Category: News

PARK CITY, UTAH — When Robert Epstein initially sought to make a film about the dynamic, up-and-coming San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, he had no idea that Milk’s life would end tragically. He also couldn’t predict that The Times of Harvey Milk would screen at the first Sundance Film Festival, win an Academy Award, and decades later inspire a young Dustin Lance Black to write the screenplay for the feature dramatic film Milk. On Wednesday, June 3, at 7 p.

Los Angeles, CA – Sundance Institute today announced the four Fellows and projects selected for the 2009 Sundance Institute Ford Foundation Film Fellowship: Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest), Adam Piron (The Last Thanksgiving), Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson (Nanum Kigutinga (The Nanuk’s Tooth)), and Brian Young (Walk in Beauty). Chosen from a pool of distinguished artists representing diverse Native communities and backgrounds, these fellows will participate in the Institute’s Native Filmmakers Lab to be held on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico May 18-22, and attend various events at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Under the guidance of Bird Runningwater, Associate Director, Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Program, the Native Filmmakers Lab provides an opportunity for Native filmmakers to workshop their early-stage work in an environment that encourages innovation, collaboration and risk-taking.

Los Angeles, CA – Sundance Institute and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) announced today the selection of playwrights Quincy Long and Matthew Paul Olmos and filmmakers Ritesh Batra and Elgin James as the 2009 Time Warner Storytelling Fellows.
The Time Warner Storytelling Advancement Fund, established in 2007, provides substantial support over four years to help fund the development and celebration of independent artists across Sundance Institute’s Feature Film and Theatre Programs.

LOS ANGELES, CA — Sundance Institute today announced Trevor Groth has been named Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, effective immediately. A 16-year veteran of the Festival, Groth had been a Senior Programmer handling both narrative and documentary feature selection and leading the Festival’s Short Film Section. In his new role Groth will head up the six person programming team that is responsible for curating the Festival’s on-screen and off-screen events.

PARK CITY, UTAH — Jaws, The Shining, There Will Be Blood… All are examples of films for which score is as important as story. The relationship between director and composer is central to the filmmaking process: What would a Steven Spielberg movie be without John Williams? Or one of Tim Burton’s films without Danny Elfman? Carter Burwell’s score for the Cohen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men was a mere 16 minutes in length — although the film was over two hours long — how are such decisions made? On Wednesday, May 6, audiences are invited into the powerful world of film music hosted by Peter Golub, the award-winning film composer and director of Sundance Institute’s Film Music Program. Free to the public, the event is part of the Sundance Institute Film Series, a year-round community film series offering works that best represent the Institute’s spectrum of programs.

Los Angeles, CA – Sundance Institute today announced the five projects chosen for the 2009 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab to be held July 7 -22 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Under the stewardship of Sundance Institute Theatre Program’s Artistic Director Philip Himberg, the projects and participants selected for this year’s residency are: Diagram of a Paper Airplane (Carlos Murillo); An Iliad (Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson); The Lily’s Revenge (Taylor Mac); Ngwino Ubeho (Come and Be Alive) (Odile Gakire Gatire); and Palomino (David Cale).
“The 2009 Sundance Theatre Lab reaffirms the Institute’s commitment to serious and poetic writing for the stage; as well as our insistence that artists of vision be given the room and support to create works of great ambition.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the 12 projects selected for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from June 2-26, 2009.  Under the leadership of Michelle Satter, Director of the Sundance Feature Film Program, and the artistic direction of Gyula Gazdag, the projects selected for this year’s program include emerging filmmakers from the United States, China, India, Morocco, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. The core of the Feature Film Program, these Labs provide an opportunity for filmmakers to develop distinctive new work under the guidance of accomplished Creative Advisors in an environment that encourages innovation, collaboration, and risk-taking.

LOS ANGELES—Wally Weisman, chair of the board of the Sundance Institute, today announced the resignation of Ken Brecher, executive director of the Institute, effective April 30, 2009. Weisman stated that Brecher had led the Institute for nearly 14 years through a period of significant growth, productivity, and global impact. Brecher will assume the role of strategic advisor for the Institute for the next two years.

Due to overwhelming demand, a second screening has been added at 8:45 p.m. Seattle Art Museum in conjunction with Sundance Institute will celebrate Native America filmmaking with free screenings on April 15, 2009 of Sikumi (On the Ice), a short film directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupiaq), followed by Miss Navajo, a full-length film directed by Billy Luther (Navajo, Hopi, and Laguna).

OXFORD, ENGLAND – Sundance Institute and Skoll Foundation today announced the final five grant recipients of the STORIES OF CHANGE: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN FOCUS THROUGH DOCUMENTARY initiative, a three-year partnership designed to enable the creation of new, feature-length independent documentary films that frame, examine and amplify social entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to meeting the central challenges of our time. The announcement, which includes a film about Nobel Prize Winner  Muhammad Yunus among the grantees, was made at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, the premier annual conference that brings together the world’s foremost practitioners and leaders in the field.
In 2008, STORIES OF CHANGE launched a request for proposals and received more than 300 film projects filmmakers around the world interested in telling the stories of social entrepreneurs.

The Seattle Art Museum — in conjunction with Sundance Institute — will celebrate Native American filmmaking with free screenings on April 15, 2009, of Sikumi (On the Ice), a short film directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupiaq), followed by Miss Navajo, a full-length film directed by Billy Luther (Navajo, Hopi, and Laguna). Highlights of the evening will include a Q&A with filmmaker Billy Luther moderated by Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache), Associate Director, Native American and Indigenous Program for the Sundance Institute.Sundance Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Program hosts screenings, panels, events, and workshops throughout the year designed to foster community and the exchange of ideas among Native American and Indigenous filmmakers.

On Saturday, April 4, Sundance Institute Film Series will present a Short Films Showcase, free screenings of nine short films showcasing the creative, boundary-pushing work of both filmmaking’s rising talent and of established directors — all who have a connection to Sundance Film Festival. Designed to be a free-flowing event, the screenings begin with Shorts Program I at 5 pm, followed at 6:30 pm by Short Films – Big Impact: a filmmaker panel and Q&A moderated by Sundance Film Festival programmers Trevor Groth and Todd Luoto, followed by Shorts Program II at 8 pm. All programs are free to the public and will be held in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center’s Jeanné Wagner Theatre, 138 West, 300 South in Salt Lake City.