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.

NEXT WEEKEND, Presented by Sundance Institute to Offer Film Screenings and Panels at Sundance Cinema in West Hollywood
Screenings Around Los Angeles Co-Hosted with American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre, Cinefamily, Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) and UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
LOS ANGELES, CA — NEXT WEEKEND, Presented by Sundance Institute will take place Aug. 8-11, 2013 at Sundance Cinema and additional venues throughout Los Angeles. The event is an extension of the popular NEXT <=> section at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, which showcases stylistically adventurous films that take a bold approach to storytelling.

Stacy Peralta is an American filmmaker, former professional skateboarder, and original member of the Z-Boys. He joins Film Forward in Imperial Valley to screen and discuss his latest film, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.This is my first foray with Film Forward, and I’m with my wife, Stephanie, heading to Imperial Valley, California and Mexicali, Mexico.

Welcome back to Shorts Break Friday. We have two amazing shorts today, freshly released on the YouTube Screening Room, that you won’t want to miss. They are innovative, entertaining and brimming with talent.

Jerry Rothwell is a British documentary filmmaker. He joins Film Forward in Imperial Valley to screen and discuss his latest film, Town of Runners.“You going to El Centro?” says the immigration officer at LAX, “Why you going to El Centro? There’s nothing there.

Philip Himberg is the Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program where he works to support the projects of theatre artists around the world. He is currently in London putting the final touches on his adapted play ‘Paper Dolls,’ which opens at the Tricycle Theatre on March 6.
For nearly 17 years, I’ve had the amazing good fortune to work as Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute and TED today announced the first collaboration between the two organizations, which will jointly award $125,000 for a short documentary film project about the work of Sugata Mitra, winner of the annual TED Prize. The Institute’s Documentary Film Program and Fund will accept proposals March 1 through April 15, 2013 at sundance.org/ted and will design and oversee the selection process in collaboration with TED.

The O2, 27 February 2013 — Sundance Institute and The O2 announced Peaches as the first headlining act for the second Sundance London film and music festival, which will also host the UK premiere of Peaches Does Herself. Tickets for Peaches’ Friday 26 April performance at indigO2 in The O2 as well as a music-and-movie ticket package will be on sale from 9am GMT Friday 1 March online.

SALLY FIELD TO PRESENT AWARD AT SUNDANCE INSTITUTE THEATRE PROGRAM BENEFIT  APRIL 8, 2013
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING FOR THEATRE PROGRAM BENEFIT:
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, JUDY KUHN AND DAVID HYDE PIERCE TO PERFORM SELECTIONS FROM NEW MUSICAL “FUN HOME” BY LISA KRON AND JEANINE TESORI
CHERRY JONES TO PERFORM SCENES FROM NEW PLAY BY AWARD RECIPIENT JACOBS-JENKINS “APPROPRIATE”
New York, NY (2/27/2013) — Sundance Institute has announced that playwright and Sundance Institute Theatre Lab alum Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will receive the first-ever Tennessee Williams Award from the Institute’s Theatre Program, which supports the development of new work for the stage. Sundance Institute Emeritus Trustee Sally Field will present the honor and accompanying $10,000 grant at the Celebrate Sundance Institute benefit for its Theatre Program on April 8, 2013 at Stephan Weiss Studio in Greenwich Village.
The event will also include musical selections from the Sundance Institute-supported, much-anticipated new musical Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, featuring performances by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Judy Kuhn, David Hyde Pierce and others.

Sundance Institute is honored to congratulate the films and filmmakers recognized at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards this past weekend. The Spirit Awards assumed its traditional time and post, held the day before the Oscars in a spruced up tent on the beach in Santa Monica, CA, with host Andy Samberg helming the show. Here are the Sundance-supported winners:
28th Film Independent Spirit Awards 
Best Male Lead
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Best First Screenplay
Derek Connolly, Safety Not Guaranteed 
Best Cinematography
Ben Richardson, Beasts of the Southern Wild
John Cassavetes Award (Best Feature made for under $500,000)
Middle of Nowhere, directed by Ava DuVernay
Best Supporting Female
Helen Hunt, The Sessions 
Best Documentary
The Invisible War, directed by Kirby Dick
On Sunday, host Seth MacFarlane led the festivities at the 85th Academy Awards, where 13 Sundance-supported film and filmmakers were nominated for awards.

Discover remarkable films all year long in The Screening Room, a new YouTube Channel curated by Sundance Institute. Two new films from Sundance history will be placed on our page every Friday, and we will be regularly linking to shorts from the Festival already on YouTube, so check back often for lots of surprises.This Friday, we bring you two very different, but wonderfully unique shorts.

Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild does much more than simply defy categorization. Rather, it creates its own world—or as Senior Programmer John Nein puts it, “Beasts exists entirely in its own universe.” And that universe is one just fantastical enough to summon our childlike wonder, but with a plausibility that captivates the intellect and invigorates the soul.

Leading up to the 85th edition of the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24, we’re profiling all 13 of this year’s Sundance-supported Oscar nominees. Click here for the full list of nominees.
In a Best Documentary category inhabited by five merited  (and, in the spirit of transparency, Sundance-supported) nominees, director Jeff Orlowski’s rousing debut documentary feature Chasing Ice is curiously missing.

Leading up to the 85th edition of the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24, we’re profiling all 13 of this year’s Sundance-supported Oscar nominees. Click here for the full list of nominees.
Sometimes the most effective documentaries are those that appear to be misclassified.