Sundance Film Festival Announces Travel Stipend for Minority Journalists
Click here to read the full article.
The 2020 Sundance Film Festival is right around the corner, beginning January 23 through February 2. As shared in an email with journalists today from Time’s Up, the festival is ramping up its support for minority press with a new travel stipend. The Sundance Press Inclusion Initiative will support critics who identify as women, non-binary and/or transgender, people of color, and people with disabilities.
In order to be considered for the travel stipend, applications are due Friday, December 13, and will be considered as they are received — notifications will be sent out on a rolling basis through Friday, December 20. Here’s the application.
More from IndieWire
A Diversity Record: Almost Half of Sundance 2020 Competition Films Have Black Leads
Sundance 2020 Oscar Preview: Keep Your Eye on the Documentaries
Per Sundance, “Recognizing that quantitative matters alone aren’t a complete solution, Sundance Institute is deepening the qualitative experience for press at Festival, ensuring that new applicants, who may be covering the Festival for the first time, can best navigate accreditation, attendance and reporting. The Institute is providing grants to defray travel and lodging costs for freelance critics and journalists, with support from Critical Minded, Netflix, Open Society Foundations, and Rotten Tomatoes.”
The Sundance Film Festival recently announced its jam-packed feature film lineup, including all four Competition sections, plus the Midnight, NEXT, and Spotlight selections. The 11-day event will showcase 118 features, including premieres from Sundance regulars and newcomers alike. Hot titles include the premiere of Jim Rash and Nat Faxon’s remake of the Swedish dark comedy “Force Majeure” (now titled “Downhill”) with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julie Taymor’s inventive Gloria Steinem biopic “The Glorias,” Liz Garbus’ narrative debut “Lost Girls,” Michael Almereyda’s Nikola Tesla biopic “Tesla,” and Alan Ball’s “Uncle Frank.” On the documentary front, and much to the excitement of Twitter, Lana Wilson’s Taylor Swift-centric entry, “Miss Americana,” will also make a surprise bow at the festival, premiering on its first day.
The festival will host a number of long-awaited followups from previous Sundance breakouts, such Miranda July with her first film since 2011’s “The Future,” “Kajillionaire,” plus Dee Rees’ Anne Hathaway-starring Joan Didion adaptation “The Last Thing He Wanted,” and Sean Durkin’s second feature “The Nest.” Benh Zeitlin will finally premiere his long-awaited “Beasts of the Southern Wild” followup “Wendy,” which Fox Searchlight will release later in 2020. “Dear White People” creator Justin Simien returns to the festival with his first feature since his breakout movie became a Netflix series, with the horror-satire “Bad Hair” in the Midnight section.
IndieWire also identified 23 hidden gems to look out for at the festival.
Best of IndieWire
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
