Category: News

A message from Festival Director Tabitha Jackson on the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, scheduled for January 20–30, 2022.
Dear Friends,
This time last year, I wrote to share some early thoughts about how we were approaching my first Sundance Film Festival as director — and the first Sundance to be held in the midst of a pandemic.
Since 1985, artists and audiences have gathered at the Festival to affirm the transformative power of independent film and media.

LOS ANGELES — The Sundance Institute Board of Trustees today announced that Ebs Burnough will serve as the nonprofit’s next Chair, Board of Trustees, starting in October 2021. Ebs was appointed as the Board’s Vice Chair in 2020, and he will succeed Pat Mitchell when her term as Chair expires in October 2021. She will continue on as a Trustee when Ebs assumes the role of Chair.

LOS ANGELES — As part of the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s continued commitment to supporting artists from historically excluded communities, the Institute announced today its latest grantees for both the Uprise Grant Fund and Arts Organization Grants. The Uprise Grant Fund supports BIPOC artists whose careers and creative development have been harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-eight U.

LOS ANGELES — The class of 2021 has arrived: The Sundance Institute and Adobe announced this year’s Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellows today, chosen from a global pool of more than 1,650 applicants from ages 18–25. Hailing from a broad geography, and rooted in a diverse array of creative disciplines from documentary to fiction, these 10 emerging artists will engage with a year of mentorship and support from the Sundance Institute and Sundance Ignite founding partner Adobe.
Fellows were selected from a one- to 15-minute short film submitted to the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Short Film Challenge, hosted on the Institute’s digital community platform, Sundance Collab.

Park City, Utah – Sundance Institute today announced the participants for its weeklong Producers Lab, taking place July 25 – 29, and the participants in the Producers Summit, August 2 – 5, both taking place digitally on Sundance Co//ab. Five fiction film and five nonfiction producers and their projects have been selected for the Producers Labs, and more than 50 industry leaders and 65 independent filmmakers will participate in the Producers Summit. Under the leadership of Creative Producing and Artist Support Director Shira Rockowitz and Documentary Film Program Deputy Director Kristin Feeley, the Institute’s Producers Program champions the current and next generation of producers across fiction and nonfiction film and encompasses a year-round series of Labs, Fellowships, granting and events.

LOS ANGELES – The Sundance Institute and WIF (Women In Film, Los Angeles) today announce the projects and creators selected for the annual WIF and Sundance Institute Financing Intensive. The Intensive is designed to help women producers—fiction and documentary—build
the skills and relationships necessary to advance a feature-length project to the next stage of financing success.
On July 14–15, producers and their attached directors participate in small group workshops focused on both pitching and financing strategy, and professional skills development.

LOS ANGELES—Today, Laugh Out Loud, the multi-platform comedy brand founded by Kevin Hart, and the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit film organization behind the Sundance Film Festival and labs, announced the launch of Women Write Now, a screenwriting fellowship designed to champion the next generation of Black women in comedy. Through mentorship, advocacy, production, and exhibition, this immersive program will offer a selection of talented writers the opportunity to receive one-on-one mentorship and professional guidance from leading Black women in comedy and to see their original comedic screenplay produced by LOL Studios.
In an effort to bring visibility and opportunity to Black women both in front of and behind the camera, LOL has brought on Meagan Good (The Intruder, Think Like a Man), Bresha Webb (Run the World), and Gabrielle Dennis (A Black Lady Sketch Show), who will each step behind the camera as director of one of the short films.

The Sundance Institute is thrilled to resume the Accessible Futures Initiative in 2021 as a virtual intensive. Created in 2019, the intensive is part of the Sundance Institute’s ongoing commitment to deepening outreach to and support of artists with disabilities, including amplifying accessibility at the Sundance Film Festival with guidance and support of our partners at Easterseals Southern California and implementing all-staff accessibility inclusion trainings provided by RespectAbility. The 2021 Intensive will take the shape of a cross-genre project consultation and career strategy workshop for artists of color, with disabilities, in the development or early production of fiction and nonfiction projects.