Celebrating creativity at 2021 Sundance Film Festival

Creativity thrives in even the most difficult times. It has the power to unite, inspire and lift us up.

At Adobe, we believe everyone has a story to tell, and we are proud to be longstanding partners with Sundance, together sharing a commitment to support diverse creators. This effort has never been more important, and we are excited to celebrate the filmmakers who are creating powerful, progressive and poignant films at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Our support for independent filmmakers is decades long. And for the third year in a row, Adobe Premiere Pro will be the most prevalent video editing software at the festival, used by 68 percent of films, including Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir, Cryptozoo, How It Ends, John and the Hole, R#J and Wild Indian. Moreover, 89 percent of the 2021 lineup is powered by Creative Cloud tools, including After Effects and Photoshop. And as part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, Adobe will be replacing non-inclusive language and increasing the breadth of reference imagery in Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition.

As a founding partner of the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship, our goal is to empower a new wave of emerging, diverse voices with the tools, inspiration, mentorship, and resources they need. As part of the festival this year, two Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellows are premiering short films — Natalie A. Chao with her short film To Know Her, and Miles Warren, a 2016 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow, is featured with his short film Bruiser.

On Monday, February 1, Adobe is sponsoring Ignite Day at Sundance, dedicated to supporting the next generation of creators, including an Ignite Panel featuring filmmakers RaMell Ross, Kerry Warkia and Keisha Rae Witherspoon. Together they will explore storytelling traditions from historically marginalized communities and share how they are working to advance underrepresented narratives.

Throughout the Festival you will also be able to see ‘When I Tell the Story’, Adobe’s short spot highlighting the work of Sundance Institute alumni Ro Haber (2019 Momentum Fellow), Natalie Erika James (2021 Momentum Fellow & 2021 Sundance Film Festival), Amber Fares (2019 Momentum Fellow), Rachael Moton (2019 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow) — and co-directed and edited by Carol Nguyen (2018 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow).

While we can’t be together in person, we still wanted to make sure to share with our community the important moments of the Festival. As in years past, we will be teaming up with IndieWire through the virtual IndieWire Studio to talk to filmmakers about the importance of diversity in filmmaking and staying creative during times of adversity.

On Friday, January 29, we invite you to tune in to see a virtual panel spotlighting filmmakers behind two of Sundance’s most anticipated features — Daryl Wein (How It Ends) and Lam Nguyen (R#J) — discussing the challenges and opportunities created by remote filmmaking, and the importance of creativity in bringing people together during a time when connection is more important than ever.

We look forward to seeing the incredible work and future accomplishments of all the filmmakers featured at Sundance this year as we continue to celebrate the creativity that exists within everyone.

The ‘When I tell the Story’ spot was made in partnership with creative agency 72andSunny Los Angeles.

Adobe is committed to creating greater opportunities for diverse voices. Check out our original interview series, Create Change, to hear creators from a spectrum of disciplines share how they are making an impact through their work, and Diverse Voices, a platform where everyone can be inspired, learn and share their stories.