Category: News

Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age epic Boyhood, Ana Lily Amirpour’s genre-bending vampire drama A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and Damien Chazelle’s emotionally taut debut Whiplash led the way for Sundance-supported films at this morning’s announcement of the 2015 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. Below, we highlight and congratulate all of the Sundance-supported films and filmmakers nominated for awards. The winners will be announced Feb.

New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the seven artists selected for its 2015 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation. The 16th annual writing colony at the 20,000-acre working cattle ranch outside of Sheridan, WY takes place February 2-20. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Playwrights Retreat is made possible through the generosity of Ucross Foundation.

Welcome to the new sundance.org!
We’ve refined and streamlined our design to allow you to more easily connect with the work, ideas, opportunities, and events at Sundance Institute year-round. We hope you will explore, see what we’re up to, and get involved – whether as an artist applying for a Lab or grant, a supporter looking to engage with the Institute, a film lover attending the Sundance Film Festival, or a culture hound looking to connect with great work and a vibrant community.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees today announced that Pat Mitchell has been elected as new Board Chair effective immediately.  Mitchell succeeds Walter L. Weisman who has served on the Sundance Institute Board of Trustees since 1988 and has been designated by the Board as Chair Emeritus.

Los Angeles, CA —Sundance Institute and The Royal Film Commission – Jordan announced the six projects selected for the 10th anniversary of the Rawi Screenwriters Lab, which took place October 28 to November 1 in Amman, Jordan. Created as a cornerstone of the Institute’s deep commitment to artists in the Middle East, the Lab has supported over seventy artists from more than a dozen countries.
The two first features produced from the inaugural 2005 Lab premiered at the Sundance Film Festival: Pomegranates and Myrrh, written and directed by Najwa Najjar (Palestine) and Amreeka, written and directed by Cherien Dabis (Palestine/Jordan/US).

Miami, FL — Sundance Institute and Knight Foundation announced today the first Artist Services workshop in Miami will take place this Saturday, October 25 at O Cinema Wynwood. Miami-area filmmakers are invited to attend the free day-long workshop and join industry experts in a critical conversation around creative financing, digital distribution, guerilla marketing and independent theatrical distribution.
Featured speakers include: Dennis Scholl (Knight Foundation), Straith Schreder (BitTorrent Inc), Jeremy Schwartz (SquareSpace), Emily Eddey (Light Iron), Toby Halbrooks (Producer, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints), Jessica Jalsevac (Gumroad), James M.

New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the projects and artists that will participate in its two Fall artist development programs: the inaugural Playwrights Studio at Flying Point in Water Mill, NY (October 19-26), as well as the two-week Theatre Lab (November 30 – December 14) for musical theatre, ensemble-generated projects and solo work at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the initiatives are among the Theatre Program’s five annual Labs and Residencies for theatre artists and part of the 24 artist residency labs across many creative disciplines Sundance Institute offers annually.
New this fall, the Playwrights Studio at Flying Point offers Theatre Program alumni an uninterrupted period of  time and the space to work on their projects in a studio setting.

Los Angeles — Sundance Institute today announced that $1 million in new funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will bring  artist development day labs to eight cities across the U.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the six projects selected for the New Frontier Story Lab, October 22-27 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Inspired by New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival and built on the renowned Sundance Institute Lab model, the Lab specifically supports artists innovating the art and form of storytelling at the convergence of film, visual art, media, live performance, music and technology.
The selected creative teams and projects are: Karim Ben Khelifa and Chloé Jarry (The Enemy), Dandypunk and Darin Basile (Heart Corps), Tracy Fullerton and Lucas Peterson (Walden, A Game), Braden King and Matthew Moore (Weather), Hasan Minhaj and Greg Walloch (Sakoon/Paint The Town) and Navid and Vassiliki Khonsari (1979 Revolution).

From Iraqi role-players to a demolition derby driver to an Ivy League impostor—provocative, unique, and emotionally compelling characters have always been central to Jesse Moss’s storytelling. The latest film by this award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer is no exception. The Overnighters, which recently premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Intuitive Filmmaking, follows a Lutheran pastor in the oil boomtown of Williston, North Dakota.

Seven million people live in Hong Kong, an area that’s just half the size of Rhode Island. The waterfront skyline is a mashup of skyscrapers and mountains. The humidity makes the air heavy and still.

Shawntai Genell Brown is a freelance blogger, playwright, storyteller and poet living in Detroit, Michigan. She is sharing her experience of Film Forward: Michigan on her blog: Shawntai’s Spiral Notebook.
Last night at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History, Detroiters kept the moderator dancing the mic around the room, giving voices with something to say a chance with the talking stick.