Adrienne Shelly Foundation and Sundance Institute Announce Fellowship Grant

NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Adrienne Shelly Foundation (ASF), in conjunction with the Sundance Institute, has awarded its fourth annual Fellowship to filmmaker Sara Colangelo for her screenplay Little Accidents and its continued development.  ASF is a non-profit organization dedicated to the legacy of actor, writer and director Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered November 1, 2006.  This Grant fuses the Sundance Institute's mission with ASF's in supporting the advancement of talented women filmmakers.  The Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program is a year-round program that supports the advancement of emerging independent filmmakers with distinctive, singular voices.

ASF's Sundance Fellowship is awarded each November to a filmmaker coming out of the Feature Film Program's June Directors Lab. Past recipients of the grant are Dee Rees (Pariah), Ondi Timoner (Mapplethorpe/The Perfect Moment) and Maryam Keshavarz (Circumstance).

"It is an honor to partner with Sundance in recognizing the talents of its Fellows," said ASF founder and executive director Andy Ostroy. "With Maryam, Ondi, Dee and now Sara we're consistently seeing tremendous talent which needs a helping hand. We know Adrienne would be proud of what we've accomplished."

"The Sundance Institute greatly values this relationship with the Adrienne Shelly Foundation and we're thrilled to award our fourth Fellowship together in support of an emerging woman filmmaker," said Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Director Michelle Satter. "Adrienne was an exceptionally gifted filmmaker and in her honor, this grant will help provide Sara with the opportunity to share her own artistic vision as a filmmaker." 

About The Adrienne Shelly Foundation

Formed in January 2007, the Adrienne Shelly Foundation supports the artistic achievements of female filmmakers through a series of scholarships and grants, distributed through partnerships with Women in Film, IFP, Nantucket Film Festival, Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Columbia University, Boston University, American Film Institute and Rooftop Films.  Since its inception, it has awarded over thirty grants to female filmmakers all over the world.  For more information, please visit www.adrienneshellyfoundation.org.

About Sundance Institute Feature Film Program

Since 1981, the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program (FFP) has supported more than 450 independent filmmakers whose distinctive, singular work has engaged audiences worldwide.  The program's approach to the discovery and development of independent artists has become a model for creative development programs internationally. Program staff fully embrace the unique vision of each filmmaker, encouraging a rigorous creative process with a focus on original and deeply personal storytelling.  Each year, up to 25 emerging filmmakers from the U.S. and around the world participate in a year-round continuum of support which can include the Screenwriters and Directors Labs, Creative Producing Fellowship and Lab, Composers Lab, Creative Producing Summit, ongoing creative and strategic advice, significant production and postproduction resources, a Rough-Cut Screening Initiative, a Screenplay Reading Series, and direct financial support through project-specific grants and artist fellowships. In many cases, the Institute has helped the Program's fellows attach producers and talent, secure financing, and assemble other significant resources to move their projects toward production and presentation. In addition, the FFP is providing strategic resources to completed Lab films in distribution and marketing across all platforms to support and expand their connection to audiences worldwide.  Over its 30 year history, the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program has supported an extensive list of award-winning and groundbreaking independent films, including this year's Pariah, written and directed by Dee Rees, Circumstance, written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz, and Martha Marcy May Marlene, written and directed by Sean Durkin.

About Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, I Am My Own Wife, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

SOURCE The Adrienne Shelly Foundation