Sundance Film Festival is coming to Asia in 2021. The Park City event will launch a new offshoot in Indonesian capital Jakarta in late summer, showcasing a selection of titles from this year’s fest in Utah.
Sundance is teaming with local outfit XRM Media on the launch. A delegation of filmmakers will travel to the Indonesian city – travel and public health allowing – while there will also be Sundance Lab initiatives held for Asian talent in collaboration with XRM.
The fest said that other Asian cities will be explored for future editions. It also runs an offshoot in the UK called Sundance: London, which took place digitally in August last year due to the pandemic and is expected to return again in summer 2021.
Michael Y. Chow, Co-Founder of XRM Media, said, “Indonesia is an emerging film market, and we are committed to bring the strength of the Institute to help develop and showcase Asian talent to the indie community.”
Tabitha Jackson, Director of Sundance Film Festival, said, “We have long wanted to deepen our connection to the bold and vibrant energy of Asian independent filmmaking. The opportunity to work more closely with the community of filmmakers and audiences in Indonesia through a collaboration with XRM Media makes this first year of Sundance Film Festival: Asia a very exciting prospect.”
Winston Utomo, CEO IDN Media, said “We are very excited to bring the 2021 Sundance Film Festival: Asia for the first time to Indonesia. We truly believe that this historic festival would be an important momentum for the film industry in Asia, especially for filmmakers and film enthusiasts in Indonesia, to connect and collaborate with filmmakers around the world.”