Sundance Film Festival 2025: Supporting All Creators, Filmmakers and Artists

Storytelling has always been a powerful tool for connecting people across cultures, generations and experiences. Nowhere does this come to life more than at the Sundance Film Festival which brings together creators and artists to celebrate groundbreaking films and puts the spotlight on emerging voices.

Through our decades long support for independent filmmaking, we’re committed to bridging gaps and learning how to better support, elevate and amplify underrepresented creators and ensure the stories that are on screen authentically represent and reflect the world in which we live. This year, Adobe is a presenting sponsor at theSundance Film Festival. 2025 also marks the 10-year anniversary of the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship. On Main Street at the festival, the Adobe House will serve as a creativity and innovation hub—the go-to spot for community events, product demos, and conversations on diversity and collaboration. Once again, we are teaming up with Variety and IndieWire to spotlight filmmakers at the festival, including Bubble & Squeak in Anatomy of a Film where attendees will hear from the film’s creative team including Steven Yeun (Actor, Producer), Evan Twohy (Director), Christina Oh (Producer), Himesh Patel (Actor), and Sarah Goldberg (Actor). Variety will host the first ever Editors on Editors conversation series, exploring the art and craft of editing through a series of intimate fireside chats. Expanding Perspectives – The Power of Diverse Storytelling featuring Jesse Williams (Producer, Hoops, Hope, and Dreams), Dewayne Perkins (Writer, Actor, Producer), Tracy Oliver (Screenwriter, Director, Producer and Showrunner), Stacy L. Smith (Founder, USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative), and Sumi Parekh (Executive Director, Group Effort Initiative). Also, a Master Class in Marketing which will dive into the world of film promotion with industry leaders will explore the art of capturing audience attention.

New AI-Powered Innovations in Adobe Premiere Pro: Solving Key Community Pain Points

Adobe’s creative tools are fundamental to the work of Sundance filmmakers. According to the annual Sundance Institute survey, nearly 85% of 2025's entrants relied on Adobe Creative Cloud applications – including Premiere Pro, Frame.io, After Effects, Photoshop and the Substance 3D Collection – to bring their stories to life. Premiere Pro was yet again the most popular video editing software, used by over half (60%) of this year's films. “Opus,” "By Design," “Train Dreams,” “Bunnylovr,” “The Alabama Solution," "Bucks County, USA" and "The Legend of Ochi" are just a few of the narrative features, documentaries and episodic series set to debut at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival that were cut on Premiere Pro.

Ahead of the festival, we unveiled new innovations designed to empower filmmakers at all levels, whether they’re an aspiring student, indie filmmaker, documentarian or industry veteran. The new AI-powered media intelligence and search panel in Adobe Premiere Pro (beta) addresses a monumental pain point for video editors by letting them quickly locate the perfect film clip from massive libraries of files – a frequent inconvenience that previously meant sifting through gigabytes of files in search of a specific clip. Premiere Pro also now offers new AI-powered caption translation (beta) that automates the often expensive and inefficient process of multilingual caption generation, helping video pros effortlessly connect with audiences worldwide. Plus, new After Effects enhancements (currently in beta), and Frame.io Camera to Cloud connectivity with Canon EOS C80 and EOS C400 available now, will help accelerate post-production workflows and enhance storytelling capabilities, while reducing technical complexities and empowering creators to bring their visions to life faster and more effectively.

Adobe Film & TV Fund: Supporting Underrepresented Filmmakers

Today, Adobe announced an additional $5M commitment to the Adobe Film & TV Fund, an initiative that launched in 2024 to empower underrepresented filmmakers by providing resources, mentorship, and career opportunities both in front of and behind the camera. Three filmmakers who were supported through the Adobe Film & TV Fund grant from the Adobe Foundation to The Latinx House last year have films premiering at Sundance--María Gabriela Torres, editor of “The Librarians,” Isabel Castro, director of “Selena y Los Dinos,” and Mario Fierro, editor of “Sweet Talkin’ Guy.”

This year, the Adobe Film & TV Fund is partnering with Group Effort Initiative (GEI) to provide Adobe training courses for the next generation of filmmakers, editors and marketers that will be essential for corporate, creative and production jobs in film and television. The collaboration will also support mid-career advancement for diverse professionals through employer engagement, education, training and mentorship to enhance career growth in the entertainment industry.

We're proud to announce today that we’re bringing back The Inclusion List - the data-driven study developed by Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in collaboration with the Adobe Foundation. The Inclusion List offers an invaluable roadmap of where the industry is making strides and where we still need to work toward true inclusivity. Our collaboration with USC’s Annenberg Inclusion List builds on our commitment to supporting and elevating underrepresented voices using a data-driven approach to determine where representation and diversity is prominent within the film industry and analyzing where a greater focus on inclusivity is needed.

Ignite Fellows at Sundance

2025 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship. Over 160 fellows have participated in the Sundance x Adobe Fellowships, with many taking their love of filmmaking beyond. By continuing to support diverse voices and providing them with the resources they need to succeed, we’re not just telling stories—we’re changing the narrative of what the future of filmmaking can be. This year, we’re excited to have two Ignite fellows premiering their films at Sundance, with Aurora Brachman showing “Hold Me Close” and Gerardo Coello presenting “SUSANA”.

We invite all 2025 Sundance Festival attendees to join us for a series of exciting events and panels that will showcase the latest innovations and insights from our team. Be sure to follow us on social media for real-time updates, exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes content throughout the festival. For more information and to stay up to date on all our activities, visit our dedicated Adobe Sundance page. We look forward to connecting with you and sharing unforgettable moments at this year’s event.

Adobe’s Commitment to Los Angeles

We know that many people across the film industry have been impacted in some way by the devastating Southern California wildfires. In response to the immediate need of those affected by the wildfires, and those in the creative community, the Adobe Foundation has donated $1 million across the California Community Foundation: Wildfire Recovery Fund and the Entertainment Community Fund. If you are also looking for ways to support, we will match your donations to these incredible organizations at 100%.