Veteran filmmaker Mira Nair and Oscar-nominated documentary director Shaunak Sen have found a place on the jury panel at the Sundance Film Festival 2024, slated to take place from January 18 to 28 in Utah’s Salt Lake City.
On Wednesday, the Sundance Institute revealed the panel of 16 jurors who will be recognising artistic and cinematic excellence at the 40th edition of the festival. Additionally, the names of five jury members who would be presenting the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize were also announced.
“The Sundance Film Festival is known for discovering and platforming visionary emerging artists. We cannot do this without our jury, who so thoughtfully help us recognise and amplify the next generation of independent storytellers,” mentioned festival director Eugene Hernandez in a statement.
The 2024 jury lineup is as diverse as the films they will critique. Debra Granik, Adrian Tomine and Waithe lead the US Dramatic Competition panel, while Shane Boris, Nicole Newnham and Rudy Valdez take charge of the US Documentary Competition.
For the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, Jennifer Kent, Mira Nair, and Rui Poças will be the guiding voices. Mandy Chang, Monica Hellström and Shaunak Sen will helm the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
In addition, Christina Oh, Danny Pudi and Charlotte Regan will be judging the Short Film Program Competition. Zal Batmanglij takes the reins for the Next competition section.
The climax of Sundance Film Festival 2024 will be the awards ceremony, where winners across five competition sections for feature films will be announced, on January 26. For short films, the victors will be revealed at a separate event on January 23.
The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, one of the festival's unique honours, has already been conferred to Love Me, directed by Sam and Andy Zuchero. This distinctive award, recognising films focusing on science or technology themes or portraying scientists, engineers or mathematicians as central characters, was decided by a jury comprising professionals from both the film and science industries: Dr Mandë Holford, Dr Nia Imara, Matt Johnson, Theresa Park, and Courtney Stephens.
Apart from the official jury awards, audience members attending in person will have the opportunity to vote for the 2024 Audience Awards for films in the US Competition, World Competition and Next categories. The attendees can also contribute to selecting the Festival Favorite, chosen from all in-person eligible feature film screenings.
