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Ignite
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Ignite
Sundance Ignite identifies and supports new voices and talent from the next generation of filmmakers and fosters fresh audiences for independent storytelling. Established in 2015 with founding support from Adobe, the program offers individuals ages 18 to 25 the Young Adult Discount presented by Adobe at the Sundance Film Festival; the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship Program, a competitive and year-round artist-development program supporting emerging filmmakers ages 18 to 25 with a year of mentorship and program opportunities; and Sundance Ignite traveling programs.
Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship Program
Presented by Adobe, the yearlong Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship Program is open to 18 to 25-year-old emerging documentary and narrative filmmakers. The fellowship begins with a weeklong lab orienting filmmakers to the fellowship and year ahead. For the rest of the year, fellows work with their mentors, attend select Sundance Institute programs, enjoy eligibility for internships, receive additional creative and professional development opportunities, and attend the Sundance Film Festival. The fellows also receive a complimentary membership to Adobe Creative Cloud. To date, 80 fellows have gone through the program, and ten alumni have had their short films selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival.
The 2022 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Short Film Challenge will be open from February 14 to March 23, 2022. Subscribe to our emails (be sure to select ‘Artist Opportunities’) for more information.
2021 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellows
In collaboration with Adobe, Sundance Institute announced the 2021 class of Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellows in July 2021. The fellows were chosen from a broad global pool of more than 1,600 entrants to the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Short Film Challenge. Check out their winning films on Sundance Co//ab!
Diego Bragà
Diego Bragà was born in Minas Gerais, Brazil and lives in Lisbon, Portugal. Diego is a non-binary artist who began their studies through dance. They lock themselves in their office and dance frantically everyday. Diego received a lot of Love from their Ancestors, one of them dressed as a witch and chased them around the house. Diego tries to listen to the Universe, striving for a fluid, magical and beautiful future ahead.
Karina Dandashi
Karina Dandashi is a Syrian-American Muslim writer, director, and actress based in Brooklyn, NY. Her films aim to explore nuances in identity through family, religion, and culture in SWANA and Muslim communities in America. Karina is the 2021 Silver Sun Diverse Voices Filmmaker Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center. She is currently writing her first feature film.
Dylan Gee
Dylan Gee is a half-Chinese, half-Caucasian filmmaker. In 2019, she graduated from NYU’S Tisch with a B.F.A. in Film + Television Production. Through film, she’s interested in making sense of the absurdities around us. Dylan currently works at Anonymous Content and formerly worked at Angry Hero Entertainment. She’s working on an upcoming short and writing her first feature length film. She’s also obsessed with chess.
Justice Jamal Jones
Justice Jamal Jones (He/They) is a filmmaker, actor, and writer based in New York City. Jones is a graduate of New York University with a degree in Arts Therapy for “Marginalized” Groups. As a self-proclaimed Black queer alchemist, they intergrate Black Feminist and Queer theory into my art alongside Black diasporic spiritual pratices, tranforming everyday mundane western occurrences and conjuring them into seremdipitious collisions of of progressive storytelling, that center the marginalized.
Recently their debut film “How To Raise A Black Boy” has been recognized at Cleveland International Film Festival, Outfest Fusion Film Festival, and at Atlanta Film Festival, where Jones won “Filmmaker to Watch.'” The film also had its digital premiere with NOWNESS. Justice is also the founder of Rainbow Farm Productions (Rainbowfarmprod.com), and they are developing their first feature film “Crossroads Blues.”
Dubheasa Lanipekun
Dubheasa is a South London based writer, director, and producer working across film and theatre. She is a co-founder of failsafe, an arts collective focusing on the importance of embracing failure in the creative process and also aims to bring opportunities to other budding young creatives. Dubheasa currently works in photography based arts education and on independent films while writing and directing her own work in between projects.
Lindiwe Makgalemele
Lindiwe Makgalemele is a South African filmmaker based in the United Kingdom. She is a graduate of Harvard University with an honour’s degree in History and Science and a minor in Romance Languages and Literature. Her short film, The Town, has just began its festival run. Lindiwe is interested in stories that celebrate the small, intimate, and spectacular moments that make up people’s lives, particularly those of black and African women. She is currently completing a master’s degree at the University of Oxford and developing a short she intends to shoot this Fall.
Maliyamungu Gift Muhande
Maliyamungu Gift Muhande is a Congolese Documentary filmmaker and Artist based in New York City. In 2020 she Directed a 6-week, film program for under-represented teens in Monticello, NY. From that program came her documentary-in-progress Near Broadway, co-created with her students, about their lives in the economically depressed town and in the U.S. as it exists today. Muhande’s short documentary on the 80-year-old African American New York City street photographer, Louis Mendes, was screened in the fall of 2020 as part of the Doc NYC film festival and was selected by the National Board of Review. She is currently working on expanding this short into a feature film.
Natalie Murao
Natalie Murao is a yonsei (fourth generation Japanese Canadian) filmmaker from Vancouver. She received a BFA in Film Production from Simon Fraser University. Her work explores themes of generational disconnect, personal memory, and communication. Her latest short film, No More Parties (2020), was selected for Telefilm Canada’s Not Short on Talent program at Clermont-Ferrand and is now available to watch on digital TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of their Community Impact shelf.
Marilyn Oliva
As a first-generation Latina filmmaker hailing from the Bay Area with an educational background in Anthropology, Latinx Studies, and Documentary Media, Marilyn Oliva is an independent documentary and experimental filmmaker. Her experimental films explore the diversity of Latina/o/x communities and lives, often using oral indigenous histories. Furthermore, her documentary films explore how the Latina/o/x community navigates several U.S. social, political, and economic institutions.
Juanita Umana
Juanita is a filmmaker from Bogota, Colombia based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her films and documentaries explore the personal and subtle moments of family life with a focus on social commentary. When she’s not directing or writing her own films, she enjoys working as a camera assistant and production assistant.
Young Adult Discount presented by Adobe
The Young Adult Discount presented by Adobe at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival is made possible by Adobe’s support of the Sundance Ignite program. With the discount, Festival goers ages 18 to 25 are offered 50% off all tickets and passes while supplies last. At the 2022 Festival, we also hope you’ll join us for Ignite Day on Monday, January 24, when we’ll be offering a curation of free events and screenings for emerging filmmakers.
Young Adult Discount in Utah
In Utah, the Young Adult Discount is supported in part by the CARES Act and the Utah State Legislature through Utah Arts & Museums. As described above, Utah residents ages 18 to 25 are offered 50% off all tickets and passes while supplies last.
Sundance London
Sundance Ignite partners with Adobe on a special event at Sundance Film Festival: London for emerging filmmakers ages 18 to 25. The all-day program includes free screenings, workshops, and a meet and greet with UK-based industry members.
Support
Sundance Ignite is supported by Adobe; Arison Arts Foundation; The Birth of a Nation Fellowship, founded by the creative and producing teams of the film; Southwest Airlines; East West Bank; and Jason Michael Berman.
News & Stories
To Fly or Not to Fly, That’s Not the Question
The Sundance Labs: Where Indie Films Go To Thrive
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