Submitting Your Project to the Sundance Film Festival
About this Insider Session
In our Insider Sessions, Sundance Institute staff answer your questions and guide you through the process of applying to our labs, grant opportunities and the Sundance Film Festival.
For this Insider Session, programmers Sudeep Sharma and Kelly Young will provide information on submitting your short or feature film to the Sundance Film Festival. Get an inside look into the film selection process, an understanding of how the programming team works, things to consider with the festival’s new Boulder location, and gain insights about setting your film - and yourself - up for success as you prepare to enter the festival circuit.
The conversation will be followed by a live Q&A session to answer your questions about the submission process for this current festival cycle.
Click here for more information on festival requirements and entry fees.
Insider SessionTeam
Kelly Young
Programmer and Manager, Short Film Program
Kelly Young is Programmer and Manager for the Short Film Program. She has held several positions since joining the Sundance Institute in 2017, including Coordinator to the Festival Director, Coordinator to the Documentary Film Program, and Receptionist. She describes herself as “comedy adjacent” and her credentials include working as a server at the world famous Punch Line Comedy Club in San Francisco.
Sudeep Sharma
Programmer, Sundance Film Festival
Sudeep Sharma is a Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival with a focus on documentary feature films. With nearly two decades of experience in film curation, Sudeep started at the Institute as a screener for international documentaries and reader for the Labs and has had several roles including Programming Associate, Associate Programmer and Shorts Programmer. He has worked in programming at many eclectic organizations including major Los Angeles film organizations such as Film Independent, AFI Fest, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He has also been Director of Programming and Interim Artistic Director for the Palm Springs International ShortFest. He has served on festival juries and film award committees around the world and has led and participated on panels on a variety of industry and cultural topics. He holds a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA and has taught film and television history, industry and criticism courses at universities throughout Southern California.
Katherine Street
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Katherine "Kat" Street is an LA-based award-winning filmmaker and Philadelphia native. A cinephile at heart, she writes female-driven stories with complex (oftentimes damaged) main characters, centered around self-discovery, self-love, and belonging.
She has written numerous short-form projects, including original shorts, pilots, and features. She wrote and directed the dramatic short film “Cycles,” which received festival recognition in both acting and best romantic short. She also created her award-winning flagship web series "The New Adult,” which is currently streaming on Kweli TV.
Kat is a Stowe Story Lab SAGIndie Fellow and a participant in the BlackMagic Collective Emerging Filmmakers Initiative. In 2021, she founded the Black Film Challenge, a project that showcases filmmakers of African descent and the movies they create.
She earned her BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a concentration in Cinematography and has literary representation with Yak Yak Mgmt.