LOS ANGELES--FilmFreeway, the world’s most-used film festival submissions platform, has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Sundance Institute to handle all projects submitted to the Sundance Film Festival through 2022, collaborating on a customized film submission process. The announcement was made today by Zachary Jones, CTO and Co-founder of FilmFreeway and Adam Montgomery, Senior Manager, Programming Department and Programmer of the Sundance Film Festival.

Submissions for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival will officially open on filmfreeway.com on June 3, 2019. Currently, more than 900,000 registered filmmakers use FilmFreeway to submit to nearly 8,000 film festivals and creative contests around the world, including dozens of Oscar® accredited and BAFTA qualifying festivals and festival circuit stops such as AFI Fest, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, as well as HBO, NBC-Universal, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Student Academy Awards.

“We are excited about our collaboration with FilmFreeway, which has established itself as the new industry standard in festival submissions. As an artist-focused nonprofit organization, we put our filmmakers first, and it’s vitally important that they have a reliable and user-friendly submission experience. We have chosen to partner exclusively with FilmFreeway because of their proven track record and industry-wide reputation for excellence in user experience and customer care. FilmFreeway’s technology will help us streamline our application and judging processes for nearly 15,000 projects submitted to us each year and allow us to discover, connect with and foster unique filmmaking voices and diverse groups of storytellers from all over the world,” stated Sundance’s Montgomery.

“A little over five years ago, as a small startup and even before we wrote a single line of code, we talked of a future where we might someday work with Sundance. To now serve as the exclusive submission service for such a legendary film festival is a dream realized and a true privilege. Since our launch, we've never stopped innovating, listening carefully to customers, and building new features to make it easier than ever to discover, manage, and enter film festivals. For those efforts to be recognized by Sundance is the highest honor we could imagine and a validation of our team’s passion and tireless work. We have worked closely with Sundance’s programming team to develop custom functionality tailor-made to serve their unique processes and demonstrated for them the level of attention and quality that festivals have come to expect when working with FilmFreeway. In the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out many of those enhancements site-wide for all of our customers. We look forward to working with the many thousands of filmmakers submitting to Sundance each year and making sure their experience is an exceptional one,” commented Jones of FilmFreeway.

Since their inception in 2014, FilmFreeway quickly rose to prominence and within its first year became the market leading submission platform across all top metrics including: global web traffic, total festivals, Oscar® / BAFTA accredited festivals, and daily active users. Film festivals are on the rise around the world, as are those festivals which help filmmakers qualify for awards contention. 14 out of the 15 Oscar® nominated independent films featured at the 2019 Academy Awards® telecast used FilmFreeway to reach festivals. FilmFreeway is well known for its outstanding customer service and adoration from filmmakers. The company is expected to add new user enhancements in the near future that will allow their filmmakers to connect with distributors and have their work seen by even more people around the world. Submissions to the Sundance Film Festival will be accepted beginning June 3, 2019.

FilmFreeway

FilmFreeway is the world’s leading film festival marketplace and one the most visible and beloved companies in independent film, trusted by the world’s top film festivals and brands including HBO, ESPN, NBC-Universal, Lionsgate, PBS, NPR and more. Every day, tens of thousands of filmmakers, writers and artists use FilmFreeway to discover, submit their work, and get tickets to nearly 8,000 film festivals and creative contests all over the world.

The Sundance Film Festival®

The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Sorry to Bother You, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Eighth Grade, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Precious, The Cove, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Napoleon Dynamite, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Reservoir Dogs and sex, lies, and videotape. The Festival is a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute®.

Sundance Institute

Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. The Institute's signature Labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices, and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as Sorry to Bother You, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Eighth Grade, Blindspotting, The Tale, Get Out, The Big Sick, Strong Island, Blackfish, Top of the Lake, Winter's Bone, The Wolfpack, Dear White People, Trapped, Brooklyn, Little Miss Sunshine, 20 Feet From Stardom, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Fun Home.

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