Alesia Weston Associate director of the Sundance Institute

How does the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program work? The year-round Feature Film Program is designed to support emerging filmmakers working on their first or second features through Screenwriters Lab, Directors Lab, a Creative Producing Lab, as well as Awards or Grants (the Sundance Institute/NHK Filmmakers Award, the Sundance Institute l Mahindra Global Filmmakers Award). Beyond these, the support of the Sundance Institute continues throughout the life of the film from inception through completion.

In the Screenwriters Lab, the fellows are mentored by veteran screenwriters. The month long Directors Lab provides an opportunity to work with a professional cast and crew on four, five scenes from the script under the guidance of creative mentors.

The Sundance Institute is celebrating its 30th birthday. How have your operations changed since the beginning, three decades ago? The program has evolved a great deal since it began with the Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Over the years, under the leadership of Michelle Satter, it has become increasingly comprehensive, extending the support throughout the life of a project at key stages of the process. We have seen that our ongoing presence can make the difference between a film getting made or not, or encourage it to find its best form. So, we are always thinking of new ways to help the filmmakers move forward.

What are the criteria for entering your feature film programme? The typical point of entry is the Screenwriters lab. We look for original voices, stories we haven’t seen before or, in some cases, familiar stories told in new ways. Filmmakers working on their first or second feature from the US and international ’regions of focus’ are considered based on full length screenplays and their previous work (i.e short films, theatre pieces, visual art or other writing).

Sundance is focused on independent films. Are they still "independent"? The term independent has obviously evolved and morphed over the years, and represents films made in a variety of ways. In almost all the cases of filmmakers we work with, there is very little real infrastructure to support them – their vision is their own (whether it is an original story, or requires them to forge a new technique, non traditional structure, or tone) while working within certain parameters of the form – and the producers are piecing it together in entrepreneurial ways. Even though there is a larger ’independent film industry’, I don’t think there is any question that it is powered by an independent spirit and independently constructed films.

Five films of the Cannes film festival were supported by Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program: Porfirio, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elena, The Slut, Return. Can you tell us something about them? They are all so different and individual to the filmmakers. But in all cases, there is an originality to the ideas or a new perspective on something we may already know. The filmmakers have been stubborn (in the best sense) about honoring their vision, which is increasingly difficult, given the collaborative nature of the medium and pressures facing them nowadays. The films are disquieting, thought provoking and risky and we are always proud to stand behind that.

Does cinema matter? I think it does matter, more and more, given its reach and potential to broaden what we know and understand about the world. There is still nothing quite like the intimate access it gives us into the most unlikely places – be it to worlds away or the bedroom in the house next door or the mind of a teenager. And as pure entertainment or an art form, I can’t imagine a world without it.

By Lubos Bisto