The Latest
5 Sundance Films With Families to Avoid This Thanksgiving
The holidays seem to invariably arrive wrapped in complaints — about premature decor, about delayed shipping, about… family. That last one we hope to preempt this Thanksgiving, if only by way of the old “it could be worse” adage. Dysfunctional families have long made for well-trodden material among indie filmmakers, but these 5 recent Sundance Film Festival selections feature families (I use that term loosely) that straddle everything from the bizarre to the macabre to the downright depressing.
Spirit Awards: ‘Boyhood,’ ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,’ and ‘Whiplash’ Among Sundance-Supported Nominees
Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age epic Boyhood, Ana Lily Amirpour’s genre-bending vampire drama A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and Damien Chazelle’s emotionally taut debut Whiplash led the way for Sundance-supported films at this morning’s announcement of the 2015 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. Below, we highlight and congratulate all of the Sundance-supported films and filmmakers nominated for awards. The winners will be announced Feb.
Story + Impact = True Love: Matchmaking Filmmakers and Social Entrepreneurs
As filmmakers, we are forever on the hunt for stories. We are greedy for these little delicious nuggets of human experience, placed in some kind of order, an order that elicits emotion. We crave that moment when someone, somewhere, sees something we’ve made, on a big or small screen, and gets a tear in their eye, or laughs out loud or slams their fist into the couch because it’s the only logical reaction.
Welcome to the New Sundance.org
Welcome to the new sundance.org!
We’ve refined and streamlined our design to allow you to more easily connect with the work, ideas, opportunities, and events at Sundance Institute year-round. We hope you will explore, see what we’re up to, and get involved – whether as an artist applying for a Lab or grant, a supporter looking to engage with the Institute, a film lover attending the Sundance Film Festival, or a culture hound looking to connect with great work and a vibrant community.
Sundance Institute Announces Seven Artists Selected for 2015 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation, Feb. 2-20
New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the seven artists selected for its 2015 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation. The 16th annual writing colony at the 20,000-acre working cattle ranch outside of Sheridan, WY takes place February 2-20. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Playwrights Retreat is made possible through the generosity of Ucross Foundation.
Inspired By: Ana Lily Amirpour on the Influences Behind ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’
It’s been dubbed (by our own senior programmer John Nein, in fact) the first Iranian vampire western, and who would dare refute that obscure designation? A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night garnered a rapturous reception at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it played in the NEXT section before screening again at this summer’s Sundance NEXT FEST in Los Angeles.
A Girl is set in the fictitious Bad City, a home to debauched drug users and other degenerates where a subdued vampire stalks the denizens. Our vampire, “Girl,” stunningly portrayed by Sheila Vand, only changes her ways upon being seduced by a debonair romantic named Arash.
Screenwriter John August’s Tips for Telling A Story On Kickstarter
I ‘ve had the privilege of serving as a Creative Advisor at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab since 2000, working with filmmakers as they get ready to make their next films. In one-on-one meetings, we talk about their scripts, and their ambitions for their films.
In these conversations, I hear myself asking the same questions again and again: “What would happen if.
Inside the TV Writers’ Room: A Dispatch From Sundance Institute’s Inaugural Episodic Story Lab
Crystal Liu is currently a staff writer for ‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ and was one of 10 fellows selected to participate in the inaugural Sundance Institute Episodic Story Lab last October.Imagine that all your life, you’ve been singing in the privacy of your own shower, just for the joy of it. Just ‘cause you felt the need to express yourself.
What I Wish I Knew About Distribution: Producer Ron Najor of ‘Short Term 12’ & ‘I Am Not A Hipster’
Ron Najor produced “I Am Not A Hipster” with a group of friends in his hometown of San Diego. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, and Ron and his team worked with #ArtistServices to fund and distribute its independent release – which is when we first were impressed by his rockstar producing passion. Ron then went on to his second collaboration with writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton and produced the SXSW Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winning film “Short Term 12” in 2013.
Sundance Institute Board of Trustees Elects Pat Mitchell as New Chair
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees today announced that Pat Mitchell has been elected as new Board Chair effective immediately. Mitchell succeeds Walter L. Weisman who has served on the Sundance Institute Board of Trustees since 1988 and has been designated by the Board as Chair Emeritus.
Six Projects Selected for 10th Anniversary Rawi Screenwriters Lab in Jordan
Los Angeles, CA —Sundance Institute and The Royal Film Commission – Jordan announced the six projects selected for the 10th anniversary of the Rawi Screenwriters Lab, which took place October 28 to November 1 in Amman, Jordan. Created as a cornerstone of the Institute’s deep commitment to artists in the Middle East, the Lab has supported over seventy artists from more than a dozen countries.
The two first features produced from the inaugural 2005 Lab premiered at the Sundance Film Festival: Pomegranates and Myrrh, written and directed by Najwa Najjar (Palestine) and Amreeka, written and directed by Cherien Dabis (Palestine/Jordan/US).
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Discovering and supporting independent artists is what Sundance Institute is all about. We believe that providing an inclusive space for artists to create and thrive encourages diverse stories and greater understanding. In 2013, the John S.
November Now Playing: Happy Valley Deconstructs the Penn State Scandal
Before we turn our collective attention to a new season of independent film, a handful of releases from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival round out the year. Director Mona Fastvold’s unsettling drama The Sleepwalker, recently picked up by IFC, meditates on several fractured relationships forced to run their course in a secluded Massachusetts mansion, while Amir Bar-Lev’s Happy Valley provokes a far more disturbing variety of distress in its scathing deconstruction of the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State.
Below, check out all of the Sundance-supported films hitting theaters and coming to DVD and Blu-Ray.
Success Stories: How “Life Itself” Engaged a Community of Supporters
This blog originally appeared as part of VHX’s Success Stories series. Based on his bestselling memoir of the same name, Life Itself explores the legacy of film critic Roger Ebert’s life. Directed by Steve James, the film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and simultaneously screened online exclusively for the film’s Indiegogo supporters.
Haunted Collection: 5 Spooky Sundance Films for Halloween
There seems to be a faction of horror flick aficionados who loathe anything less than gratuitous violence in their films. A caveat for those fans: while this list may not be for you, our prior years’ Haunted Collections do pander to your macabre desires—check them out here and here. For Halloween this year, we’ve culled our selections strictly from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, which featured a dynamic group of what we’ll call “horror-adjacent” films across various program categories—Competition, Spotlight, and of course the Midnight Section.