Category: News

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the appointment of Jared Hendler as Director of Marketing and Communications, responsible for overseeing all external communications for the Institute, including supervision of marketing, social media and media relations. He begins today and is based in the Institute’s Los Angeles office.

In his new role as part of the Senior Leadership group, Hendler will supervise brand strategy and messaging, develop methods to grow constituencies, and launch new collaborations to tell the story of Institute artists, programs and activities.

As 2015 comes to a close, and the inevitable top ten, twenty, one hundred, lists and award nominations are announced, women working behind the camera are all over the news.

Keri Putnam was named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100. (Link)

Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous was nominated for the Indie Spirit John Cassavetes Award, given to the writer, director and producer of a feature made for under $500,000.

Sundance Institute and Women In Film Los Angeles convened an unprecedented day meeting, organized and conducted in private, of entertainment industry decision-makers and top talent in mid-October to determine tangible steps for solving the gender parity issue that plagues Hollywood. Agents and industry executives who are normally accustomed to competing with each other, came together in a rare collaboration, the goal being to effect deep and lasting change.Participating were 44 senior industry leaders — both men and women — from studios, networks, distributors, guilds and agencies, along with high-profile writers, directors and producers, to drill into the systemic causes of gender bias in the industry and craft solutions.

Park City, UT — Squeezing in even more independent awesomeness, Sundance Institute has added two new feature films, two special events and three archive films to the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
With these additions, the 2016 Festival will present 123 feature-length films, representing 37 countries and 49 first-time filmmakers, including 30 in competition. These films were selected from 12,793 submissions, including 4,081 feature-length films and 8,712 short films.

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today its full lineup of 72 short films that will leave a lasting impact on audiences long after the lights go up at their screenings at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Sundance and Ogden, Utah. Among the short films the Festival has shown in recent years are World of Tomorrow, Whiplash, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom and Fishing Without Nets. This year’s short film lineup will include both a Midnight and a New Frontier section, tying into the Festival’s other programmatic strands.

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute today completed its feature film lineup for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival with the highly anticipated narratives, documentaries, episodic work and events in the Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Spotlight, Sundance Kids and Special Events sections. The Festival takes place January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Sundance and Ogden, Utah. Among the films that have premiered in these sections in recent years are Boyhood, Brooklyn, Twenty Feet from Stardom, Life Itself, The End of the Tour, Mistress America, Frank, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Shaun the Sheep and The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.

Park City, UT — A revolution a decade in the making, Sundance Institute celebrates the 10th Anniversary of its New Frontier program with an exhibition of new work at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, including immersive cinematic works, virtual reality installations, an extensive lineup of documentary and narrative mobile VR experiences and an inside look at the innovations being developed at some of world’s leading media research labs. 10th Anniversary exhibitions will also be presented with MoMA in New York City in April, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis as part of Northern Spark in June.

(L-R) #100humans, Credit: 8i; theBlu: Encounter, Credit: Wevr; Queen Rose Family (da Stories), Credit: Kalup Linzy Studio.

Editor’s Note: In light of today’s terrible and developing news of yet another mass shooting, this time in San Bernardino, CA, our thoughts are with the victims and their families and the San Bernardino community. We are reminded of the ways that independent film can add insight and nuance that help us understand people and situations unknown. Our selections this year include a few films related to gun violence in America, and it is our hope — more than ever — that these films will lead to greater awareness of this issue and amplify the need for change.

Park City, UT — Offering a first look at the year ahead in independent film, culture and new ideas, Sundance Institute announced today the 65 films selected for the U.S. Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition NEXT category set to premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

Filmmaker Sean Baker has garnered applause and accolades year-round since premiering Tangerine, his “like-nothing-you’ve-ever-seen” film that channels relentless candor and realism in a refreshingly honest portrayal of transgender sex workers in Los Angeles. To kick off awards season, the film and its team received four Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations in an announcement that also saw Sundance favorites The Diary of a Teenage Girl and It Follows make plenty of noise. Below, we take a look at all of the Sundance-supported films and filmmakers nominated for the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Park City, UT — Adrenaline junkies and genre film-lovers know the real fun at the Sundance Film Festival starts at midnight. Sundance Institute tonight offers a first look at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival by announcing the nine feature films that will screen in its iconic Midnight section, which has launched films including The Blair Witch Project, SAW, Super Troopers, The Babadook, Black Dynamite, What We Do In The Shadows, Dead/Alive, Delicatessen, The Descent and Hard Candy. Explore this year’s nine Midnight films — seven of which feature badass leading ladies — in more detail on the Festival’s Digital Program Guide.

Los Angeles, CA — The second Sundance Institute | TED Prize Filmmaker Award, including a $125,000 grant, has been awarded to Havana Marking for her short documentary Bloody Money about corruption in the Ukrainian government — featuring the work of TED Prize winner Charmian Gooch of Global Witness whose TED Wish was to end anonymous shell companies.
Bloody Money, currently in production, is a financial thriller that follows an extraordinary story from Kiev to London to Washington, D.C.