Category: Festival

In our 40 years as an Institute, we’ve never hosted a Sundance Film Festival quite like 2021’s. And that’s thanks in large part to you, our adventurous audiences from all 50 states and 120 countries, who joined us (and our friends at Satellite Screens across the U.S.

Jamila Wignot’s portrait of a modern dance visionary who carved out space for Black performers and Black stories in 1950s New York City. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s look back at the legendary 1969 concert events in Harlem that came to be known as Black Woodstock. Jazz musician–turned-filmmaker Chris Bowers’ efforts to track his family’s lineage from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Following Founder and President Robert Redford’s original vision, the Sundance Institute has remained committed to supporting Indigenous artists throughout the Institute’s history. This has established a rich legacy of work and has supported more than 350 filmmakers through labs, grants, mentorships, public programs, and the platform of the Sundance Film Festival. The Institute’s Indigenous Program has a global focus and through its work strengthens Indigenous Cinema.

An inventive horror film about a Scottish film censor who begins to unravel when she’s assigned to review a rather disturbing film; a whimsical coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old who is struggling to cope with the death of her mother; a moody tale set in the countryside of France that delves into the complexity of polyamory… These are just a few of the geographically diverse, genre-spanning stories being told at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival by women filmmakers in their first features. If you’re looking for some documentary fare, you can experience the transformative dance of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in Ailey, or follow chief reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions and emerge as India’s only newspaper run by Dalit women in Writing with Fire, or watch as students at Horizon High School in El Paso train to become police officers and Border Patrol agents in At the Ready.In the Festival’s New Frontier section—which highlights work by independent artists and creative technologists innovating the art and form of story at the convergence of diverse forms of creative expression—you won’t want to miss women-led projects like Beyond the Breakdown, a world-building browser performance where Festivalgoers engage with an AI + human collaborative team, created by a trio of artists including Women at Sundance Fellows Lauren Lee McCarthy and Grace Lee, Traveling the Interstitium with Octavia Butler, inspired by the ideas of the late great science-fiction writer; 4 Feet High VR, an immersive work that centers around the perspective of a 17-year-old wheelchair user as she navigates her new high school; and Prison X – Chapter 1: The Devil and the Sun, which takes the audience into the dreams and nightmares that inhabit an infamous Bolivian jail.

Festival Offers Robust Online Platform and Announces Screening Partnerships with
Independent Cinemas and Cultural Organizations
PARK CITY, UTAH — The nonprofit Sundance Institute today unveiled plans for the seven-day 2021 Sundance Film Festival, offered digitally via a custom-designed online platform (festival.sundance.org) alongside drive-ins, independent arthouses, and a network of local community partnerships.

As we begin our countdown to the Sundance Film Festival—stay tuned for 2021 lineup details, and sign up for a Festival account here—we’re launching a new series, Festival Rewind. This week, we’re time-traveling back to 1991, the year of landmark independent films like Slacker, Trust, and Daughters of the Dust. Join us as we remember the award winners, the big moments, and the Festival firsts.

Angel Manuel Soto’s Charm City Kings made its debut at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and recently began streaming on HBO Max. Hear what the project’s director and cast had to say at the film’s world premiere.Based on the documentary 12 O’Clock Boys, about a young boy who dreams of joining the same notorious group of Baltimore dirt-bike riders his late brother used to ride with, Charm City Kings is a jolt of adrenaline to the coming-of-age genre, with a star-making performance by Jahi Di’Allo Winston as 13-year-old Mouse.

At the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Maite Alberdi’s documentary The Mole Agent had its world premiere. Below, hear what the filmmaker had to say in Park City; then go watch the project, which is now available to rent on most streaming platforms. “All right.

Eugene Kotlyarenko’s thriller Spree—a selection at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival—begins streaming on Friday, August 14. Below, hear what the writer/director had to say in Park City at the film’s world premiere.“I’m going to livestream this.

Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’s film Boys State begins streaming on Apple TV+ today. The project won the U.S.

When Palm Springs premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in January, it felt like the temperature rose (at least a few degrees, anyway) in snowy Park City. Max Barbakow’s buoyant comedy starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti begins streaming on Hulu (and playing select drive-ins) today, offering something of a virtual vacation into another dimension of time and space. Below, see what Barbakow and his actors had to say at the film’s world premiere.

Tabitha Jackson is the director of the Sundance Film Festival.
Dear friends,
As we plan for our 2021 Festival — my first in the Director’s chair — and with submissions now open, I wanted to give you an early insight into how we are thinking. This is not an announcement, but rather an invitation into the process of building something together this year.