Park City, UT — Sundance Institute this evening announced the jury prizes and honorable mentions in short filmmaking at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The awards were presented at a ceremony in Park City, Utah. These award recipients will also be honored at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony, hosted by Parker Posey on Saturday, January 28 at 7:00 p.

Exactly one year ago, a group of activist friends armed with cameras walked out their front door to the epicenter of the Egyptian uprising. With the struggle to survive competing with the struggle to document the events, directors Omar Shargawi and Karim El Hakim capture a fierce moment of history in their film ½ Revolution, part of the Festival’s World Documentary Competition. Karim El Hakim, whose past film credits include Egypt We Are Watching You, understands the power of street protests in action.

Coming-of-age stories in film are as ubiquitous as the human condition itself. But rarely does such a story come together as well as it does in GOATS, an intricate mash of individual life journeys, all swirling around and through a 15-year pot-smoking, cross-country running, straight-A student named Ellis (Graham Phillips).First-time filmmaker Christopher Neil fashioned his film from Mark Jude Poirier’s infectious novel (and screenplay).

Day Six of #Sundance on Instagram focuses on Festival landscapes and the interesting characters who inhabit them.

Don’t forget to use #sundance when posting to Instagram so your photo has a chance of making our daily roundup. And also follow us on Instagram at username sundanceinstitute.

Sleepwalk with Me is much funnier than the outline of its plot indicates: A man has lived with his girlfriend for eight years, but doesn’t really love her. Succumbing to family pressures, the couple gets engaged. His anxieties manifest themselves in a disorder that is eventually diagnosed as rapid eye movement behavior disorder, which causes its sufferers to actually act out the dream they are experiencing.

Erstwhile Indie Queen, sardonic girl next door and trailblazer for a generation of quirked-out Emmas, Kats and Zooeys — Parker Posey’s reputation precedes her. She first came to Sundance in 1995 with Party Girl, the film that introduced the world to her unique blend of crush-worthy beauty and self-effacing comedic chops. And she last swept through Park City when she served as a juror for the US Dramatic Competition in 2010.

We’re at the midway point of the Festival and the quality—and quantity—of #Sundance photos on Instagram is not letting up. Day Five gives us a look at packed theatres, a view through 3D glasses, and an invisible Sean Penn?

Don’t forget to use #sundance when posting to Instagram so your photo has a chance of making our daily roundup. And also follow us on Instagram at username sundanceinstitute.

On Monday morning, a small crowd of filmmakers, philanthropists, and media leaders gathered at the Park City home of Jacki Zehner to hear Sundance Institute executive director Keri Putnam and Women in Film Los Angeles President Cathy Shulman announce a collaborative effort to support women working in narrative and documentary independent film. The brunch was co-hosted by Zehner, Putnam, Schulman, and Sundance Institute Trustee Pat Mitchell.Lauren Greenfield (Queen of Versailles), Katie Aselton (Black Rock), and Sheila Johnson were among the 120 guests treated to brunch served with Wonder Woman-themed party ware and complimentary handbags provided by Coach.

The most amazing thing about watching Reality Bites 18 years after it was released is rediscovering what an open heart the movie has, when all anyone talked about in 1994 was the movie’s cynical young adults. But cynical characters don’t necessarily make for a pessimistic movie.
“When I look at it, there’s a certain lack of cynicism in the movie,” said Ben Stiller, who made his directorial debut with Reality Bites.

One of the bitter laments emanating from contemporary female audience members—and actresses, for that matter—concerns the scarcity of great, meaty female characters who are complex, morally ambiguous, even controversial. Several films at the Sundance Film Festival this year counter that complaint, defying the typical stereotypes and delivering instead feisty, bitchy, raunchy, complicated, conflicted, and even heroic women in stories whose struggles and achievements take center stage.Overhauling Stereotype #1: The Drowning WifeIn Smashed, playing in the U.

Lizzy Caplan is a woman on the verge of stardom. Just don’t tell Lizzy Caplan. With two high-profile, markedly different films in this year’s Festival—dramedic romance Save the Date and the jet-black comedy Bachelorette—Caplan is showing the kind of range and adaptive likeability that is bound to push her career forward.

Moderator and New York Times media columnist David Carr kicked off Monday’s Cinema Cafe panel at the Filmmaker Lodge with an allusion to the “giant elephant in the room,” the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills whose passage was recently waylaid as a result of an internet uprising voicing concern and anger over the bill’s perceived threats to free speech.The Cinema Cafe series of panels is designed to foster free-ranging conversation among artists and industry leaders about issues that affect independent filmmakers. Presided over by a trio of knowledgeable and high-powered panelists former Senator Christopher Dodd, the chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, John Fithian, the president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, and independent producer Christine Vachon—today’s Cinema Cafe landed right on top of the news, with an illuminating debate of the issues surrounding copyright protection and the creative community.

Celebrated filmmaker Stephen Frears was positively giddy about introducing the world premiere of his latest film, Lay the Favorite, on Saturday night at the Eccles Theater. Festively outfitted in a long red scarf and wordlessly roaming behind the podium, he seemed as excited for film’s world premiere as the audience. After all, he said, “I just finished it last Friday.

Congratulations to the seven Sundance Institute- and Sundance Film Festival-supported films and filmmakers nominated for the Academy Awards.
Documentary (Feature)
Hell and Back Again, directed by Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
Documentary (Short Subject)
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, directed by Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, directed by Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen
Foreign Language Film
Monsieur Lazhar, directed by Philippe Falardeau (Canada)
Short Film (Animated)
A Morning Stroll, directed by Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Margin Call, written by J.C.

Some of the brightest young inhabitants of Hollywood’s thriving comedy community were on hand for the world premiere of Celeste and Jesse Forever at the Eccles Theater on Friday night, from film’s top-flight cast to supporters Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari.
Directed by Sundance veteran Lee Toland Krieger (The Vicious Kind), and written and starring Rashida Jones (The Social Network, NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”) and Will McCormack, the film chronicles the long, strange breakup of the titular married couple, played by Jones and Andy Samberg (“Saturday Night Live”).
Shifting between broad comedy and insightful drama, sweetness and bitterness, the film proves to be a great showcase for the two leads as well as for an ensemble that includes Emma Roberts, Elijah Wood, Chris Messina, Eric Christian Olsen, and Ari Graynor.