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The 2023 Slamdance Screenplay Awards, in collaboration with Landmark Theatres, celebrated exceptional writing talent across categories that include; Features, Horror/Thrillers, Pilots, and Shorts. Leading the accolades was Mike Ackerman, whose feature-length script “This End Up” clinched the Grand Prize. In the TV pilot category, Teri Ruske’s “Do I Belong Here?” emerged as the First Place winner. Scott Thompson and Hayes Hart-Thompson’s “Free Martin” won First Place in the Shorts category. In the Horror/Thriller genre, Nick Hurwitch’s “Sundown” stood out as the top script while the Mentorship Award was deservedly won by Vanessa Magic’s “I Want to Be Evil.” This year’s competition was notable for its generosity, with over $18,000 in cash prizes awarded, including $10,000 for the Grand Prize Winner....

On behalf of our entire Slamdance team, I am writing to extend our sincerest gratitude for your participation in the AGBO+Slamdance DTLA Summer Showcase. Your presence brought an extraordinary and dynamic dimension to the event, infusing it with the best energy we could have asked for. Through your attendance, the event not only underscored the unity within our community but also highlighted its vitality. At the core of Slamdance lie inclusivity and accessibility, both of which were epitomized in your presence. Experiencing these values alongside you enriches our mission. Our Slamdance volunteers were absolutely incredible and our gratitude goes beyond saying! We want to extend a deep thanks to each of our ASL Interpreters for their hard work and grace. We want to thank ATIAN Gin, Blackmagic Design, Coverfly, Final Draft, and Unity Coffee for their generous support and collaboration that made the success of our event possible. We also want to thank our great partner AGBO, without whom the Showcase would not have been possible. Your support and attendance made the immense effort we put into this event feel easy. Once again, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for contributing to the unequivocal success of this showcase. Warm regards, Taylor Miller Festival Director P.S. Your generous donations are essential in ensuring the continuous presentation of...

Slamdance is back with a bang on the LA theater scene! Thanks to our Landmark collaboration and event partnership with The Chimaera Project. This sold out show featured a collection of 8 outstanding short films all directed by women based out of Los Angeles. Thank you to everyone who came out to support this screening and screenings to come like our AGBO + Slamdance DTLA Summer showcase which kicks off this Wednesday! Full program of films and filmmakers below...

David Pierce, our great supporter and friend, has passed away. Founder of Pierce Law Group in 1996, David represented Slamdance and many independent artists who rose to international acclaim, including the filmmakers of the 2012 Oscar winning film The Artist. But what really made David a hero of independent filmmaking was his service to the emerging artist. His passion and devotion in this regard is surely unparalleled. Many filmmakers careers would not have taken off if it was not for David’s mentorship, guidance as well as his legal counsel. Like Slamdance, David believed in the promise of new filmmakers and fully committed himself to this endeavor. Many times this work was undertaken pro bono, without hesitation and involved countless hours to help launch many a filmmaker’s career.  Lectures, workshops, clinics and sponsorships (Pierce Law Group sponsored Slamdance for over 20 years) were an integral part of David’s legal service. Whether in front of Academy members of Television Arts and Sciences, UCLA Extension students or over hot chocolate with Slamdance filmmakers in Park City they were all carried out with the same high degree of vigor, generous spirit and love of sharing legal knowledge. They inspired us to overcome legal hurdles in order to create our work and take greater interest in entertainment law. ...

Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) works to disrupt inequity in the film industry by nurturing, amplifying, and investing in the creative capacity and professional success of our members. The term “MENASA” (Middle East, North African, and South Asian) encompasses a wide diversity of cultures, loosely linked by the idea that the people of these regions are perceived as practicing or having a significant proximity to the practice of Islam. Yet the films exploring this identity that reach audiences in the West are too often limited in depth and range, relying on centuries-old narratives that exoticize, or are solely interested, in Muslim and Arab people as the victims or perpetrators of violence. The Infinite Beauty series, curated by BGDM Director of Grants Farihah Zaman, launched in October 22nd at the Museum of the Moving Image as a way of bringing more nuanced depictions of MENASA life into the light. From the beginning the series has featured films that depict queer MENASA people, from BGDM member Rita Baghdadi’s Sirens, to the Breaking Fast, a rom-com set during one fateful Ramadan in Los Angeles. This pride month, however, BGDM is Infinite Beauty is presenting an all-queer Muslim documentary extravaganza in conjunction with the Slamdance virtual platform, June 22nd to July 7th, presented with MoMI and centering the work...

I was given some questions about script reading and such and am delighted to answer so you can be both enlightened and entertained. Here goes:   What is Your Favorite Snack While Reading a Script: For the slower, more confusing scripts I need anything with caffeine or chocolate. Chocolate all the time. Back in the day… oh around 19 ‘ought one… When we had to read paper scripts we had to be very careful not to spill and smudge them, so it was harder. And now, whilst I don’t want to shmear my screen, I still must be cautious and not eat anything gooey, crumbly, etc. I guess that leaves celery. Blech.   The Weirdest Place Ever Read a Script: I wish I could say something like “on top of a camel in Egypt” but that would make me not pay attention to the EXCELLENT screenplays I get assigned. Long ago I also acted and did extra work, so I think it was great to sit for long hours between takes making money for that, while also reading and getting mo’ money. But I have read them in a house, with a mouse, with no cares, on the stairs, on the beach and as I teach (and students were busy with their own work).  ...

Taylor Miller, Unstoppable cofounder and Slamdance Miami organizer has been announced as Slamdance's Festival Director. Taylor's first festival as director will be in January 2024 for its 30th anniversary. Taylor joins Slamdance's festival producer Michael Morin in preparation of the Park City showcase and will also lead the festival's year-round programs, including the Screenplay Competition and exhibition events. Taylor will report to President and Co-founder Peter Baxter. "Supporting Slamdance filmmakers has been at the forefront of Taylor's work. Her dedication to the discover and championing of new artists has already shaped our organization and I know she will lead our festival into the future with the greatest of commitment. I'm thrilled Taylor Miller is Slamdance's new Festival Director," said Baxter. Miller's journey to her new position is distinguished by the Slamdance Unstoppable program she co-founded in 2020, which was created for and by filmmakers with visible and non-visible disabilities. In 2021, Taylor produced the inaugural Slamdance Miami which focused on emerging filmmakers from Latin America and Florida, in collaboration with Slamdance alumni and Miami's art leaders. During this time, Miller and Baxter created the "Slamdance Index," an equitable entry fee system for filmmakers based on the per capita income of the country the filmmaker comes from, becoming the first film festival in the world to...

Every festival has programming departments for short films, documentaries, and so on... but only Slamdance has a Department of Anarchy. The casual cinephile might associate the Department of Anarchy with avant-garde, transgressive, or underground cinema. It is all of those things and none of them. We like to think of Anarchy as an anti-genre. Anarchy films are innovative in form and provocative in purpose. Some will make viewers feel as though they've been dosed with LSD. Others are a profound reflection upon the terrors and tragedies of the human condition. Still others are the darkest of comedies that may (or may not) include goblin fellatio. Anarchy filmmakers are the black sheep of the cinematic herd. Their films are not produced for the entertainment industry. They are produced in spite of entertainment. Slamdance Presents Department of Anarchy: Short Cinema Assault Volume 1. https://youtu.be/Lsva49rBwDE A maelstrom of underground short-form cinema orchestrated to provoke, intoxicate and disturb, streaming on the Slamdance Channel through April 7th. The lineup includes: Ape Sodom, dir. Max McCabe Set during the decline and fall of the consumerist empire, a filthy garbage-picker is retained as a personal slave by a wealthy ultra-consumer still worshipping at the temple of a life he once knew. Breaker, dir. Philippe McKie In tomorrow's Tokyo, the technologically-enhanced body of...

We are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of filmmaker and alumni Summer Chastant. Summer was a committed and passionate member of our community, especially as a programmer and Co-Captain of Episodes. Crucially, Summer gave Slamdance her light to lift other filmmakers and the organization as a whole. It seemed as though Summer was made for Slamdance and Slamdance was made for her. We are greater than the sum of our parts and the devotion she gave us meant Summer was a very big part indeed. We always looked forward to being with her and will miss her greatly. In rest, may she find peace we all seek. Love from everyone at Slamdance....

We are excited to announce our mind-bending lineup for our 2023 Animated, Experimental, Unstoppable, Narrative, and Documentary Shorts programs as well as the Digital, Interactive and Gaming (DIG) and Episodes lineup. Dedicated to providing accessible programming both in-person and online, the 2023 hybrid festival will return this year with events in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah from January 20th to 26th and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 23rd to 29th. “Our short filmmakers have always been at the forefront of innovation and experimentation in independent film, while simultaneously giving a voice to filmmaking communities that are traditionally under-represented. This year’s shorts, episodic and DIG lineup is no different, filled with fearless filmmakers who are sure to shape the future of independent storytelling on a global scale,” said Festival Producer Michael Morin. The 2023 festival continues the tradition of pushing the envelope of independent and DIY filmmaking with the addition of 19 Unstoppable Shorts, 11 Animated Shorts, 18 Narrative Shorts, 13 Documentary Shorts, 5 Experimental Shorts, 5 Episodes, and 9 DIG Showcases to the lineup. Exploring themes of grief, religion, cultural roots, memories and more, the films in these programs challenge our current perception of cinema. “The films in this lineup are wildly unique and they each garnered enthusiastic and unanimous support...

We congratulate and welcome Tara Tavi as Slamdance's key artist for our 2023 Film Festival. Tara is an artist from Pomona, California whose multimedia work embraces the surreal. In her work for Slamdance Tara has created a collage that takes on a cinematic quality. By juxtaposing competing images from both sides of vintage magazine pages, nuanced narratives are created. The resulting complex imagery peers beneath the veneer of mass media and raises questions about chance and intentionality. You can learn more in Tara's video artist statement below. When you come to Slamdance this year be sure to see Tara's illuminated version of the festival's key art. You can find more of Tara and her work on Instagram. Slamdance 2023 will take place in-person from January 20-26 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah and virtually from January 23-29. Passes are available now. https://youtu.be/JKEWKrRvqu8...

We are delighted to announce the lineup for Narrative Features Competition, Documentary Features Competition, Breakouts, Unstoppable, and Spotlight Screenings for the 29th Slamdance Film Festival. With titles hailing from all over the globe and jam-packed with premieres, the 2023 festival continues our legacy of discovering fresh and influential new voices. Dedicated to providing accessible programming both in-person and online, the 2023 hybrid festival will return this year with events in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah from January 20th to 26th and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 23rd to 29th. “From the streets of Seattle to the psychedelic skies of a unicorn-run dystopia, our filmmakers are transporting audiences to new dimensions with stories that explore the nuance of disability, immigration and gender. This year’s lineup represents a generation of new directors who are breaking boundaries and redefining what filmmaking looks like in 2023,” stated Festival Manager Lily Yasuda. This year’s lineup was chosen from over 7,700 total submissions, 1,522 of which were features. All films selected in the Narrative Features and Documentary Features competition categories are directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, with budgets of less than $1 million USD - a feature that has been unique to Slamdance since its founding in 1995. While Slamdance’s main competition remains exclusive to first-time directors,...

The 2023 Slamdance Film Festival will return to in-person programming with events in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah from January 20th to 26th and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 23rd to 29th. Kicking off the festivities is a screening of the Opening Night film PUNK ROCK VEGAN MOVIE. From the mind of electronic music legend Moby, the project is the musician’s directorial debut and is a passionate and stylistically idiosyncratic look at the ongoing relationship between the worlds of punk rock and animal rights. Including interviews with some of the biggest names in punk history, including Ian Mackaye, HR, Dave Navarro, Ray Cappo, Steve Ignorant, and Captain Sensible, Moby tells the story of how punk rock became such a fertile and surprising breeding ground for vegan activism. In the spirit of punk rock, Moby will be giving the film away for free following the Slamdance premiere. “PUNK ROCK VEGAN MOVIE was created to shine a light on the surprising and inspiring history of punk rock and animal rights, but also to remind people of the importance and desperate urgency of adopting the uncompromising ethics and actions of the original punk rock activist,” said Moby. “After it makes its world premiere at Slamdance, it's yours. It's my goal to give the movie...

The 2023 Slamdance Film Festival will return to in-person programming with events in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah from January 20th to 26th and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 23rd to 29th. This will include the first in-person Unstoppable showcase, which will be presented at the University of Utah from January 23rd to 25th. Slamdance is honored to continue its support of independent filmmaking and unconventional storytelling with the return of the Unstoppable program in partnership with the University of Utah. The University has been a long time supporter of the festival and is the perfect partner to provide the first in-person iteration of the program through their accessible campus, which is free to the public. Launched in 2021 and founded by Juliet Romeo, Asha Chai-Chang, Gabriel Cordell, Chris Furbee, Steve Way, Peter Baxter and Taylor Miller, the Unstoppable program is a showcase of new films by creators with visible and non-visible disabilities. The program has been a key launching point for filmmakers, including 2021 alumni Doug Roland whose short film “Feeling Through” was nominated for an Academy Award. “Unstoppable is excited and grateful for this collaboration with The University of Utah because it allows for a safe space for disabled filmmakers, and an opportunity to bridge the gap between accessibility...