Dear Sundance Community,
Here at the Sundance Institute, this time of year is always a period of reflection. As we prepare for the Festival and January Screenwriters Lab, we want to take a moment to look back on some of our latest efforts to amplify and advocate for independent storytelling.
Over the last year, Sundance's founding mission - to support artists - has taken on new urgency. The impact of the pandemic continues to reverberate around the globe. Rising costs are affecting every facet of production. Cuts and consolidation are shaping our industry. In short: The world has changed, and so has the media landscape. In these tumultuous times, we look to artists to inspire and inform, to spark conversation and foster dialogue, to reflect the world around us and bring new perspectives to light.
Because of these extraordinary circumstances, earlier this year we made the difficult but crucial decision to focus our immediate work on film and episodic storytelling. This has allowed us to deepen our support for artists in those spaces, particularly those from underrepresented communities. We are proud of the fact that we have been able to respond to this trying moment for our artist community with new funding opportunities, increased intensive offerings, exciting pilot programs, a return to in-person collaboration, and opportunities for artists to connect directly with the industry.
All told, 1,089 artists received support this year through Sundance Labs, artist granting, fellowships, intensives, and the Festival, with thousands more emerging artists taking part in workshops, webinars and courses through Sundance Collab, our digital destination for learning and community. We are proud to let you know that, of Sundance-supported directors and producers who voluntarily shared their backgrounds, 66 percent are artists of color, 55 percent are women, 36 percent identify as LGBTQIA, and 8 percent have a disability. We also take seriously our responsibility to cultivate a diverse team of curators, programmers, screeners, and readers. Of the 277 people who make up our year-round staff curatorial team and the community of independent contractors who participate in the selection processes, 222 have shared their ethnic and racial background, and 185 (67 percent) identify as people of color. As we look ahead to the next year, we remain committed to transparency and equity, and will continue to share these metrics with our community and the industry.
In listening to artists about their needs and experiences, it has become abundantly clear that while the pandemic and economic downturn have been challenging for everyone, they have taken a particular toll on artists of color. This year saw the launch of several new initiatives, including many that mark the first time we have created programs for specific communities. For example, the Latine Fellowship and Collab Scholarship, designed in partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Sundance Institute board members Lyn Lear and Cindy Horn, provides support and professional development opportunities to emerging Latinx artists. While Latinx talent has always been part of the Sundance Institute, bringing these cross-disciplinary storytellers together is a chance to invest in artists who are telling valuable stories, build community, and increase Latinx representation at Sundance and across our industry.
We were equally thrilled to partner with The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to create a new fellowship and scholarship for Asian American and Pacific Islander artists. The experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islanders are part of the fabric of our country, and their stories - in all their diversity and multifacetedness - should be celebrated in film and television. We welcome this opportunity to cultivate AAPI talent and support these gifted storytellers in becoming leaders in their fields. In the coming months, we will be announcing similar programs for underrepresented artists, including a program for Muslim artists. Elevating and empowering storytellers from underrepresented communities is part of the DNA of the Sundance Institute and will continue to be a core priority across all of our programs.
The last year has sparked an important dialogue about the challenges facing nonfiction filmmakers in particular, who are increasingly finding it difficult (if not impossible) to make a living solely from their creative work. As a step toward addressing these issues of sustainability, we partnered with the National Endowment for the Humanities to create the Humanities Sustainability Fellowship. Together, we provided 20 stipends to non-fiction mediamakers and are providing these artists with mentorship and professional opportunities. We hope this will seed powerful, resonant projects that will elevate, explore, and protect democratic principles; contribute to the public discourse; and lead to new learnings about the potential of this type of funding.
In addition to funding, we've heard from artists that they are hungry for more opportunities to connect with the industry. Building these relationships is an important component of Sundance's commitment to investing in artists for the long-term. This year saw the launch of the Pitch Parlor, a new forum for creators to share Episodic Lab projects with industry professionals and audiences alike. We also launched ELEVATE, consolidating our work across programs to provide professional development, career strategies, and connections to industry for all current Sundance-selected artists.
Happily, this year also marked the return of many of our in-person initiatives. And, of course, we are overjoyed to bring the 2023 Festival back to Park City once again. There is nothing quite like the joy of coming together to disc
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Dear Sundance Community,
