Joana Vicente is departing the Sundance Institute, where she has overseen the non-profit and its storied film festival since late 2021. Sundance board member Amanda Kelso will step in as acting CEO through April, while Vicente will remain as an advisor to Kelso and the board through June.
Vicente came to Sundance from The Toronto International Film Festival, and arrived as COVID had pushed the festival online for 2021 and again in 2022. During her tenure, she spearheaded a hybrid format for 2023 and 2024 in which films would be viewed in person as well as online. Like most festivals, fundraising has been challenging due to the pandemic followed by pressures in the larger economy. In June, the Institute laid off 11 staffers. Vicente has also been under pressure to set the festival up for the long term and shape its vision amid a challenging landscape for independent film.
“I look back at the significant work we have accomplished together at the Institute and the herculean task of bringing the Festival back from the pandemic – all while making the Festival more accessible by welcoming a community online,” Vicente wrote in a letter announcing her exit. “From our first pivot to a digital festival and two successful in-person hybrid festivals, we have cemented Sundance’s position as the best platform for emerging storytellers. Facing extraordinary financial and logistical headwinds coming out of COVID, we came together to find new ways to ensure that our in-person artist labs, the heart of Sundance’s mission, could continue on.”
Her tenure is relatively short in Sundance standards. Previous CEO Keri Putnam spent a decade there, while fest director John Cooper stepped down in 2019 after a decade.
Sundance Institute Board Chair Ebs Burnough thanked Vicente in a statement and called her “a true advocate for independent storytellers,” adding, “she will continue to positively impact this community.”
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