Category: News

Nominations for the 88th Academy Awards were announced this morning and John Crowley’s Brooklyn, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, led all Sundance-supported films with three nominees, including Best Picture. Saoirse Ronan garnered a Best Actress nomination for her role in the film as Eilis, a young woman forced to choose between the allure of love in New York City and her abandoned roots back home in Ireland. On the nonfiction side, Matthew Heinemen’s perilous – and increasingly pertinent – journey into the world of Mexican drug cartels received a Best Documentary nod along with fellow 2015 Sundance docs The Look of Silence and What Happened, Miss Simone?
See below for the full list of Sundance-supported projects and artists receving Oscar nods.

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute has summoned 23 film, theatre, culture and science experts for jury duty to award 27 prizes at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

(L-R) Sundance Film Festival, Credit: Fred Hayes; Taika Waititi, Credit: Sundance Film Festival; Director Crystal Moselle, Credit:Jemal Countess.
Also announced today, filmmaker and Institute alum Taika Waititi will host the feature film Awards Ceremony on Saturday, January 30 at 7:00 p.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today the 12 projects selected for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab, an immersive, five-day writers’ workshop at the Sundance Resort in Utah, January 15-20. The Lab is one of 25 residency Labs the Institute hosts each year for independent artists in theatre, film, new media and episodic content. Under the leadership of Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, with Ilyse McKimmie, Labs Director, Feature Film Program, participating independent screenwriters will have the opportunity to develop their feature film scripts with the support of accomplished writers in an environment that encourages creative risk-taking and original storytelling.

Park City, UT — Adding to the excitement of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival’s onscreen films and episodic programming, Sundance Institute announced today the lineup for its offscreen panels, which will feature renowned artists and experts in conversation. This year’s panels will address topics including the relationship between media technology and storytelling, film aesthetics and the use of celluloid, music design, casting, and environmentalism. The Festival will again host the Art of Film Weekend, celebrating the craft of filmmaking January 28-30.

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.