Keri Putnam News

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.

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.

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.  

Sundance Institute announced today that Jason Blum, Ebs Burnough, Lynette Wallworth and Lisa-Michele Church will join the Institute's Board of Trustees. The new Trustees bring deep experience and broad expertise spanning communications, emerging media, and film production to the Institute's governance, and will work closely with President & Founder Robert Redford, Board Chair Pat Mitchell and Executive Director Keri Putnam.

After 10 days and 121 feature films, the 2019 Sundance Film Festival's Awards Ceremony took place tonight, with host Marianna Palka emceeing and jurors presenting 28 prizes for feature filmmaking. Honorees, named in total below, represent new achievements in global independent storytelling. Bold, intimate, and humanizing stories prevailed across categories, with Grand Jury Prizes awarded to Clemency (U.S. Dramatic), One Child Nation (U.S. Documentary), Honeyland (World Cinema Documentary) and The Souvenir (World Cinema Dramatic). 

After 10 days and 121 feature films, the 2019 Sundance Film Festival's Awards Ceremony took place tonight, with host Marianna Palka emceeing and jurors presenting 28 prizes for feature filmmaking. Honorees, named in total below, represent new achievements in global independent storytelling. Bold, intimate, and humanizing stories prevailed across categories, with Grand Jury Prizes awarded to Clemency (U.S. Dramatic), ONE CHILD Nation (U.S. Documentary), Honeyland (World Cinema Documentary) and The Souvenir (World Cinema Dramatic).

At a reception at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival today, the beneficiaries of $70,000 in grants from Sundance Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation were revealed. Doron Weber, Sloan Vice President of Programs and Director of the Public Understanding of Science and Technology program, presented the Feature Film Prize to The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and announced the new winners: Skye Emerson for Challenger and Gillian Weeks for The New Miracle (Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant); Anthony Onah for Goliath (Sundance Institute | Sloan Lab Fellowship); and Neilkanth Dave and Zachary Parris for DELTA-V (Sundance Institute | Sloan Episodic Storytelling Grant). Chiwetel Ejiofor's The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was formally presented with a $20,000 check for winning the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize, as previously announced.

Sundance Institute and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (AI2) today released demographic data on submissions and acceptances to the annual Sundance Film Festival to reveal key insights on the talent pipeline in the film industry for women and people of color. 

Sundance Institute will convene dozens of offscreen events, including inclusive and intersectional conversations on the next wave of storytelling, radical data transparency, the future of democracy at its intersection with the arts, behind-the-scenes panels on the art of filmmaking and musical performances that range from intimate to raucous at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival taking place in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Sundance, Utah, January 24 through February 3, 2019.

The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the showcase of new independent feature films selected across all categories for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort, from January 24 - February 3, 2019.

Launched in 2015, Brooklyn College's Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema will celebrate the thesis projects created by its first graduating MFA class, highlighting topics including parenthood, disability, racism, immigration, gender issues, sexuality, and aging at the inaugural Feirstein Film Festival. This first annual event will take place May 22-23 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and feature a film screening, screenwriters table reading at the Made in NY Media Center, and screen studies conference at the Feirstein school.

Sundance Institute's John Cooper announced today that Kim Yutani is the Sundance Film Festival's new Director of Programming. Yutani will lead the curation of film, media, and off-screen programming at both the Sundance Film Festival and other year-round public platforms and programs that showcase and elevate independent storytellers and artists. She was formerly Senior Programmer at the Festival, and will report directly to Festival Director John Cooper.

Mayor Eric Garcetti today joined filmmaker Ava DuVernay and producer Dan Lin to launch the Evolve Entertainment Fund (EEF), a public-private partnership aimed at creating new opportunities for communities that have been historically excluded from the entertainment industry.

After 10 days and 123 feature films, the 2018 Sundance Film Festival's Awards Ceremony took place last night, with host Jason Mantzoukas emceeing and jurors presenting 28 prizes for feature filmmaking in Park City, Utah.

Sundance Institute showcases bold, independent storytelling at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, beginning with today's announcement of feature films selected across all categories. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort, from January 18 28.

Eleven diverse independent artists have been selected to receive support from the 2017 Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellowship. These Fellowships and accompanying grants are part of the non-profit Institute's year-round efforts to discover and support independent artists from diverse backgrounds in getting their work made and seen by a wide audience.

Fifty Hollywood leaders and influencers, including studio heads, agency partners, senior network executives, talent and guild representatives brought together by Women In Film and Sundance Institute today announce the launch of ReFrame, a formal action plan to further gender parity in the media industry.

After 10 days, 119 feature films and three feet of snow, an evening of humor and humanity marked the 2017 Sundance Film Festival's Awards Ceremony, with host Jessica Williams emceeing and jurors presenting 27 prizes for feature filmmaking in Park City, Utah. Honorees, named in total below, range from sharp comedies to provocative and timely documentaries and represent new achievements in global independent storytelling. Human stories prevailed across categories, with Grand Jury Prizes awarded to Dina (U.S. Documentary), Last Men in Aleppo (World Documentary), I don't feel at home in this world anymore. (U.S. Dramatic) and The Nile Hilton Incident (World Dramatic). Chasing Coral, showcased in the Festival's environmental program The New Climate, won an Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary category.

At a reception during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival today, the beneficiaries of $60,000 in grants from Sundance Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation were revealed. Doron Weber, the Vice President of Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, announced the winners: Michael Almereyda's Marjorie Prime won the Feature Film Prize; Adam Benic's Levittown (Sundance Institute | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Episodic Storytelling Grant); Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler's Bell (Sundance Institute | Sloan Lab Fellowship); and Jamie Dawson and Howard Gertler's Untitled Smallpox Eradication Project (Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant).

Sundance Institute and The Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation will collaborate to support diverse independent artists, they announced today at a reception at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. As part of a two-year commitment, the Foundation will support the Institute's Screenwriters Intensive and year-round work with diverse independent filmmakers and artists.