How Can Half A Million Dollars+ Change Filmmaking

Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute has a long history of supporting diverse independent storytelling, including nonfiction films. This year, the Institute announced more than $585,000 in targeted grants to support independent nonfiction storytellers. 

More than half of supported projects are helmed by women, and 34% of grantees are first-time feature filmmakers. The projects from the U.S, France and Switzerland, Chile, Iran and Philippines, Germany and France, Australia and other countries capture the world as it is, as well as do a great job imagining the world as it could be. 

Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, recently-appointed Director of the Institute’s Documentary Film Fund, believes that independent storytelling is vital in our current cultural and political moment. They help make meaning of all what’s happening and present a layered, complex interpretation of truth. 

Thanks to the Sundance Institute’s support, the audience will be able to see compelling non-fiction films about female body in Hollywood media, a surprising look at the intersection of faith and activism, an average American family entangled in a web of espionage and corporate secrets, status of women in the U.S. deep South, and many more.