The Sundance Institute News

Sundance Institute today announced the 11 independent films now available through a variety of platforms and storefronts,

Sundance Institute announced today the members of the six juries awarding prizes at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, January 16-26 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. Short Film Awards will be announced at a ceremony on January 21 at Park City's Jupiter Bowl. Feature film awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 25 in Park City, hosted by husband-and-wife duo Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally and livestreamed at www.sundance.org/live. Offerman headlines the film Nick Offerman: American Ham in the Festival's Premieres section. Mullally voices a character in the English-language version of Ernest and Celestine, which will have its world premiere in the Festival's new Sundance Kids section.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, announces new leadership of its board of directors and three new members. Diane Rodriguez, associate producer/director of new play production at Center Theatre Group, succeeds Phillip Himberg, producing artistic director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, as board president. Robert Hupp, producing artistic director of Arkansas Repertory Theatre, joins playwright Lydia. R. Diamond as joint vice presidents. Tim Jennings, managing director of Children's Theatre Company, succeeds Roche Schulfer, executive director of Goodman Theatre, as treasurer. Ralph Bryan, managing director-investments of Wells Fargo Advisors, remains as secretary.

Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®) and the Sundance Film Festival will present the 16th annual Composer/Director Roundtable and 12th annual Snowball during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, on January 22, in Park City, Utah.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Rose Kuo is stepping down as Executive Director. Lesli Klainberg, currently Managing Director of the Film Society, has been named Interim Executive Director.

Sundance Institute has selected 12 projects for its 2014 January Screenwriters Lab, an immersive, five-day (January 10-15) writers' workshop at the Sundance Resort in Utah.

Sundance Institute today announced the artists and projects selected for its first Theatre Lab on Zanzibar, which concluded yesterday. The two-week exchange and development program (November 10-24) is part of the Sundance Institute East Africa initiative, now in its eleventh year, which is the only professional program on the continent that creates peer to peer mentorship and exposure opportunities between theatre artists in East Africa and the U.S. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the initiative is a core component of the Theatre Program's year-round efforts. Deborah Asiimwe, Specialist-East Africa, and Roberta Levitow, Senior Program Associate-International and Co-Founder, Theatre Without Borders, co-led this initiative.

Labyrinth Theater Company, the award-winning, downtown ensemble, announced today the New York Premiere of The Muscles in Our Toes by Labyrinth Company Member Stephen Belber, and directed by Anne Kauffman. The play will be produced in late Spring 2014 at Labyrinth's home in New York City's West Village, the Bank Street Theater (155 Bank Street).

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are delighted to announce the 38th Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, running February 26-April 6, 2014. This year's Festival program will feature (in order of opening):

On October 31, Joan and George Hornig hosted the launch of the first-ever Sundance Institute Theatre Club: a private dinner for 18 guests at Lafayette in New York with special guests Lisa Kron & Jeanine Tesori, playwrights of the much-raved-about new musical, Fun Home. The Theatre Club features private events showcasing projects supported by the Institute's Theatre Program now on stage in New York.

Sundance Institute today announced that it will present actress and arts advocate Glenn Close with its Vanguard Leadership Award in recognition of her distinguished career in entertainment and advocacy of independent film. The award presentation will take place at the fourth annual 'Celebrate Sundance Institute' benefit, chaired by Institute Trustees Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Pat Mitchell, on June 4, 2014 in New York.

Sundance Institute today announced the three projects and two artists-in-residence that will participate in its two-week (December 1-15) Theatre Lab for musical theatre and ensemble-generated projects, taking place for the third time at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is one of the Theatre Program's five annual development opportunities for theatre artists around the world.

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) is proud to announce that Cicely Tyson will accept the Prince Rainier III Award and filmmaker and New Arts Axis Director, Wendy Levy, and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer, Tiler Peck, will receive Princess Grace Statue Awards at the 2013 Princess Grace Awards Gala tonight, October 30, 2013, at Cipriani 42(nd) Street in New York City.

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) is proud to announce that Cicely Tyson will accept the Prince Rainier III Award and filmmaker and New Arts Axis Director, Wendy Levy, and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer, Tiler Peck, will receive Princess Grace Statue Awards at the 2013 Princess Grace Awards Gala on October 30, 2013, at Cipriani 42(nd) Street in New York City.

Calling up-and-coming filmmakers; film, communications and food studies students - and anyone hungry for a deeper understanding of the nation's food system. A new film competition seeking short films about sustainable food and farming - the Real Food Media Contest - opens for entries today at http://www.realfoodmedia.org.

Profiles Theatre continues its 25th Anniversary Season with the Midwest premiere of Wrecks by Resident Artist Neil LaBute, directed by Guest Artist Jason Gerace and featuring acclaimed Chicago actor John Judd. The production runs October 3 - November 17, 2013 at The Alley Stage, 4147 N. Broadway.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is pleased to announce the East Coast premiere of Appropriate, an audacious comic drama written by native Washingtonian Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Liesl Tommy (Eclipsed). Jacobs-Jenkins' brazen reimagining of the classic Southern family drama will continue Woolly's season-long excavation of the secrets that lie beneath America's sunny exterior.

Cinedigm (CIDM) has acquired all North American rights to NIGHT MOVES, directed by acclaimed American independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. The film, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard, made its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival

The Sundance Institute Theatre Program is accepting submissions through November 15 for its 2014 Theatre Lab, July 7-27 at the Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece of the Theatre Program's year-round work and in previous years has supported projects including Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' The Light in the Piazza, Stew's Passing Strange, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening, Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife and Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's Fun Home, which opens at the Public Theatre October 22, 2013.