We’re less than two weeks out from kicking off the first-ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival (Aug. 8-11) at Sundance Sunset Cinemas and partner venues throughout Los Angeles. Recently, we unveiled the 10 feature films screening throughout the weekend, and now each filmmaker has produced a video to introduce their film.

Jackie Sibblies Drury is a Brooklyn-based playwright participating in the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at Sundance Resort with her project Really Really Really Really Really. And yes, that is a calculated and precise five ‘Really’s’. Below Sibblies Drury delves into the varying themes of loss that pervade her play, the rationale behind her engimatic title, and the greatest creative challenge she’s faced at the Lab.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today that it has been awarded a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The grant, which was made through the Academy’s Educational Grants Program, supports four annual Labs hosted by the Institute’s renowned Feature Film Program (FFP): the June Screenwriters Lab, the Directors Lab, the Creative Producing Lab, and the Creative Producing Summit.
FFP Labs, built on a model established by Sundance Institute President & Founder Robert Redford in 1981, give aspiring independent filmmakers the skills and knowledge they need to make theatrical motion pictures.

David Lowery attended the 2012 Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab with his screenplay for Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, an Official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Below is the first part in a series of blog posts examining a single frame from the film. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints opens in theatres August 16 and On Demand August 23.

Danny Yourd was a producer on the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary Blood Brother, and is collaborating once again with filmmaker Steve Hoover on their new film, Gennadiy. The team is using Kickstarter to help complete production of the film in Mariupal, Ukraine. Click here to support their campaign.

As part of the four-day lineup of screenings and events scheduled for NEXT WEEKEND, set to take place August 8-11 in Los Angeles, the festival will expand to the venues of four of the city’s leading film and cultural organizations on the evening of Sunday, August 11. NEXT SUNDAY will feature individual screenings co-hosted by the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre, Cinefamily on Fairfax, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television at the Hammer Museum.
Thanks to all of our cultural collaborators for helping make the first-ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival an event accessible to audiences across Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the participants for its annual Creative Producing Labs and Creative Producing Summit, both held the week of July 29 at the Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah. These activities are part of the Institute’s year-round Creative Producing Initiative, which encompasses a series of Labs, Fellowships and other events that support independent producers.
Eleven projects will participate in the Labs (July 29 – August 2), where they will work with an accomplished group of Creative Advisors to advance their creative, communication and problem-solving skills in all stages of a film’s journey from script development to distribution.

In recent years, one has needed to look no further than the NEXT <=> section of the Sundance Film Festival to witness the vitality of independent film. That’s where, in NEXT’s four-year existence, films with a penchant for innovative storytelling and a blatant disregard for boundaries have premiered at the Festival. Now that renegade filmmaking spirit is coming to Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the program of 10 feature films, 10 short films and related programming for the first-ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival, Aug. 8-11, 2013 at Sundance Sunset Cinema and additional venues throughout Los Angeles. Tickets ($12–15) are on sale now for Sundance Institute members and will be available to the public Thursday at www.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the 29 feature-length documentary films that will receive more than $550,000 in grants from its Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP).
Grantees were selected from 772 submissions from 88 countries and include filmmakers working in Chile, Libya, Cuba, Cambodia and Pakistan as well as a broad range of experience, from first-time feature documentary filmmakers to Academy Award nominee Arthur Dong and veteran filmmaker Ed Pincus working with Lucia Small. Submissions were reviewed by a jury of creative film professionals and human rights experts, based on their approach to storytelling, artistic treatment and innovation, subject relevance and potential for social engagement.

At the conclusion of last month’s Sundance Institute June Screenwriters Lab, participants attended a screening of “The Front,” written by Walter Bernstein, which offers a comedic look at the Hollywood Blacklist in the ‘50s starring Woody Allen as a “front” for blacklisted writers. Bernstein, himself a victim of the blacklist, was present for the screening and was joined by fellow screenwriter Dough McGrath for a Q&A following the film. Below is an excerpted portion of the discussion.

Tickets on Sale Now at Ticketfly
New Four-Day Summer Film Festival in Los Angeles, Aug. 8-11
LOS ANGELES, CA — Sundance Institute today announced that the first-ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival, Aug. 8-11, 2013 at venues throughout Los Angeles, will kick off with an outdoor screening of Chris Smith’s iconic cult documentary American Movie and Mark Borchardt’s horror film Coven Aug.

New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the acting company, artists-in-residence and creative advisors for the seven projects being developed at its 2013 Theatre Lab, July 8-28 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece of the Theatre Program’s year-round work and is designed to support both emerging and established artists and to create a place where their original work can be effectively mentored and challenged free from commercial pressure.
Himberg said, “The 2013 Theatre Lab Fellows have stories to tell, stories about African immigrants, and gay heroes, and Yiddish authors and Palestinian teachers: stories which throw new lenses on our diverse and complicated world.