Sundance to Honor Kristen Stewart, Christopher Nolan, and Celine Song at Opening Night Gala

Updated: This story was originally published on November 1, 2023, and has now been updated to include new honorees.

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival will honor actress and filmmaker Kristen Stewart; filmmakers Christopher Nolan, Maite Alberdi, and Celine Song; and journalist and producer Pat Mitchell with awards at its annual opening night gala and fundraiser.

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The fundraiser will take place January 18, 2024 on the opening night of next year’s Sundance, this year celebrating 40 years of the film festival.

Stewart, who will appear in two films at this year’s Sundance, including U.S. Dramatic Competition title “Love Me” and Midnight movie “Love Lies Bleeding,” will receive the Visionary Award “in recognition of her work as an uncompromising artist and contributions to the field of independent film.”

“Oppenheimer” director Nolan will receive a new prize from Sundance called the Sundance Institute Trailblazer Award. Nolan’s “Memento” from 2001 played at Sundance that year. Meanwhile, Song and Alberdi will each receive the annual Vanguard Award Presented by Acura. Their respective films, “Past Lives” and “The Eternal Memory,” each premiered at Sundance in 2023. Song will receive the award for Fiction, and Alberdi for Non-Fiction.

Finally, Mitchell, the former Sundance Institute Board Chair and trustee since 1995, will receive the Vanguard Award for Philanthropy, recognizing her exemplary commitment to the Institute’s support and to philanthropy for social impact.

Stewart’s debut film as a director, 2017’s short “Come Swim,” made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and she’s to date had 10 films screen in Park City, including “The Runaways,” “Adventureland,” and “Lizzie.”

“We are thrilled to honor the immensely talented Kristen Stewart at our Opening Night Gala,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “Kristen’s captivating performances across a wide, diverse body of work make her a truly unique talent. With over ten Sundance films under her belt, she has always remained committed to the art of independent cinema. We are excited to welcome her back to the festival and can’t wait to see what she has in store for our 40th year.”

“Sundance’s purity, lack of fussy pretension and its commitment to supporting independence in an industry that doesn’t always value the radical or the sidelined is what makes it by far the homiest place for me to go see, discuss and present films,” said Stewart in an official statement. “Truly honored to be acknowledged by this beloved institution.”

The inaugural Trailblazer Award will be presented to someone who demonstrates an “artist’s unwavering dedication and notable contributions to the field of independent film.”

“Presenting ‘Memento’ at the Sundance Film Festival marked a pivotal moment in my career, this award is a full circle moment and testament to the extraordinary influence of independent filmmaking,” Nolan said in a statement.

The Vanguard Award honors artists whose work highlights the art of storytelling and creative independence in both nonfiction and fiction. Past winners have included W. Kamau Bell, Nikyatu Jusu, Ryan Coogler, Siân Heder, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Radha Blank, Lulu Wang, Dee Rees, Damien Chazelle, Marielle Heller, Benh Zeitlin, and Boots Riley.

“I am incredibly honored to receive this award — it really means the world to me,” Song said. “Sundance is where I showed my very first film for the very first time, and I will never forget the experience — pacing around the green room at the Eccles, waiting to introduce the film to the world, meeting the audience afterward, being there together with everyone who made the movie with me. Sundance is the place that launched my career as a filmmaker: it’s a home for ‘Past Lives’ — and a home for me — in the deepest way. Thank you so much.”

“It’s an absolute honor to receive the Vanguard Award. Sundance was the gateway to North American audiences for me and has been hugely supportive of my last two films,” Alberdi said in a statement. “I am enormously grateful that the narrative avant-garde is also understood as applying to documentaries and that filmmaking boundaries are continuing to expand. ‘The Eternal Memory’ is a film that has taught me so much about the infinite ways of telling, looking at and working with real-life stories and I am proud and humbled to be among such an extraordinary group of filmmakers who have been given this recognition including Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, Siân Heder, Radha Blank, Lulu Wang, and Nikyatu Jusu — amongst others whose work I greatly admire.”

Song also in 2018 participated in a cohort for the Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross. And Alberdi’s “The Eternal Memory” won the World Cinema Documentary Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance. She also received a Sundance Documentary Film Grant in 2013 and 2016 and served on the jury for the 2019 Festival in the World Documentary Competition category.

“Sundance is so much more than a film festival. It’s a mission to discover and to support the stories and ideas that open hearts and minds, that challenge and expand our boundaries, and that connect us as a community of storytellers and change-makers,” Mitchell said. “It’s been a privilege to support and serve that mission, to share the learning journey that is core to all that Sundance is and will continue to be.”

The annual opening night gala enables the nonprofit to raise critical funds to support independent artists year-round through labs, grants, and public programming that nurture artists globally. The upcoming Sundance Film Festival will take place January 18–28, 2024 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as online from January 25–28. You can see the currently announced lineup right here.

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