Press Release

The jury and audience award-winners of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival were announced at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by actor Jane Lynch in Park City, Utah. Films receiving jury awards were selected from the four categories: U.S. Dramatic and Documentary Competition and World Dramatic and Documentary Competition. Films in these categories were also eligible for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards. The U.S. Audience Awards presented by Honda were announced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The World Cinema Audience Awards were announced by Benjamin Bratt. Highlights from the Awards Ceremony can be seen on the Sundance Channel, the Official Television Network of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, beginning Sunday, January 25, as well as on the official Festival website, www.sundance.org/festival.

“This has been a truly remarkable year for Sundance in ways even we did not fully predict. We opened the Festival with animation and closed with science fiction, and in between showcased some of the best films we’ve ever seen,” says Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival. “People ask us how independent film has evolved over the past 25 years and the answer is, quite simply, it’s better.” more

Press Release
Stefan Sonnenfeld Handles DI for Antoine Fuqua’s Acclaimed Brooklyn’s Finest

Company 3, which provides DI color grading and other post services for films, has a strong presence at this year’s Sundance Film Festival having handled final grading for four films featured in the fest. Among them is Antoine Fuqua’s violent cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest, which was the first film sold at this year’s Sundance, going to Sony Pictures and Senator Entertainment. The DI grade for that film was performed by Company 3’s Stefan Sonnenfeld, who worked in conjunction with cinematographer Patrick Murguia. more

Press Release
The Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) announced the winners of the 2009 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards. The four winners were selected from 12 finalists by members of an international jury which included: Ira Sachs, Yesim Ustaoglu, Katherine Dieckmann, Fernando Eimbcke, Sebastian Cordero, and Ronan Bennett; and a Japanese Jury that included Masato Harada, Bong-Ou Lee, and Hiroyuki Takazawa.

These annual awards were created in 1996 by Sundance Institute in partnership with NHK to celebrate 100 years of cinema and to honor and support emerging independent filmmakers. Each year the Award supports winners from four global regions (Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Japan) in realizing their next projects. The four winners will be presented with the award at the annual Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Saturday, January 24.

The winning director from each region will receive a $10,000 award and a guarantee from NHK to purchase the Japanese television broadcast rights upon completion of their project. NHK is Japan’s largest broadcaster with five 24-hour TV and three radio channels. In addition, the Sundance Institute staff will work closely with the award recipients throughout the year, providing ongoing support and assistance in seeking out opportunities to finance and distribute their projects. more

Press Release

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival announced the jury prizes in shorts filmmaking based on outstanding achievement and merit. The Sundance Film Festival runs January 15-25, 2009 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. Full awards will be announced the evening of January 24th at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony at the Park City Racquet Club. Actress Jane Lynch will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

The 2009 Short Film jurors are Gerardo Naranjo (Director/Writer/Producer: Voy a explotar, Malachance, Perro Negro); Lou Taylor Pucci (Actor: Thumbsucker); and Sharon Swart (Variety). more

Press Release

Colorful, Mixed-Format Project Reflects Artistry of Numerous Top Commercial Industry Players

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu, who has been nominated for the Sundance Film Festival’s prestigious Grand Jury Prize three times (for her feature documentaries Protagonist, In the Realms of the Unreal and Living Museum) returns to Park City for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival with a humorous documentary short entitled The Kinda Sutra. A comical take-off on “The Kama Sutra,” Yu’s latest film combines interviews and animation to offer a tantalizing view of people’s youthful misconceptions about conception. In competition within the festival’s Documentary Shorts section, where it was one of over 5,600 submissions, the 8-minute film debuted on Sat., Jan. 17, and will continue to air in various venues throughout the festival. The official website for The Kinda Sutra is www.thekindasutra.com . more

Press Release

Visit Films has acquired worldwide sales rights to David Russo’s Sundance comedy The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. The film will have its world premiere on January 19th. Visit Films will commence international sales of the film at the upcoming European Film Market.

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle focuses on Dory who loses his job at a data-management company and can only find work as a janitor. It looks like his life is going down the drain. To make matters worse, he and his toilet-cleaning colleagues become unwitting guinea pigs in a misguided corporate experiment. But as a strange new life takes shape inside him, Dory learns that sometimes you don’t find meaning, meaning finds you. more

Press Release

Nation’s Largest Pet Insurer Engages Sundance Audience To Raise Awareness On Pet Health Issues and Animal Adoption

Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) took its walk down the red carpet at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival with the debut of the “Pet Pad,� a first-time-ever animal awareness experience for celebrity guests attending the annual event.

Hoping to engage a high-profile audience of pet advocates and owners, VPI partnered with the Best Friends Animal Society to deliver a message of pet health and shelter animal adoption during the opening days of the 10-day celebrity-filled festival. Located within the exclusive “House of Hype� hospitality lounge, the “Pet Pad� offered invited guests an opportunity to visit with adoptable animals and ask for expert pet advice from Dr. Karen Halligan, best-selling author of What Every Pet Owner Should Know and judge on Animal Planet’s Groomer Has It. more

Press Release

LIVEstyle Entertainment, the premier agency in North America for media-based event production and marketing, will once again take center stage during the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. LIVEstyle Managing Partner Ryan Heil has teamed up with actor/DJ Danny Masterson and actor Chris Masterson to open Downstairs, the newest live event performance space on Main Street and the first celebrity-owned nightclub in the state of Utah. Located at 625 Main Street in Park City’s historic Old Town district, Downstairs will house LIVEstyle’s celebrated Film Lounge program sponsored by Stella Artois as well as the trailblazing Film Lounge Afterhours series sponsored by MySpace, Elite Model Management, Stella Artois, Vice Magazine, The Randolph at Broome, and Anywhere Road, beginning Friday, January 16th, through Friday, January 23rd. more

Press Release

At the 25th Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah (January 15 – 25), several films are on the roster for filmmakers whose post production companies used ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH Digital Process Solution in their digital workflow, including a Grand Jury Nomination for feature film “Toe to Toe.� ASSIMILATE congratulates Filmworksfx (Santa Monica, CA), Hollywood DI (Hollywood, CA), Offhollywood (NYC), and Cinemotion (Sofia, Bulgaria) for the post production of film projects accepted by the Sundance Film Festival 2009, the premier showcase for independent American and international filmmakers. more

Press Release

Two films premiering at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Feature Film Competition, El General by Natalia Almada and William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe by Sarah and Emily Kunstler, will have their national broadcast premieres on the P.O.V. (“Point of View”) documentary series on PBS, it was announced by Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director, American Documentary | P.O.V. Sundance takes place Jan. 15-25, 2009 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. more