“New Urgency.” How the Sundance Institute Helps Filmmakers Navigate an Evolving Field
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Sean wang, Sundance Screenwriters & Directors Lab Fellow. photo credit Sam Emenogu, courtesy sundance institute.
In 1981, actor Robert Redford founded the Sundance Institute to foster new voices in American film. That same year, the nascent organization invited 10 filmmakers to Utah, where, with the assistance of some of the film industry’s preeminent writers, directors and actors, they developed their projects.
Forty-three years later, Sundance strikes a distinct profile in the niche field of film grantmaking. As a regrantor, its patrons include the Emerson Collective, Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation and the MacArthur, Knight, Mellon and W.K. Kellogg foundations. Last year, it provided $3.1 million in grants and supported a community of 1,500 artists through its labs, fellowships and internationally renowned Sundance Film Festival. In addition, thousands of emerging artists participated in Sundance Collab, a digital platform where artists can participate in a global filmmaking community and connect with experts for mentorship, learning and support.
According to the institute’s 2023 annual report, it had $75 million in net assets and received $32 million in contributions with and without donor restrictions. Of that latter amount, the largest funder demographic was corporations (38%), followed by individuals (24%), government (16%) and foundations (11%).
Sundance remains true to Redford’s vision, but conditions on the ground have changed dramatically since the institute’s founding, creating a fraught dynamic in which “the very act of storytelling, as a means of creating connections and fostering shared understanding, is under threat,” said interim CEO Amanda Kelso in an email to IP. Consequently, “Sundance’s founding mission — to support independent artists — has gained new urgency.”
Here are a few things to know about how Sundance is supporting filmmakers in an evolving media landscape.
It’s attuned to the field’s myriad challenges
Filmmakers emerging from the pandemic are being squeezed by soaring production costs, ongoing industry consolidation and the looming specter of AI, which, according to some of the more pessimistic prognosticators, could lead to job displacement in some sectors of the film industry, such as post-production work. And of course, this list doesn’t include the array of challenges facing filmmakers once a project is green-lit — potential funding shortages, struggles over creative control, maintaining a connection to their communities, and differentiating one’s work in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
“This is where we step in and go deep,” Kelso said. “Our goal is to help artists advance their projects to the next phase in significant ways and provide ongoing support that is not limited to the week(s) that a lab program or an in-person gathering is taking place.” In addition to grants, Sundance offers an array of year-round community and mentorship opportunities to meet these needs.
Kelso called attention to another critically underestimated challenge facing filmmakers — shifting distribution models. As IP’s white paper on film giving notes, the proliferation of digital distribution channels is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, filmmakers participating in Sundance’s first cohort in 1981 couldn’t imagine being able to access so many platforms to present their work. But it’s precisely because the ecosystem is so expansive that filmmakers often find the process of securing distribution both digitally and in theaters daunting and prohibitively costly.
“Distribution is an essential piece of the puzzle,” she said. “It is the connective tissue that connects audiences with artists.” To see how Sundance helps filmmakers successfully arrange the puzzle pieces, check out this case study looking at how filmmakers shepherded their work “Columbus” into theaters with funding from a previous institute program, the Creative Distribution Fellowship.
Support is bolstered by Sundance Collab
Like countless other funders, the pandemic compelled Sundance to expand and reimagine its work. In 2021, the funder developed the Artist Accelerator Program, aimed at cultivating creative and professional growth through yearlong interdisciplinary fellowships, scholarship track opportunities and unrestricted grants to artists and projects.
The pandemic also prompted leaders to create and expand more programs with online touchpoints, making it easier and more affordable for storytellers to engage from wherever they are. Kelso said this was a natural progression for Sundance, as it had already established its digital Sundance Collab platform whereby members enjoy a variety of benefits, including access to online courses, a video library and Sundance-created and curated articles, podcasts, worksheets and toolkits to help users expand their filmmaking practice. “The vitality and growth of this community are evident as artists gather daily on Sundance Collab to create, learn, share and connect,” Kelso said.
Sundance integrates the Collab platform into its outreach for artists interested in applying to programs through Sundance Insider Sessions, which are seminars that offer behind-the-scenes information and guidance on labs, grants and festivals. In addition, Sundance Collab hosts conversations with film and television industry professionals who share advice and insights from their careers and creative processes, providing a global cohort of artists a space to learn and connect creatively. Recent events have featured Will Ferrell, Sofia Coppola, Emerald Fennell, Alexander Payne, Richard Linklater and Mira Nair.
Sundance has also launched a set of programs that speak to one of the biggest takeaways from IP’s white paper on giving for film — funders’ interest in addressing and remedying inequitable access to resources across the ecosystem.
Over the past four years, Sundance has launched programs geared toward historically under-engaged demographics These include the Trans Possibilities Intensive, the Latine Fellowship and Collab Scholarship, the Asian American Foundation Fellowship and Collab Scholarship, and multiple programs for the Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian communities.
Funders made big gifts for two key programs
Kelso mentioned two recent grant-related announcements of note. The first was the latest in a long line of support for Indigenous filmmakers dating back to 1981, when Redford asked Native American filmmakers to participate in Sundance’s formative meetings and its first filmmaking lab.
Last year, Sundance announced a $4 million endowment gift to the institute’s Indigenous Program from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a restored tribe serving Marin and Sonoma counties in Northern California, to create a new fellowship for emerging and mid-career Indigenous artists from California-based tribes, both federally and non-federally recognized, with a project in development or production. Graton fellows will each receive a grant of $25,000, access to creative and professional development opportunities, support to attend the Sundance Film Festival, and yearlong creative mentorship from staff in Sundance’s Indigenous Program.
The largest endowment gift in Sundance’s history was facilitated by Greg Sarris, tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, who was a participant in Sundance’s Screenwriters Lab in 1992. “He arranged this endowment as a way to ‘pay it forward’ after receiving support from the institute early in his career,” Kelso said. (For additional coverage on the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, check out IP’s take on the tribe’s $15 million gift to the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law to advance the study of Native American Law.)
Around the same time the Granton Rancheria grant was made public, Sundance announced that a new, three-year partnership with the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation will enable it to double the size of grants made through its Documentary Fund program, which was established in 2002 with seed funding from Open Society Foundations.
For those familiar with the Templeton Foundation, it’s a perfect match, as it has a penchant for funding projects that explore issues like morality, free will, forgiveness, immortality and unconditional love — universal themes that are uniquely conducive to the documentary format. Projects at the development stage will receive grants of up to $40,000, while those in the production and post-production stages will top off at $100,000.
Sundance’s relationships with its funders underscores another key finding from IP’s white paper on film — namely, that foundations prefer to give through intermediaries with established programs and close ties to historically marginalized communities, rather than cut checks directly to filmmakers.
“We find that our most productive conversations with foundations and partners arise from conversation around the pain points we are trying to solve for artists and how we can collaborate on solving those for the communities we serve,” Kelso said.
Editor’s note: This post was last updated on April 19 with additional details.
