Category: News

RuPaul to Host “Drag Race” Retrospective, Serve As Inaugural NEXT Innovator Award Juror Hearts Beat Loud Confirmed As Closing Night Film Selection

Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock, Credit: Cody Lucich.

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute completes the slate of bold independent work set for the
2018 Sundance Film Festival, with eight feature films, a VR experience, the NEXT Innovator’s Award juror and hosted
retrospectives joining the lineup today. Screenings will take place in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain
Resort January 18-28.

Bold Innovation and Risk-Taking Encouraged at Immersive Lab, Part of Ongoing Creative Support; Twelve Alumni Projects to
Premiere at 2018 Sundance Film Festival

Los Angeles, CA – Sixteen emerging screenwriters will come together at Sundance Institute’s 2018 Screenwriters
Lab, an immersive five-day writers’ workshop announced today and taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah, January 12-17,
2018. The Lab brings independent screenwriters together with accomplished writers, in an environment that encourages the
art and craft of writing and creative risk-taking. Through one-on-one story sessions with Creative Advisors, Fellows work
intensively on their feature film scripts and engage in an artistically rigorous process that offers them indispensable
lessons in craft.

Innovative Independent and Experimental Work to Premiere, Including Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality
Storytelling, Site-Specific Installations, Films and Live Performances

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Tashka Yawawnawa/Lance Troxel.

Park City, UT — As the intersection of art and technology grows more crowded, Sundance Institute showcases a curated
collection of cutting-edge independent experimental media works by creators who are pushing the artistic development of
the new mediums of VR, AR, mixed reality (MR) and AI. The 2018 edition of New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival offers
some of the most innovative independent production and experimentation at the crossroads of film, art and technology that
is being created today.

War Paint, Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Park City, UT — Works selected across the new Indie Episodic, Shorts and Special Events sections of the 2018 Sundance
Film Festival were announced today, underlining Sundance Institute’s commitment to showcasing bold independent storytelling,
regardless of form, format or length.
New this year is the Indie Episodic section, designed as a dedicated showcase for emerging independent voices and their work. In recent
years, the Festival has screened episodic content in the
Special Events section, which includes new independent works that add to the unique Festival experience.

Plays by David Adjmi, Youness Atbane, David Cale and Kamilah Forbes Reflect the Impact of Art and Its Possibilities

Los Angeles, CA — Four projects representing diverse world voices, each with bold and independent visions of how
art can elevate the human experience, comprise this year’s selected projects for the two-week Sundance Institute Theatre
Lab at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), convening December 3-17, 2017, with a public performance
of another project slated for December 9. The Theatre Labs process is rigorous and generative. Dedicated to the creation
and development of forward-thinking theater; projects are cast individually, rehearsed daily and benefit from concentrated,
uninterrupted time and resources.

Following what’s felt like an unusually protracted Sundance Film Festival offseason, and one marked by what Festival Director John Cooper calls a “rejuvenated idea” of the 24-hour news cycle, the 2018 program announcement arrives at a pivotal time for audiences and artists. If we approach 2018 still processing the tumult and instability of the past year, this year’s program of films are primed to serve as a careful distillation of the times – and a representation of what that looks like across a broad spectrum of voices.
Below, John Cooper and Director of Programming Trevor Groth walk us through another year of intense decision-making and shed light on the tapestry of voices that will come to define the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

110 Independent Films From 29 Countries

(Top, L-R) The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Credit: Jeong Park, Anote’s Ark, Credit: Matthieu Rytz; Search, Credit: Juan Sebastian Baron.
(Bottom, L-R) King In the Wilderness, Credit: Flip Schulke Archives/Getty Images, The Kindergarten Teacher, Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute, Half the Picture, Credit: Ashly Covington.
Park City, UT — Sundance Institute showcases bold, independent storytelling at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, beginning with today’s announcement of feature films selected across all categories.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute and Adobe Project 1324 announced the newest round of 2018 Sundance Ignite
Fellows today, chosen from a global crop of more than 800 applicants. The fifteen 18-to-24-year-old filmmakers selected
to participate in this one-year fellowship hail from five continents, with creative groundings spanning from television
writing to documentary photography to narrative short films.

“These fifteen remarkable emerging artists are truly on the forefront of what’s next in our culture, and
we are thrilled to help them reach the next level with their fresh voices and unique perspectives,” said
Meredith Lavitt, Director of Sundance Ignite.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute’s Art of Nonfiction Initiative welcomes four Fellows and five Grantees, as well as three Nonfiction Critics Fellows, in its third year of granting key creative and financial support to inventive nonfiction storytellers working in the field today.
“This year’s Art of Nonfiction cohort, expanded to include writing fellows, signals our commitment to supporting artists in getting inventive nonfiction work made, seen and situated within the culture.” said Tabitha Jackson, Director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today that Charles D. King and Donna Gruneich will join the Institute’s Board of Trustees. Under the guidance of President & Founder Robert Redford and in close collaboration with Board Chair Pat Mitchell and Executive Director Keri Putnam, the new Trustees will bring deep experience in philanthropy, media strategy, finance and film production to the Institute’s governance.

Los Angeles — Sundance Institute will continue producing artist development programs in eight U.S. cities, with funding from the John S.

With support from the GRAMMY Museum, Sundance Institute has digitized more than 700 audio and video recordings, pages of sheet music, photographs, and other documents from the early days of its Film Music Program—including seminal work in independent film composition from as early as the 1980s.
A few highlights of the catalogued items include a 1987 recording of a conversation with Brave Little Toaster composer David Newman and director Jerry Rees, and 1988 video of a panel on the philosophy and methods of composing for low-budget films, among many other gems. The project also uncovered correspondence with Robert Redford regarding the founding of the Film Music Program, as well as early newsletters and reports that give insight into the successes and challenges of the program’s beginnings.