Category: News

Should I be filming now at all?
This is the big question.
Many independent filmmakers are asking it of themselves and each other right now in the midst of COVID-19.
Is it possible to film safely now, or anytime soon, given how infectious this coronavirus is?
Every day at Sundance, we and our colleagues in the field are discussing and debating this question, as Carrie Lozano of the Independent Documentary Association poignantly describes in a recent article.

Groundbreaking Group of Emerging Media Creatives Convene to Push the Boundaries of Storytelling and Technology
Los Angeles, CA — Six projects and artist teams have been selected for the 2020 Sundance Institute New Frontier Story Lab, which supports independent artists working at the cutting-edge convergence of film, art, media, live performance, and technology.
Reimagined for this year as a digital experience on Sundance Co//ab, the New Frontier Story Lab empowers independent creatives through individual story sessions, conversations about key artistic, design and technology issues, and case study presentations from Creative Advisors and Industry mentors across multiple disciplines. The Lab takes place May 12-19, with weekly sessions continuing through July 28th, under the leadership of Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Founding Director Michelle Satter and Interim Director of New Frontier Labs Ruthie Doyle.

“At some point, your own story becomes history.” — David France, director of How to Survive a Plague
Some
of the biggest moments and movements in modern human history have been
(or are being) carefully documented by independent artists working in
film, theatre, VR, music, and beyond—not to mention protesters on the ground in cities across our country.
In honor of Preservation Week in April, we took some time to recognize storytellers and those responsible for safekeeping and sharing our collective stories for generations to come.

THE SUNDANCE INSTITUTE IS NOW ON LETTERBOXD! Follow us on the social media platform for more Festival-related watchlists and exclusive content.
For those of us who really, really love movies, there’s nothing quite
like the experience of watching a film flicker to life on a big screen
in the company of a captive (and captivated) audience. However, these
are strange times, and as we adjust to the reality that it may be a
while before we’re able to file into theaters once again, we’ve been
finding new ways to commune with our fellow cinephiles.

In celebration of Friday, April 2, aka World Autism Awareness Day, we’ve rounded up a wide range of Sundance-supported films celebrating neurodiversity that you’ll want to add to your weekend watchlist. Start with the Academy Award–winning documentary Life, Animated by Roger Ross Williams, a selection from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and don’t miss Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s documentary Dina, which won the U.S.

“A film composer can be dubbed an auteur in the same sense as a filmmaker,” Katy Jarzebowski told us a few years ago when we quizzed a few fellows from our Film Music Sound Design Lab (psst—applications are open for the 2020 lab through April 20) about their favorite film scores. Jarzebowski waxed poetic on Danny Elfman’s Edward Scissorhands score, while Ryan Cohan expressed his admiration for Bernard Herrmann’s work in Taxi Driver and K.T.

Less than three months ago, the team behind Never Rarely Sometimes Always was in Park City premiering the project at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize for Neo-Realism. Eliza Hittman’s incredibly moving, visceral film—about two teenagers from rural Pennsylvania who travel to New York City so one of them can get an abortion—went on to win the Silver Bear in Berlin in late February ahead of the film’s theatrical release on March 13. Just a few days later, movie theaters around the country started closing due to the growing threat of COVID-19.

Year-Long Fellowship, in Collaboration with Universal Filmed Entertainment Group,
Launches with Two-Day Intensive
Los Angeles — Sundance Institute today announced the ten writer/directors selected for the fifth annual FilmTwo Fellowship supported by Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, which kicks off a year-long track of customized creative and tactical support with a two-day Intensive. Created to foster career sustainability as independent creators develop their second feature films, the Intensive includes a writing workshop, industry mentoring sessions, and one-on-one story meetings with Creative Advisors.
Recent alumni of FilmTwo include Lulu Wang, Marielle Heller, Andrew Ahn, Sally El Hosaini,, Crystal Moselle Laure de Clermont Tonnere and Steven Caple, Jr.

In June 1982, a group of independent filmmakers arrived at the Sundance Mountain Resort to attend the then-fledgling Sundance Institute’s second-ever Directors Lab—among them, a Harvard undergrad named Marisa Silver, who was there to workshop her coming-of-age story Old Enough. Working with a group of advisors that included Institute founder Robert Redford, actress Mary Beth Hurt, and Street Music director Jenny Bowen, Silver laid the groundwork for a project that would eventually introduce young actresses Rainbow Harvest, Sarah Boyd, and Alyssa Milano to the world.
To kick off Women’s History Month, we dug through the Institute’s archives to get the stories behind 11 such projects that have since been produced, offering up a peek behind the scenes and celebrating the careers of these groundbreaking women directors.

Writers and Advisors from a Broad Array of Backgrounds Come Together to Advance Distinctive Screenplays
LOS ANGELES — Twelve screenwriters have been selected to participate in Sundance Institute’s eighth annual Screenwriters Intensive in Los Angeles, to take place March 4-5, 2020. The Intensive, a two-day workshop for select emerging writers and writer-directors from underrepresented communities, focuses on the development of first fiction features. Fellows at the Intensive will advance the art and craft of their work under the guidance of experienced filmmakers and the Institute’s Feature Film Program, led by Founding Director Michelle Satter and Deputy Director Ilyse McKimmie.

As part of an ongoing partnership focused on developing and nurturing the next generation of independent artists, Sundance Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation select a handful of Knight Fellows to attend the Sundance Film Festival every year as part of our Talent Forum.

Black women directors have created some of the most powerful, nuanced, and layered stories of our time. From indie hits to serious blockbusters, projects written and directed by Black women have proven to be essential in contributing a unique cinematic gaze. In the span of 40 years, Sundance Institute has supported numerous black women artists in telling their stories via labs, grants, and the annual Festival in Park City.