The Sundance Institute’s labs, granting, and mentorship programs operate year-round to support independent artists and bring exciting new work into the world. Several of our programs are now accepting submissions.
If you’re looking for more opportunities to fine-tune your craft, visit Sundance Collab — our year-round digital space for global artists to learn, create, build a community, and champion independence in filmmaking.
Open Applications
2026 Development Track
The 2026 Development Track application will open April 15, 2025 and close May 14, 2025. The Development Track helps filmmakers find a visual language in an atmosphere where experimentation and risk-taking is encouraged. The development track has one open application that allows the artists’ work-in-progress fiction feature screenplay to be considered for programs, fellowships, and grants.
The Graton Artist Opportunity serves to cultivate a stage for artists from federally and non-federally recognized California Indian tribes to tell their stories through film. Artists will receive access to curated courses from the Sundance Institute Collab platform, which provides a virtual destination for emerging artists to learn craft and career strategies and to build community through courses, workshops, advisor sessions, extensive resources, and virtual community gatherings.
Dwight Anderson Ariel Investments, LLC Lin Arison Susan Cronyn Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Jake Eberts The Charles Engelhard Foundation Entertainment Industry Foundation Jeanne Donovan Fisher
Ford Foundation Mellody Hobson Cindy and Alan Horn Karen Lauder LisaBeth Foundation Occidental Petroleum Corporation Geoffrey K. Sands Target Corporation Steve Tisch Foundation Walter L. Weisman