Category: News

The Feature Film Program’s Screenplay Reading Series of Works-in-Progress has had a burst of activity in the last month, with three readings in a span of three weeks! In each case, we were thrilled to give a Feature Film Program Fellow the opportunity to hear their screenplay brought to life by an ensemble of talented actors, and to bring the Sundance Institute community together to experience this unique process.
Actors at the screenplay reading of Stem in Los Angeles. Photo by Alex Wyman.

LOS ANGELES, CA – Sundance Institute and Cinereach today announced the 2011 projects awarded grants for development, production, or post-production as part of a $1.5 million, three-year initiative, The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute. The initiative is designed to support documentary and narrative feature film projects with themes that evoke global cultural exchange and social impact, and projects representing emerging and innovative voices selected for their distinctive and personal storytelling.

Park City, UT– Sundance Institute today announced the films selected for the 2011 Sundance Institute Summer Film Series, presenting a mix of films selected from audience and critical favorites from Sundance Film Festivals.  Now in its 14th year, the free series will kick off on June 29 with a screening of the popular rock documentary, It Might Get Loud, and run through August 31 at Park City’s City Park and Salt Lake City’s Red Butte Garden.
With a strong history of serving as a cultural catalyst by bringing films and artists to the area, the nonprofit Sundance Institute is once again joining forces with other local organizations to create memorable film events while strengthening community engagement and expanding its audience base.

TUCSON, ARIZONA — Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue, an initiative of the nonprofit Sundance Institute created in partnership with U.S. federal cultural agencies, will present free screenings of 10 award-winning films throughout the city of Tucson, it was announced today by Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute.

In the language of the Anishinabek people of the Great Lakes area of the United States, diba jimooyung means “telling our story.” It’s also the name of a beautiful exhibit that the Film Forward crew got to visit during our time here on the Saginaw Chippewa reservation in Michigan. Blending artifacts, oral tradition, computer technology, film, and hands-on interaction, the exhibit allows you to “experience” the story of the Anishinabek people and their ongoing struggle to hold onto to their land, language, and life ways.

Los Angeles, CA – Sundance Institute today announced that Julia Bloch is the recipient of the Sally Menke Memorial Fellowship, created in memory of the organization’s close friend and inspired mentor who died in September of 2010.
“A talented and lauded film editor, Menke was deeply invested in Sundance Institute as a long-time Creative Advisor for the Institute’s Labs and Rough Cut Screenings. said Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program.

LOS ANGELES, CA—Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, today announced that Sundance Institute has been recommended for a grant of $150,000 to support the Institute’s work in feature film. Sundance Institute is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency’s second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Arts Endowment will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.

Park City, UT – The 2011 Sundance Film Festival generated an overall economic impact of $70.8 million for the State of Utah, supported over 1600 jobs, generated over $27 million in media exposure and provided nearly $6 million in tax revenue, according to the annual economic and demographic study conducted by the University of Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the David Eccles School of Business (BEBR). The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the findings today, which were generated using an economic impact model known as RIMS II, developed by the U.

Los Angeles, CA. — Sundance Institute announced today the four fellows and projects selected for the 2011 NativeLab Fellowship. Artists selected will be part of a development program aimed at providing continuous and direct support to Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaskan Native film artists.

“It’s so fun to be able to explore what your voice is by doing a short film,” said Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, to a wide-eyed crowd at Columbia College Chicago this past Saturday. “For me, I think there are subject matters that lend themselves to the short form. Aspects of life, things that happen, are better suited for a short film.

Two Sundance Institute staffers arrived in Michigan for the next stop on the Film Forward tour. A Michigan native and manager of the Institute’s Indigenous Program, D. Owl Johnson discusses his hopes for the next few days while Film Forward manager Brittany Ballard previews upcoming events.

NEW YORK CITY — The Sundance Institute Theatre Program today announced it will be workshopping from May 17-29, 2011, PAPER DOLLS, a new play written by the Program’s Producing Artistic Director Philip Himberg and directed by Mark Brokaw. This mini-lab will offer Himberg rehearsal space with actors as well as critiques from Institute alumni Doug Wright (I am My Own Wife) and Jessica Hagedorn (Dogeaters). Himberg has adapted the play from documentary film of the same name by Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann.