Sundance Institute
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Sundance Announces 10 2024 Producers Lab Fellows
The Sundance Institute announced today the 10 producers, and their projects, selected as Fellows for the 2024 Producers Lab. The Lab begins today and runs through June 22 at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming. From the press release: The Producers Lab nurtures emerging independent film producers with project-specific support through one-on-one meetings and intimate group sessions with veteran producer advisors. The lab encourages fellows to hone their creative instincts and problem-solving skills and to develop strategies for pitching, financing, production, navigating the marketplace, and sustainability. The 2024 cohort includes five fiction film producers and five nonfiction film producers. Fellows in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 10, 2024 -
Sundance Institute Announces Fellows for the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs
The Sundance Institute announced today the the fellows selected for its 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs. The Native Lab in New Mexico will support four fellows and two artists in residence, and the Directors Lab in Colorado will support the development of eight projects with nine fellows, with an additional three fellows also joining for the online Screenwriters Lab held immediately after. For the first time the Directors Lab will be held at the Stanley Hotel in Estes, Colorado — Stephen King’s inspiration for The Shining — while the Native Lab will be returning to Santa Fe, New Mexico, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 29, 2024 -
Solutions Based: Who Should Save Independent Film?
The Sundance Film Festival is a time for movie watching, deal making, talent scouting and, often, much soul searching about the state and future of the independent film industry. This year in particular there was no shortage of media coverage and conversations about distribution and the sustainability of the independent business. As Sundance CEO Joana Vicente told The Ringer’s “The Town” podcast, “Everyone is thinking about solutions… How can we help and figure out how all these films find a home, and what’s our role in the distribution exhibition piece?” For Sundance’s more commercial films—of which there were several this […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Mar 18, 2024 -
Sundance Institute Announces 2024 Momentum Fellows
The Sundance Institute announced today the eight storytellers who comprise the 2024 Momentum Fellows cohort. Led by the Institute’s Women at Sundance and Artist Accelerator programs, the fellowship “specifically targets mid-career artists hailing from historically marginalized backgrounds, offering them tailored support and resources.” From the press release: The fellowship supports creators working in fiction or nonfiction who have recently achieved a noteworthy accomplishment, such as a highly regarded feature film or series. Momentum provides participants with a full-year program of customized support around current goals they identify for themselves to level up in their craft and career, including an unrestricted […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 22, 2024 -
In Full Frame: Director Rose Troche and Sundance Institute’s John Nein on Restoring the Lesbian Classic Go Fish
“It’s very much like having a kid out there in the world doing its own thing,” said writer/director Rose Troche last month as she was finishing the restoration of her debut feature Go Fish, which screened as part of Sundance’s 40th Edition programming this week, three decades after its original premiere at the festival. “It’s one of those films that has never gone out of the conversation, this funky movie made for $17,000 that launched these careers.” Troche is right —while many films from Sundance in the ’90s never made the leap to digital distribution, the lesbian drama Go Fish […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2024 -
Sundance Institute Announces 2023 Documentary Fund Grantees
The Sundance Institute announces today 23 projects that have been selected for the 2023 Documentary Fund, which provides unrestricted grant funding totaling just over $1,000,000 for filmmakers from around the globe. Among this year’s recipients, six projects are in development, 14 are in production and three are in post-production. Grants are made possible by the Open Society Foundations, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Gucci and the Kendeda Fund. Highlights among 2023 grantees are Looking at Ourselves directed by Oscar and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, Adam’s Apple directed by artist and filmmaker Amy Jenkins, Untitled Uvalde Documentary by Anayansi […]
by Natalia Keogan on Aug 21, 2023 -
Sundance Directors Lab 2023 Diary: Walter Thompson-Hernández
This week Filmmaker is publishing three diaries from writers and directors who attended the 2023 Sundance Directors Lab. We’ve already published writer-director Dania Bdeir’s as well as director-writer-producer Masami Kawai‘s. Next up is writer-director Walter Thompson-Hernández, who traveled to the Lab with If I Go Will They Miss Me. (He’s also a Filmmaker 2022 25 New Face.) Here’s the description: “Twelve-year-old Lil Ant begins to see mysterious figures — eerie men with their arms spread like wings — around his home. When his father, Big Ant, realizes his son sees these “airplane people” too, their family history emerges and reveals deeper meaning and […]
by Walter Thompson-Hernández on Aug 7, 2023 -
Sundance Directors Lab 2023 Diary: Masami Kawai
This week Filmmaker is publishing three diaries from writers and directors who attended the 2023 Sundance Directors Lab. We’ve already published writer-director Dania Bdeir‘s, and next up is director-writer-producer Masami Kawai, who traveled to the Lab with Valley of the Tall Grass. Here’s the description: “A TV/VCR combo set is thrown out, but it survives and circulates through the lives of various working class Indigenous characters of color in an Oregon town. They find forgotten memories, love, and connection through this seemingly obsolete object.” A complete list of Sundance Labs participants can be found here. — Editor My project Valley […]
by Masami Kawai on Aug 2, 2023 -
Sundance Directors Lab 2023 Diary: Dania Bdeir
This week Filmmaker is publishing three diaries from writers and directors who attended the 2023 Sundance Directors Lab. First up is writer/director Dania Bdeir, who traveled to the Lab with Pigeon Wars, a Lebanon-Canada-France production co-written by Bane Fakih. Here’s the description: “In the gritty world of Beirut’s pigeon wars, a relentless young woman and a dutiful young man form an unlikely alliance, challenging societal norms and political tensions while seeking redemption and self-discovery.” A complete list of Sundance Labs participants can be found here. — Editor Tuesday 30th: So many more people this time around (as opposed to January’s […]
by Dania Bdeir on Aug 1, 2023 -
Sundance Institute Announces 2023 Fellows for Directors, Screenwriters and Native Labs
Today, Sundance Institute announces the 2023 fellows for its Directors, Screenwriters and Native Labs. 12 fellows will join this year’s Directors and Screenwriters cohort, while the Native Lab will support five fellows. The Native Lab, which supports Indigenous filmmakers developing feature films and episodic projects, will begin with an online portion that runs May 1-5 before continuing in-person in Santa Fe, New Mexico from May 8-13. Of the five fellows participating, three are from the US while the other two hail from Canada (selected with the Indigenous Screen Office) and New Zealand (selected with the New Zealand Film Commission). Largely […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 27, 2023
