The star of Sundances annual gala 2025 was not newly made Oscar-nominated Cynthia ErivoOr Oscar winner Olivia Colman, or even Sara Bareilles, who received standing ovations for a brief prominent to end the evening. It was it instead Michelle Sederwhose name the public may not know but where loved in the room at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Park City.
Seder is a founding senior director for artist programs for the Sundance Institute. She has been part of the non -profit organization from the beginning. In her speech at the dinner, Seder remembered that she had five minutes by Robert Redford’s time and worked courage to tell him that he needed her to open a Los Angeles office for the Sundance Institute.
His answer? “Sure. Call me when you get there.” The rest is history.
Seds launched Filmmakers Lab for the Sundance Institute And direct mentor for filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Chloé Zhao, Dee Rees, Ryan Coogler, Taika Waititi and more.
Many of these people were involved in a video tribute to Seder, a gripping collection of home films where people like Tarantino, Waititi and Kieran Culkin were only future storytellers with Baby-Face. The many speakers in the video such as Ed Harris, Sally Field, The Daniels and more described her as an unscrupulous hero from Sundance, the “silent voice” that has been behind all the great artists. This is because even if she has not been invoiced as a producer on these films, the filmmakers described how she left her mark through compassionate feedback and a steady belief in them.
Sundance also trotted a litania of votes to fight for her. Glenn Close, in one of three introductions for Seder, said she was “completely reverent to this special man.”
“The depth and breadth of her influence is incomprehensible,” Close said. “She’s tough and durable as only a woman can be.”
Marielle Heller, the director of “Night Bitch” and who worked with Seds on her debut “A teenage girl’s diary“simply called her” one of the best people “and” one of these bright spots “that represents the good in the world.
James MangoldWho received the festival’s Trailblazer Award, said that Redford’s employment of Seder was the “most significant and most effective decision he has made.” After coming to the Sundance Lab to develop his script into “COP Land,” he still said: “I still long to convince you that you were right.”
And in a letter from Robert Redford, who was not present, but read by his daughter Amy Redford, he described her as “instrumental” in shaping Sundance into what it is today and calls her “steady” for four decades of changed administrations and Pandemic.
“You are the lighthouse. You,” Redford wrote partly. “But it has never been about you, because you have always been laser focused on the craft, the artist and what they need. It may be to encourage them to continue digging or maybe back. Maybe give them a hug or a little kick in the back. ”
Seder got standing ovations when she took the stage, and she gave an emotional speech when she recently described that she was losing her family home in Palisad in the middle of the fires in Los Angeles.
“We lost our village, but at the end of the day we are the village.”
This year’s “Celebrating Sundance Institute presented by Google TV” was held at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Park City. The annual event helped to raise money for the non-profit Sundance Institute, which will be used for the institute’s second year-round work to support independence film Programs and contributions.
The gala is increasingly coinciding with the Oscar campaign, and this year the event happened to take place the day after the Oscar nominations were announced, with Erivo, Mangold and “Sugarcane” directors Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassiewho won the Vanguard Award for Non-Fiction, all nominated points and all were honored by Sundance. Sean Wang, who won the US Dramatic Jury Prize for last year’s “Didi”, also received a prize by the festival, Vanguard Award for Fiction, which is awarded by “The Wedding Banquet” director Andrew Ahn.
Erivo’s Visionary Award was distributed by Colman, who took the stage wearing a diadem and joked that she loves “how relaxed” Sundance is. She described that she saw Erivo for the first time in “Widows” and thought that here is a bright young American actress who will one day go a long way. Colman is still convinced that Erivo’s British accent is just something she does privately for her.
Mangold also gave a convincing speech and said that as a filmmaker “we do not need to do anything that lets people pass free time.” He advocated films that carry their feelings on the sleeve and appealed to more seriously in movies, something Sundance usually does best.
“We shouldn’t be ashamed to feel shit and show it,” he said.
