Equity, Impact, and Belonging
Equity, Impact, & Belonging
The Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program encompasses our initiatives across all programs within our organization to deepen engagement with and support of storytellers and audiences across ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and geographic regions. In doing so, we work to increase the diversity of projects submitted for consideration to all Institute programs — including labs, intensives, grants, and the Sundance Film Festival — and to inspire emerging artists to tell their stories.
DIRECT ARTIST SUPPORT
Trans Possibilities Intensive
Created and led by Moi Santos, the Sundance Institute Trans Possibilities Intensive is a three-part event held over three days focused on the advancement of emerging transgender storytellers of color and their projects. Under the guidance of experienced creative and peer advisors, as well as Sundance Institute’s Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program, the intensive provides project-based granting and a supportive environment for participating artists to sharpen their skills, develop community, and challenge the obstacles that continue to exclude transgender artists.
At the conclusion of the three-day intensive, the general public has the opportunity to join an exclusive conversation on Sundance Collab — Sundance Institute’s digital space for artists to learn from experts and build a global filmmaking community — called Toward Trans Possibilities.
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CULTIVATING COMMUNITY & BELONGING
Community Access Program
Sundance Institute’s Community Access Program aims to deepen our relationships and collaborations with like-minded arts organizations and companies that engage in the support and development of artists, especially emerging artists, from underrepresented communities.
Each year, we look at expanding and diversifying our Festival audience by dispersing free and discounted tickets to the Sundance Film Festival through intentional outreach to BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disability-led artist support organizations locally and nationally. Please stay tuned for more information.
Some of these organizations include:
PAST PROGRAMS
A selection of past programs that we’ve done:
FIELD RESEARCH
Race and Gender Analysis of Sundance Submissions and Acceptances
In 2019, we collaborated with Dr. Stacy L. Smith and her accomplished team at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to analyze the demographics of all Sundance Film Festival applicants and accepted participants, as well as that of select artist labs, across three years as a means to better understand the systematic barriers for artists from underrepresented communities.
FIELD RESEARCH
Barriers and Opportunities for Women Filmmakers
Together with Women In Film LA, we commissioned first-of-its-kind research with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Culminating in 2015, this study analyzed gender composition among content creators from the independent film sector. Looking at data and interviews from the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute lab participants, our research revealed key barriers and opportunities for women filmmakers that now form the core of the Women at Sundance program.
FIELD RESEARCH
Press Inclusion Initiative
In 2018, Sundance Institute launched the Press Inclusion Initiative, designed to address systemic barriers faced by critics from underrepresented groups and diversify the press corps at the Sundance Film Festival, which is critical to broadening the discourse around the Festival program and giving each film the best opportunity to find and grow its audience.”
For more information on the Press Inclusion Initiative, please reach out to press@sundance.org.
Support
The Sundance Institute Equity, Impact, & Belonging Program is made possible by founding support from the Time Warner Foundation. Additional leadership support is provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Emerson Collective, Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, NBCUniversal, The Harnisch Foundation, Warner Bros. Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Adobe, Ford Foundation, Jason Delane Lee and Yvonne Huff Lee, Rene and Rena Cruz—Esperanza Arts Foundation, Netflix, SAGindie, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Philip Fung—A3 Foundation, Warner Media Group, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Open Society Foundations.