Sundance Institute's Story Forum: Exploring Art and Innovation is a space to learn, collaborate, and join the conversation; inviting thoughtful dialogue about the artist-first tools and technologies supporting visual storytelling today.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how generative tools can support independent artists in making their films. Go inside the process as the team behind the short film MythOS breaks down how they leveraged generative technologies, organized their workflows, and tackled key challenges. This session highlights the steps and decisions that shaped their film, showing what collaboration looks like when incorporating AI tools, and how AI can enhance an artist’s creativity and streamline the path to a finished film.
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Writer-director, MythOS
Taryn O’Neill is a writer, filmmaker and futurist whose work focuses on using storytelling and emerging technologies to invoke ‘Protopias’ (aka better futures). Her career spans early web series producing, acting, writing, and directing, with experience across traditional film, new media, and STEM-driven storytelling.
more...Executive Producer, MythOS
Joanna Popper is a media and technology executive and award-winning executive producer focused on AI, storytelling, and innovation. She served as Chief Metaverse Officer at CAA, leading initiatives in AI, spatial computing, and web3, and previously held roles leading XR Go-to-Market at HP, EVP Media & Marketing at Singularity University and VP Marketing at NBCUniversal. She cofounded Satire AI, which has produced over 30 AI-powered short films and earned 20 awards. Her work includes AI shorts Enter the BBL Drizzyverse: The Yams of Life, Project 2029, D.I.C.E., and immersive experiences Finding Pandora X and Breonna’s Garden.
more...Editor, MythOS
Drigan Lee is an AI Artist and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. His current projects include serving as a creative technologist on an AI collaboration between Ron Howard and Obsidian Studios, editing episodes of Rick Rubin's TETRAGRAMMATON podcast, and co-writing a vérité documentary about an Alaskan strip club (Prod. Chloe Zhao and Alex Gibney). His lead editing work includes CALLBACK (Sundance '26), THE MONEY GAME (Emmy-nominated, Amazon), BAMARUSH (HBO). His additional editing work includes DAUGHTERS (Sundance '24, Netflix), CUSP (Sundance '20, Showtime).
more...AI Lead, MythOS
Maddie Hong is a creative technologist and filmmaker specializing in using emerging technologies to achieve human creativity. Her career has spanned from technical AI artist work for companies such as Secret Level, to editing movie trailers, to technology teams at major studios such as Netflix. Her innovative AI filmmaking has been published in Forbes and Wired and has earned several accolades, including Finalist in Runway's Gen48 competition, Second Place in the Culver Cup sponsored by FBRC.AI and AWS, and official merit selection in Runway's 3rd Annual AI Film Festival.
more...Moderator | Product Marketing Manager, Adobe Firefly GenAI
Gina Garcia is a Product Marketing Manager on Firefly GenAI, Adobe’s generative AI platform for creators. She works closely with filmmakers, artists, creative professionals, and creators to support creative workflows, helping them understand and experiment with emerging tools in service of their creative practice. At Adobe, she partners with creators and cultural institutions to explore how generative AI can be integrated thoughtfully and responsibly into storytelling.
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