The Latest
Q&A: Guy Pearce Enters the Idiosyncratic World of Fitness Trainers in ‘Results’
Andrew Bujalski returned to Sundance last January with Results, a perceptive comedy set in the world of fitness trainers that examines the relationship between money and happiness. The movie premiered at the Eccles in the U.S.
Skoll World Forum: “The Solution Only Exists in the Complexity”
After all the 2015 Skoll World Forum panels, plenary sessions and networking events were over, Sundance Institute’s Stories of Change entourage, Skoll Foundation Director of Global Partnerships Sandy Herz, and her husband Peter Herz sat at a tapas restaurant to take stock of the amazing week. Our heads were still spinning with the many faces we encountered among this phenomenal group of social entrepreneurs, collectively working to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Our hearts were still tenderized by the heroic stories told by the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu (civil rights activist), Bassem Youssef (Egyptian satirist), and Safeena Husain (founder, Educate Girls).
5 Things You Should Know About Abel Ferrara and Willem Dafoe’s ‘Siberia’
Possibly his most intriguing project to date (and certainly his most nebulous), Abel Ferrara’s new film Siberia will explore a new approach to funding for the seasoned director. The Bad Lieutenant helmer has turned to Kickstarter to solicit support for his new project with actor and longtime collaborator Willem Dafoe, which aims to probe the subconscious—namely the world of dreams—and attempt to capture that intangible territory in a filmic experience.Siberia’s provenance is highly organic—Ferrara describes the script development as “starting off on page one and [letting] your mind take you wherever you’re gonna’ go.
Sundance Institute Brings Free Film Screenings and Artist Programs to Michigan, June 16-19
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute, host of the renowned Sundance Film Festival, announced today that it will host a series of free, public film screenings and artist programs in Michigan June 16-19. The Sundance Film Forward program will host the screenings of acclaimed independent films and discussions with the directors in Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Detroit June 16-19. In addition, targeted Sundance Institute programs for New Frontier and Native artists will be presented at the Allied Media Conference at Wayne State University in Detroit, June 18-19.
Honor Memorial Day with Two Stories of Compassion Amid War
In honor of Memorial Day we have two films that explore the fighting spirit and its impact on the lives of brave men in combat. Both tap into the heart of what makes us human by showing wartime scenarios layered with complexities.
For aviation fans, get ready for a ton of wonderful archival footage coming your way in William Lorton’s Spitfire 944.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu to Receive Sundance Institute Vanguard Leadership Award
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced it will present its Vanguard Awards to Academy Award winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu and filmmaker Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) at the fifth Sundance Institute Celebration benefit hosted by Acura in Los Angeles, bringing the creative community together to highlight a great visionary in independent film and an emerging artist with unique talent and creative independence. Iñárritu will be presented with the Vanguard Leadership Award for the originality and independent spirit of his films.
Native Filmmakers, Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Sundance Institute Full Circle Fellowship
Sundance Institute’s Full Circle Fellowship, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, aims to elevate young Native filmmakers to more competitive ranks in what is often considered a homogeneous and privileged realm of content creation.
Reflections On the Female Filmmakers Initiative Financing Intensive
Lauded as a tremendous success by filmmakers, advisors, and supporters alike, the third annual Female Filmmakers Initiative Financing Intensive hosted by Sundance Institute and Women In Film Los Angeles helped demystify the independent film financing process while encouraging confidence and collaboration amongst over 125 filmmakers and dozens of industry advisors and panelists. Below, filmmaker attendees share their insightful reflections on the all-day convening.So rarely do you actually get practical, specific and actionable advice that this was startling.
Sundance Institute Brings $83.4 Million to Utah with 2015 Sundance Film Festival
Park City, Utah — Sundance Institute today announced that its 2015 Sundance Film Festival, which took place in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah in January, generated an overall economic impact of $83.4 million for the State of Utah, according to the independent annual economic and demographic study conducted by the University of Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the David Eccles School of Business (BEBR).
The Economic Report, posted in full on the Institute’s website, also found that the 2015 Festival generated $7 million in state and local tax revenue; supported 1,350 jobs; and was attended by more than 46,000 people.
#TBT: 8 Groundbreaking Sundance Directors Lab Alumni
Most lists require a caveat, and this one is no different: it is non-exhaustive, and for good reason. Over the course of Sundance Institute’s Directors Lab’s history, the Feature Film Program has supported a relative who’s who list of independent filmmakers making strides in cinema. And while some of these names have quite adeptly ventured into the world of studio films, their bloodlines invariably trace back to the indie world.
Calculated Serendipity: Stories of Change Convening at the Skoll World Forum
Some filmmakers are reactive and volatile – especially the independent ones. The “reactive and volatile” I’m talking about aren’t the high maintenance ones prone to unnecessary drama. I’m referring to ones who are like atoms that readily react with other atoms when the conditions are right – when they’re stimulated to form molecules and compounds.
Storybook Meets Six Shooters: John Maclean on His Sundance Hit ‘Slow West’
The Western may be among the most American of genres—if not the most American of genres—but that has never stopped filmmakers from around the world, from Italy to Japan and beyond, from trying it on for size. In Slow West, winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2015 Festival, English writer-director John Maclean doesn’t transpose the genre to Europe—he brings a European sensibility to the American West. Considering the preponderance of immigrants who migrated to and settled in America, it wasn’t exactly a crazy notion.
5 Resolute Movie Moms For Mother’s Day
There is a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that avows, “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” One can doubt the veracity of the citation (it wasn’t found on Instagram, so that’s a start), but the notion itself is hardly disputable. As with all relationships, great cinema has a way of capturing the nuances that define a mother-child connection–from the joys of infancy to the precarious years of adolescence (during which I, for one, was goodness incarnate).
Sundance Institute Announces 14 Projects Selected for 2015 June Directors and Screenwriters Labs at Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah, May 25-June 25
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the 14 projects selected for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah from May 25 through June 25. The Labs are the centerpiece of the Institute’s year-round work with narrative feature filmmakers and are part of 24 residential labs the Institute hosts each year to discover and foster the talent of emerging independent artists in film, theatre, new media and episodic content.
Projects and participants selected for the 2015 June Directors and Screenwriters Labs are from the United States, Brazil, China, France, Georgia and the United Kingdom, and the Fellows bring experience from an unprecedented diversity of creative backgrounds, including documentary, theatre, music, new media, visual art and animation.
Blake Neely on ‘Star Wars’ and the Moment He Knew He Wanted to Compose
It’s easy to dismiss musical composition as an abstruse kind of necessity in film and television.
It’s an element of the artistic equation that the average viewer knows little about despite its universal resonance. We’re acutely aware that Jaws’s most menacing moments would be toothless without its iconic John Williams score, or that The Social Network’s nefarious ambiance is owed to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s calculated score, but that tends to be the depth of our wisdom.