Posted December 6, 2017
Creative Culture Fellows Selected for the 2018 Sundance Film Festival & the 2018 Sundance Ignite Fellowship
Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) fellows are making headlines! Sundance Institute just announced the newest round of 2018 Sundance Ignite Fellows, chosen from a global crop of more than 800 applicants. JBFC fellows Crystal Kayiza and Rahessa Vitório were both selected as finalists, with Crystal ultimately receiving one of the 15 fellowships. The fifteen 18-to-24-year-old filmmakers were selected from a short film competition and will receive a year of creative and professional mentorship, and an all-expenses-paid trip to 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Crystal’s submission Why We Stay and Rahessa’s submission Saudade were produced in the JBFC’s Creative Culture program.
The short film Nevada, which was written and directed by JBFC Emerging Artist Fellow Emily Ann Hoffman during her Creative Culture tenure, was just officially selected for the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to playing at Sundance, Nevada recently made its East Coast Premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival and played alongside another of Emily’s films, OK, Call Me Back, at the New Orleans Film Festival.
Creative Culture Director Sean Weiner expressed his excitement: “When we first conceived of Creative Culture, we talked about how it would create a community of filmmakers who could grow beyond the Burns, maybe—one day, if we were lucky—even screening at festivals like Sundance. The fact that the program has been so successful in its pilot year is still surreal.”
