Category: News

Winners of Commissioning Grant, Episodic Storytelling Grant and Lab Fellowship Revealed
Director-Screenwriter-Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor Honored
Park City, Utah — At a reception at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival today, the beneficiaries of $70,000 in grants from Sundance Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation were revealed. Doron Weber, Sloan Vice President of Programs and Director of the Public Understanding of Science and Technology program, presented the Feature Film Prize to The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and announced the new winners: Skye Emerson for Challenger and Gillian Weeks for The New Miracle (Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant); Anthony Onah for Goliath (Sundance Institute | Sloan Lab Fellowship); and Neilkanth Dave and Zachary Parris for DELTA-V (Sundance Institute | Sloan Episodic Storytelling Grant).

Photo credit: Courtesy Sundance Institute.
Park City, Utah — Co-Directors Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace-Smith are the 2019 recipients of the Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellowship, an annual fellowship named in honor of the late Māori filmmaker Merata Mita (1942-2010). The announcement was delivered today at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance Institute/USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study shows women are represented at Sundance in significantly greater numbers than ten years ago, but are still far below 50%.
PARK CITY, UT – January 25, 2019 — Sundance Institute and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (AI2) today released demographic data on submissions and acceptances to the annual Sundance Film Festival to reveal key insights on the talent pipeline in the film industry for women and people of color.
The report was issued in partnership with Professor Stacy L.

A banner year for documentaries at the box office has officially extended into awards season. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its Oscars nominations in all 24 categories this morning, with Sundance Institute-supported nonfiction films all but sweeping the Best Documentary Feature category. The nominated documentary features include RBG, which tells the inspiring story of America’s intrepid Supreme Court justice, and Minding the Gap, from young first-time director Bing Liu, who went from making skateboarding videos to creating a no-holds-barred exploration of the deeply entrenched effects of the cycle of abuse.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute will convene dozens of offscreen events, including inclusive and intersectional conversations on the next wave of storytelling, radical data transparency, the future of democracy at its intersection with the arts, behind-the-scenes panels on the art of filmmaking and musical performances that range from intimate to raucous at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival taking place in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Sundance, Utah, January 24 through February 3, 2019.
The first 2019 installment of the longstanding Power of Story series, Power of Story: Makers of the New Narrative Revolution will convene Terence Nance (As Told To G/D Thyself, Random Acts of Flyness), Reggie Watts (Runnin’), John Gaeta (Senior Vice President of Creative Strategy, Magic Leap), Stephanie Dinkins (Not The Only One), and Sarah Ellis (The Seven Ages of Man, director of digital development, Royal Shakespeare Company) and moderator Julia Kaganskiy to explore a range of inspirations, the changing nature of artistic discovery, the necessity of invention, and how culture stands to be dramatically reshaped by revolutionary, new narrative experiences. Power of Story is presented by Dropbox.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute will gather 20 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture and science to award feature-length and short films shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with 12 prizes, announced at a ceremony February 2 that will be livestreamed at sundance.org and on YouTube. Short Film Awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 29 and will also be livestreamed.

Some 30 miles outside its bustling epicenter in Park City, the Festival offers a robust slate of events and activities in neighboring Salt Lake City. Five official Sundance Film Festival venues now reside in Salt Lake City, presenting a diverse array of film screenings and artist Q&As for downtown audiences.
Find out more about Salt Lake theaters, lounges, and box offices on our How to Fest page, and check out the schedule of films playing in SLC by browsing our film program.

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today program information for the first-ever Talent Forum, a new event for creators and industry at the Festival, bringing together a slate of artists and projects across all stages of development. This new event marks an expansion of the nonprofit Institute’s year round continuum of support for independent artists.

Emerging talent from the Institute’s signature artist development Labs and Fellowships will gather at the Festival, in Park City, Utah, to present new work to industry attendees, alongside a special artist-only program of keynotes, screenings, gatherings and seminars.

From grueling days on set to momentous breakthroughs, dive into these quick-hitting, exclusive introductions to the Sundance Film Festival class of 2019. Get a glimpse at never-before-seen film clips and hear intimate stories from the production trenches.For many, this is the first time they’ve been able to share their story and recount the journey of their project—everything from the profound to the peculiar to the downright shocking.

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute rounds out this year’s 2019 Sundance Film Festival program with today’s additions to the Documentary Premieres and Special Events sections. The Festival will take place in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 24-February 3, 2019.
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES CATEGORY
The Brink / U.

Los Angeles, CA — Nine diverse independent artists will receive support from the 2018 Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellowship, the Institute announced today. These Fellowships, and accompanying grants, are part of the non-profit organization’s year-round efforts to discover independent artists from underrepresented communities and support them as they create their work and connect with audiences.
The Fellowship supports Fellows working in film, theatre, film music and new media, as well as in the Institute’s Native Program.

Like many of you, I find myself reflecting and looking ahead to a new year, with both optimism and a sense of trepidation.I’m hoping it will bring positive changes: a return to democratic values, more justice for all, less divisions and anger, and a renewed consciousness for our civic duty to protect the environment we all depend on, no matter which political party we align with.I’m also looking back a bit (something I don’t allow myself to do too often).