Sundance Film Festival Jurors to Include Cynthia Erivo, Daniela Vega, Julie Dash

The Sundance Film Festival announced 22 jurors that will bestow this year’s awards at the digital ceremony taking place Feb. 2. The judges include actor Cynthia Erivo, Chilean actor Daniela Vega and sibling designer-filmmakers Kate and Laura Mulleavy.

The awards, which recognize standout artistic and cinematic prowess, are decided on by six section juries. As in previous years, festival viewers will have a role in deciding the 2021 Audience Awards, which are open to films in the U.S. Competition, World Competition and NEXT categories.

The U.S. Dramatic Jury is comprised of filmmaker Julie Dash, Tony-, Emmy-, and Grammy-winning Erivo and author Hanya Yanagihara.

Curatorial director at the Criterion Collection Ashley Clark, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer and Emmy-winning director Lana Wilson will make up the U.S. Documentary Jury.

The World Cinema Dramatic Jury will feature Istanbul-based producer Zeynep Atakan, filmmaker Isaac Julien and Vega. British documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto, executive director of Documentary Africa Mohamed Saïd Ouma and documentary film editor, producer and consultant Jean Tsien will make up the World Cinema Documentary Jury.

The Mulleavy sisters will make up the NEXT Jurors. The Short Film Jury will comprise film, TV and theater actor Raúl Castillo, visual artist Tacita Dean and award-winning programmer and curator Inge de Leeuw. The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Jury will feature founder of Algorithmic Justice League Joy Buolamwini, writer-director Aneesh Chaganty, associate professor of chemistry at Hunter College Mandë Holford, director-producer Lydia Dean Pilcher and Berlin-based Swiss producer Lena Vurma.

“Our jurors have reached a high level of achievement in their individual fields, and can bring their unique perspective to the process of analyzing and evaluating films,” said Kim Yutani, the Festival’s Director of Programming. “We’re pleased to bring this accomplished, creative group together, and look forward to hearing their thoughts.”

Sundance, which honors feature-length and short films, will be available to livestream online. Award-winning films will be available for a special extended-run viewing the day after the ceremony.