some best practices for submitting your artist application to the Institute.
From ‘Trainwreck’ to ‘Room,’ Brie Larson Shares Her “Tapestry of Weird”
At age 6, Brie Larson told her mother she wanted to be an actress. Twenty years later, Larson gleams in the Hollywood spotlight for her critically acclaimed performance in the gripping drama Room, which has earned her an Oscar Best Actress nomination. Early in her career—long before this award-buzzy role in which Larson plays a resilient mother held prisoner in a tiny shed with her son—the actress learned to say no to roles that did not personally speak to her.
6 Questions on ‘Cartel Land’ with Oscar-Nominated Documentary Filmmaker Matthew Heineman
An alumnus of Sundance Institute’s artist labs and a two-time Festival participant, Matthew Heineman has been making nonfiction cinema for a decade. Now, alongside fellow Sundance Documentary Film Program-supported filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Look of Silence), Heineman is in the running for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. His film Cartel Land, which has been honored with a DGA Award and the prestigious Polk Journalism Award, is a deeply disturbing and wildly entertaining vérité film about the international drug war, set at the U.
Oscars Preview: Hertzfeldt’s Stick Figures Return in ‘World of Tomorrow’
It’s not a charge lobbed at filmmakers as frequently as musicians, but the former are far from impervious to the hackneyed accusation of “selling out.” Let’s just get this out of the way: Don Hertzfeldt is the antithesis of a sellout. This is a filmmaker who inhabits and galvanizes perhaps the most obscure, unheralded expanse of independent filmmaking – animated shorts.
Meet the 2016 Knight Fellows: 4 Emerging Storytellers
Sundance Institute annually selects up to four artists from the eight Knight resident communities to attend the Sundance Film Festival. These artists reflect Sundance Institute and the Knight Foundation’s commitment to developing and nurturing the next generation of creative voices. Knight Fellows are afforded a five-day residency at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where they participate in a specially curated program.
Oscars Preview: What Happened, Miss Simone?
Passionate, mercurial, prodigiously talented. They’re adjectives that could characterize any number of entertainers, but maybe none more than the utterly compelling, endlessly perplexing Nina Simone. In January at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, director Liz Garbus—a first-class artist in her own right—premiered her sweeping portrait of the complicated singer and pianist whose classically trained skills were paired with an undeniable fervor for activism.
A Week in the Life of a Director at the Sundance Film Festival
I will spare you the humblebrag. It’s too easy here: “I’m so honored to have had a film at the Sundance Film Festival.” True? Of course.
Oscars Preview: Saoirse Ronan Finds a Version of Herself in ‘Brooklyn’
Saoirse Ronan’s Best Actress Oscar nomination for her redefining turn in Brooklyn was something of a fait accompli among the awards forecasting crowd, and for good reason. But the film’s surprising Best Picture nod in some ways symbolized the Academy’s successive bow to her glowing performance – although supporting acts from Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson would also have their say. As Eric Hynes remarked in last year’s profile of the unassuming 21-year-old, her development from “precocious child” actor to a talent on the brink of womanhood has seemed almost surreal in its uniformity.
The Moral Imagination: A ‘Stories of Change’ Discussion at the Sundance Film Festival
The task is first of all to identify the immoral imagination. To shine a light on it. To help people see how it works.
Sundance Institute Brings Sundance Film Forward to Denver Feb 22-25
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today the free public screenings of award-winning independent films as well as special events and student programs in Denver as part of Sundance Film Forward, taking place February 22-25 with the Denver Film Society. Filmmakers Ilinca Calugareanu (Chuck Norris vs Communism) and Bryan Carberry (Finders Keepers) will travel to Denver with the program to lead guided discussions around their films. Sundance Film Forward is a touring program designed for students and artists (18 – 24 years old) that offers film screenings and discussions to excite and cultivate new audiences for independent film.
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.
“Our Art Is Sometimes Called Invisible”: Kate Amend on What It Means to Be a Film Editor
Earlier this week, editor Kate Amend presented a keynote highlighting the role of an editor and her journey through the ranks of the industry during Sundance Institute and the Karen Schmeer Fellowship’s Art of Editing Brunch. Below we’ve published Amend’s speech in full.
I’m so happy to be here with my fellow editors.
Daily Roundup: ‘Tickled’ Probes an Obscure Fetish, James Franco Stars in ‘11.22.63’
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.