Category: News

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced it will present its Vanguard Award to filmmaker and actor Nate Parker at NIGHT BEFORE NEXT, a summer celebration benefiting the Institute and its artists on the eve of Sundance NEXT FEST at the iconic Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, August 11. Parker’s directorial debut, The Birth of a Nation, premiered to great response at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize. The Vanguard Award will be presented to Parker during the cocktails and dinner portion of the evening.

Like a lot of people, I’ve spent much of the past week thinking about the recent attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando—the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Park City, Utah — Sundance Institute today announced that its 2016 Sundance Film Festival, which took place in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah in January, generated an overall economic activity of $143.3 million and gross domestic product of $72.5 million in the State of Utah, according to the independent annual economic and demographic study conducted by the University of Utah’s Kem C.

Sundance Institute extends its celebration of the 10th anniversary of New Frontier this week with Virtual Reality: The New Frontier, running June 12–16 at the Walker Art Center. The presentation includes a lineup of works from the 2016 edition of New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival along with specially selected pieces by local Minnesota artists. In the April edition of Leonardo, the Walker’s Sheryl Mousley and our own Shari Frilot (New Frontier’s chief curator) shared an illustrated survey that revisits the sprawling work of New Frontier over the last 10 years.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today that it has been awarded two grants from The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to support professional training and development for emerging feature film artists from nontraditional backgrounds. The grants, which were made through the Academy’s Grants and Nicholl Fellowships programs, support the Institute’s 2016 Native Filmmakers Lab and the Feature Film Program’s June Screenwriters Lab.A $17,500 FilmCraft grant has been given to the Institute’s Native Program for its 2016 Native Filmmakers Lab.

In the immortal words of pop empress Britney Spears: “Sundance is weird. The movies are weird – you actually have to think about them when you watch them.” Lest we forget, this erudite quote has been pinned to bulletin boards around Sundance offices for years.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute has selected 25 projects to participate in its Screenwriters Lab, Documentary Edit and Story Labs and new Theatre-Makers Residency, which will take place concurrently this summer in the mountains of the Sundance Resort in Utah. The confluence of these three artist development programs will provide Fellows the unprecedented opportunity to experience portions of the other Labs and will support a cross-pollination of creativity and personal expression across different storytelling forms.Under the guidance of established creative advisors, screenwriters will participate in individualized story sessions exploring their work-in-progress screenplays while documentary filmmakers in post-production embark on a rigorous exploration of story, structure, and character development.

Shane McSaubyCredit: Sundance Institute

2015 Native Filmmakers LabCredit: Babak Dowlatshahi

Willi WhiteCredit: Sundance Institute

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today the two emerging Native American storytellers who will participate in the 2016 Native Filmmakers Lab. Shane McSauby (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians)and Willi White (Oglala Lakota) will attend the Lab and receive guidance from esteemed Creative Advisors. After the Lab they will receive grants to fund the production of their short films, targeted support from a supervising producer and participation in the annual Native Forum at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

(L-R) Photo credit: Instagram user @kerfuffleupagus; Photo credit: Instagram user @xebede; Photo credit: Instagram user @danibaum
Park City, UT — Trade your parka for a picnic blanket and join Sundance Institute for screenings of indie favorites under the stars in Salt Lake City and Park City this summer. Sundance Institute today announced 7 of the 8 Sundance Film Festival films that will be featured at the 2016 Sundance Institute Summer Film Series. For the first time ever, the Institute will be screening a 3D version of Under The Electric Sky outdoors at City Park.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced that filmmaker Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) and theatre artist Lisa Kron (Fun Home) have joined its Board of Trustees.
Under the guidance of President & Founder Robert Redford and Board Chair Pat Mitchell, in close collaboration with Executive Director Keri Putnam, the 25-person Board is responsible for the governance of the nonprofit Sundance Institute.
Coogler and Kron join the Board as Artist Trustees, who are participants from Institute programs, including the Sundance Film Festival, artistic Labs and direct granting, who share with the Board their perspectives and act as liaisons to other Institute alumni.

©2016 Jonathan Hickerson, courtesy of Sundance Institute

Virtual Reality: The New Frontier
Takes You to 18 Virtual Worlds at Northern Spark 2016 and the Walker Art Center

Presented by Northern Lights.mn, The Walker Art Center,
and Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Program

Northern Spark official start & end times: 9:00 pm until 5:26 am
Mill City neighborhood / Minneapolis, MN / Free* & Open to the Public
(*except ticketed Launch Party)

Walker Art Center
Loring Park Neighborhood/ Minneapolis, MN/ Free with gallery admission
Sunday, June 12, 2-4 pm, Art Lab
Tuesday, June 14, 3-5 pm, Art Lab
Wednesday, June 15, 2-4 pm, Art Lab
Thursday, June 16, 5-8 pm, Garden Terrace Room (Target Free Thursday Night)

MINNEAPOLIS, May 26, 2016—Beginning on June 11 at the 6th annual Northern Spark festival and continuing at the Walker Art Center until June 16, 2016 step into a new immersive medium and roam with bison in the wild, swim with whales in the deep ocean or explore a mysterious asteroid. Virtual Reality: The New Frontier, is an international selection of virtual reality works that represents some of the most compelling narrative and documentary VR storytelling being independently created today.

It’s almost never easy or convenient to broach the issues that warrant our attention. Admittedly, sometimes our collective aversion to truly confronting our world’s pain is a problem. When we channel the courage to do so, we usually find that the commonality offers its own sense of healing.