Category: News

Benefits Highlighted by 122,000 Attendees, $18 Million in State and Local Tax Revenue, 3,052 Jobs Supported
Park City, Utah — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today that its 2019 Sundance Film Festival, which took place in Park City, Salt Lake City and Sundance, Utah from January 24 through February 3, generated a total economic impact of $182.5 million for the state of Utah. These numbers come from an economic impact study conducted by Y² Analytics, an independent market research and data analytics group now in their third year analyzing the full impact of the Festival, giving a full and consistent picture of the Festival’s year-over-year economic benefits to the state’s economy.

25 Projects, 84% Directed or Produced by Women, Receive Over $750,000 in Grants
Los Angeles, CA — 25 nonfiction films from 12 countries are the latest Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and Stories of Change Grantees, announced today. This support includes unrestricted grants to films in the development, production, post-production and audience engagement stages, and is made possible by founding support from Open Society Foundations.
Today’s slate of grantees includes custom grants from The Kendeda Fund, providing specific support for projects addressing environmental themes and the challenges of gun violence and the Stories of Change Fund, a creative partnership with the Skoll Foundation, supporting social entrepreneurs and independent storytellers.

Los Angeles — Sundance Institute, the nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences, today announced the appointment of Michael Monroe as Chief Marketing Officer. Reporting to Institute CEO Keri Putnam, Monroe will be responsible for leading all aspects of brand, marketing, and communications strategy for the Institute, including the annual Sundance Film Festival. He begins on May 28, 2019 and will be based in the Institute’s Los Angeles offices.

Special Benefit Honors Lulu Wang with the 2019 Vanguard Award
Featuring the Los Angeles Premiere Screening of The Farewell and Afterparty: Tickets on Sale Now at sundance.org/thefarewell
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute, in collaboration with A24, invites fans and supporters of independent cinema to celebrate writer/director Lulu Wang with a special premiere screening of her film The Farewell and afterparty at The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA on Wednesday, June 26, 2019. Wang, an alumna of Sundance Institute’s 2017 FilmTwo Initiative, will be honored with the Institute’s annual Vanguard Award presented by Acura at the summer benefit.

Groundbreaking Group of Emerging Media Creatives Convene to Push the Boundaries of Storytelling and Technology
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announces six projects selected for the 2019 Sundance Institute New Frontier Story Lab, which supports independent artists working at the cutting-edge convergence of film, art, media, live performance and technology. The New Frontier Story Lab is a week-long immersive experience that empowers creatives with individual story sessions, conversations about key artistic, design and technology issues and case study presentations from experts in multiple disciplines. Past participants include Roger Ross Williams, Josephine Decker, Silas Howard, Tracy Fullerton, Yung Jake, Chris Milk, Hasan Minhaj, Tommy Pallotta, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Hank Willis Thomas, Jillian Mayer, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Navid and Vassiliki Khonsari, A Dandy Punk, and Nicolas Peufaillit.

This Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we’re spotlighting some of the creators within the Sundance family whose work you can watch at home—from a darkly funny web series and audience favorite feel-good comedies to feature documentaries about less-explored aspects of the American experience.

Megha Kadakia
Producer, The Tiger Hunter

Megha Kadakia caught our attention with her work on films such as Miss India America and The Tiger Hunter before becoming an inaugural Momentum Fellow in 2018, which helped to solidify her well-earned spot as an independent producer to watch. The latter project stars Community funnyman Danny Pudi as Sami, a young Indian man in the 1970s who goes to America with high hopes of becoming an engineer only to get stuck in a low-end job—until he and his friends (including Alex, played by Jon Heder) concoct a scheme to convince his childhood crush that he’s made his dreams come true.

June Lab Convenes Filmmakers Developing Singular Feature Films

Los Angeles, CA — Filmmakers from the U.S., Lebanon, Palestine, and the United Kingdom have been selected for the 2019 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah.

Fellows will Gather at Native Filmmakers Lab on May 12-17, 2019 in Santa Fe, New MexicoLos Angeles, CA — Two Indigenous filmmakers, Kyle Bell (Creek-Thlopthlocco Tribal Town) and Peshawn Bread (Comanche) have been chosen to participate in the 2019 Sundance Institute Native Filmmakers Lab, continuing the Institute’s commitment to supporting Native American and Indigenous storytellers since its founding. This year’s recently selected Indigenous Program Full Circle Fellows also will attend the Native Filmmakers Lab.
The Lab will take place May 12-17 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

New York, NY— Today, Sundance Institute’s Theatre Program announces the nineteen artists who represent the creative teams that will convene to develop new work at the annual Lab at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah July 8-28.
Eight genre-spanning pieces, encompassing plays, musicals, and interdisciplinary work for the stage, are among the works being developed by fifteen Fellows and four Artists-in-Residence. This year’s cohort was selected by Theatre Program Artistic Director Philip Himberg, with support of a six-member Advisory Committee and in partnership with Producing Director Christopher Hibma.

“One half for me, one for you,” repeats Hatidze to her bees in Honeyland, winner of the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Festival. In taking only half of their honey, she explains, she sustains her hives and ensures their future wellbeing.
Honeyland is in good company of Festival documentary films dedicated to demonstrating the need for human restraint to ensure species’ protection and illuminating the struggle for survival amidst climate change, poaching, and other looming threats.

There’s no one path to becoming an episodic-content creator—and this year’s lab artists proved it. As part of the Sundance Institute | YouTube New Voices Lab, 15 artists spent April 8 through April 11 in Solvang, California, working with Sundance Institute mentors to workshop and hone their episodic craft and projects. And it quickly became apparent—from a reality-TV producer to stand-up comedians to a former professional ballerina, each creator had a different story to tell.

Ryah Aqel is a filmmaker and cultural producer based in metro Detroit. She is a 2019 Knight Foundation fellow with Sundance Institute.I never understood my mother’s music.