Click and explore 2006 Sundance Film Festival Online at www.sundance.org
Free to access from anywhere in the world, the official website for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival is geared to share the Festival experience with the global community. No user registration is needed to view or collect up-to-the-minute information about ticket purchasing, travel tips and box office procedures. Official Festival merchandise will go on sale November 18. Sundance Film Festival Online at www.sundance.org will uniquely showcase short films, filmmaker interviews and video highlights from Park City that will be available to view during the 2006 Sundance Film Festival (January 19-29, 2006) and through June 20, 2006 at no charge.

Click here to view the full press release

The new Sundance Film Festival Online shares the Festival experience beyond the streets of Park City with a global audience.

Ira Sach’s Forty Shades of Blue
Ira Sach’s Forty Shades of Blue, the winner of the American Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, opened in theatres this month, and tells the story of three intertwined lives in Memphis, Tennesse. But for years before the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005, Sachs was a Fellow of the Institute’s Feature Film Program as he worked to craft the film that would go on to receive critical acclaim.

	Ira Sachs accepting the American Dramatic Grand Jury Award for Forty Shades of Blue at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
	Forty Shades of Blue opens in theatres this month.

Sundance Institute Announces Sloan Commissioning Fund
The Sloan Commissioning Fund at the Sundance Institute will enable further support of the development, presentation and celebration of science and technology through independent film. The Commissioning Fund will extend the script-level support of the Sundance Feature Film Labs to projects in an earlier phase of development, providing key resources to attach a science advisor, option source material, conduct research, and begin the initial writing process. The Commissioning Fund is the latest component in the Institute’s "Science in Focus" Initiative. The Initiative, now in its fourth year, is made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and includes the Sloan Commissioning Fund, the Sloan Fellowships at the Feature Film Labs to support the development of science/technology projects; the Science in Film Forum at the Sundance Film Festival to build public discourse about science in cinema; and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for an outstanding dramatic feature film that focuses on science and technology.

Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Life After the Labs
Since being developed at the Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs, ten projects recently supported by the Institute’s Feature Film Program have been completed, and seven others have significantly advanced into various stages of production. Full article

	2005 Filmmakers Lab, Mackenzie Muldoon, Stew and Debra Wilson rehearsing We Can See Today.
	Ryan Eslinger with DP Advisor, Denis Lenoir, at the 2005 Sundance Institute Filmmakers Lab.

First Person: From The Filmmakers Lab
Each summer, a small group of emerging independent filmmakers are invited to participate in the Institute’s Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs held in the mountains of Sundance, Utah. During their three-week residencies, the filmmakers work with a cast and crew to rehearse and shoot 4-6 scenes from their feature film project. The industry’s leading writers, directors, editors, cinematographers, and actors serve as creative advisors, and support the participating filmmakers as they work to craft the most compelling version of their film.

Here, Filmmakers Lab Fellow Cruz Angeles and advisor Michael Lehmann share their experiences from the past summer with us.
Full article

Institute Bids Farewell to Documentary Program Director
After five years of building and leading the Sundance Institute Documentary Program, today Diane Weyermann leaves her post as director of that program to accept a role with Participant Productions as Executive Vice President of Documentary Production. She will continue to serve as a member of the Selection Committee for the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund.

"Sundance Institute has been truly fortunate to have Diane at the helm of our Documentary Film Program for the past five years," said Robert Redford, President and founder of Sundance Institute. “We wish her all the best in her new adventure at Participant and we look forward to continuing her relationship with the Institute as well as working together on projects in the future." Full story

Diane Weyermann (at right) meeting with creative advisors at the 2005 Documentary Edit and Storytelling Lab.

Emmy Win for In Rwanda we say…The family that does not speak dies
On September 19, 2005 Anne Aghion’s, In Rwanda we say….The family that does not speak dies won an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Informational Programming Long Form. Funded partially by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, the film aired on Sundance Channel’s DOCday on April 5, 2004 in recognition of the International Day of Reflection that was tied to the 10th anniversary of the Genocide in Rwanda. Aghion is currently working on her third and final film about Rwanda and says that she hopes her, “future film will have as big an impact as this one is having.”

First Person: From the Theatre Lab
The Institute’s Theatre Lab takes place each July in the mountains of Sundance, Utah and offers playwrights and theatre directors an opportunity to craft their new work in a remote setting where they are removed from real-world pressures such as final production, opening night, and critical review. After leaving the Lab this summer, composer Mark Bennett, who had attended the Lab to develop the musical Most Wanted, offered a thank you to the Institute’s Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg. Click here for his note.

Sundance Institute Doc Film Series Presents Park City Screening of The Education of Shelby Knox
On November 3, the Sundance Institute Doc Film Series presents The Education of Shelby Knox, as part of its free monthly screenings of documentary films that have shown at the Sundance Film Festival. All screenings take place the first Thursday of the month and are held at the Jim Santy Auditorium at the Park City Library at 7:00 p.m. Q&A sessions with special guests follow each screening.

In The Education of Shelby Knox, directors Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt track Lubbock Texas high school student Shelby Knox as she works with her city-sponsored youth organization to reform her school’s ineffective Abstinence Until Marriage sexual education policy in spite of her conservative family beliefs. Set in the cultural context of a county where teen pregnancy and STD rates top the national charts, the film received the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award.

The Education of Shelby Knox is accompanied by the Reel Story Film, Split Ends, by high school student Emma McFarland. Split Ends follows the journey of one girl’s search for a personal sense of what it means to be feminine.

Full Schedule

Filmmaker’s Resource: Film Independent’s First Annual Filmmaker Forum
On October 15, Film Independent presents it’s first annual Filmmaker Forum. Focused on the ins and outs of selling independent films, Sundance Film Festival Director Geoff Gilmore leads a session on navigating the Festival that kicks off the day-long forum. Other topics include tips on dealing with distributors, sales agents, and publicists. The program takes place at the Hammer Museum in LA. To register for the forum and for more information, call 310.432.1222 or visit www.filmindependent.org.