Director Mira Nair and cinematographer Edward Lachman on the set of Mississippi Masala. Photo by Mitch Epstein
by the Archives Team
With the Spirit Awards this past weekend and the Oscars around the corner, we’re reaching the culmination of awards season. As we take a look at all the Academy Award nominees, contenders in nearly every category this year have ties to Sundance Institute.
Each actor and almost every director and producer nominated for Directing, Picture, Documentary Feature, Animated Feature, and International Feature has either had a film at the Festival or participated in the Labs at some point in their career. We’re here this month to celebrate the artists and craftspeople in the other categories that help to make the incredible feat of making a film a reality.
It’s always an interesting exercise to research the connections to Sundance over the years. The range of connections included below is fascinating and highlights nearly 40 years of film history: from Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach (Adapted Screenplay, Barbie) to Jennifer Lame (Film Editing, Oppenheimer) working together on Mistress America from the 2015 Festival to Laura Karpman (Original Score, American Fiction), who was a Sundance Institute Composers Lab fellow in 1987, served as a creative advisor for eight Composers Labs, Music in Film Labs, and Film Music Intensives, and has composed numerous Festival films in the last decade including the Institute-supported 2018 documentary Inventing Tomorrow.
Four of the five Cinematography nominees also have significant Sundance ties. Edward Lachman (El Conde) has served as cinematographer for 12 Festival films, to name just a few: Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala in 1992, Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides in 2000, and most recently Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog in 2016. Rodrigo Prieto (Killers of the Flower Moon) was the cinematographer on four Festival films over 25 years, including Julie Taymor’s 2020 film, The Glorias. Additionally, Prieto served as a creative advisor for two Sundance Institute Directors Labs. Matthew Libatique, (Maestro) was the cinematographer for three Festival films, including Darren Aronofsky’s Pi in 1998 and most recently Rashid Johnson’s Native Son. Robbie Ryan (Poor Things) has eight Festival films with his cinematography credit including Andrea Arnold’s Academy Award–winning short Wasp, which screened during the 2005 Festival.
Check out all the details on these nominees — from production designers to makeup and hairstyling artists — through our digital archives below.
Cinematography
El Conde
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Poor Things
Costume Design
Poor Things
Film Editing
The Holdovers
Oppenheimer
Makeup and Hairstyling
Golda
Poor Things
Music (Original Score)
American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
John Williams
Killers of the Flower Moon
Music (Original Song)
I’m Just Ken (from Barbie)
Production Design
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Sound
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Chris Munro
The Zone of Interest
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Barbie
Noah Baumbach
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan
The Zone of Interest
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Maestro
Past Lives
