Wrap Stars: At the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, ASCAP music creators helped elevate a diversity of voices

In the second year that the Sundance Film Festival was forced to cancel its in-person plans, forgoing paparazzi, parties and pop-ups, attention naturally fell on the heart and soul of the  fest – the incredible array of films and the talented creators who brought them to life – including numerous members of ASCAP’s global family of composers and songwriters.

This year’s event reflected the strong commitment by festival director Tabitha Jackson and her team to elevate a diversity of voices from around the world, especially women, bringing with it fresh and previously unseen perspectives. For the first time, female filmmakers directed the majority of features (55 percent directed by women) and competition titles (56 percent directed by women).

Many of those films were also scored by ASCAP women composers, some of whom we featured in our Sundance ASCAP Screen Time conversation series, which included composer (and ASCAP Board member) Sharon Farber discussing Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power with the film’s director Nina Menkes, composer Este Haim (of the band Haim) discussing award winner Cha Cha Real Smooth with co-composer Christopher Stracey; composer Isabella “The Machine” Summers discussing Call Jane with director Phyllis Nagy; and co-director Anisia Uzeyman discussing Neptune Frost with her husband, co-director and composer Saul Williams.

Sundance announced its award winners on Saturday, January 29^th. ASCAP composers whose music graced many of this year’s winning films in the top categories included: Marius de Vries & Matt Robertson (both PRS), who scored Navalny, which won the Audience Award for US Documentary as well as the Festival Favorite Award; Este Haim & Christopher Stracey (APRA), who scored Cha Cha Real Smooth, which won the Audience Award Presented by Adobe for US Dramatic (and which was promptly scooped up Apple for $15 million, the biggest sale of the festival so far); Becky Gebhardt, who scored Framing Agnes, which won the NEXT Audience Award and NEXT Innovator Award Presented by Adobe; Katya Mihailova, who scored The Territory, which won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary and Special Jury Award for Documentary Craft; and Roger Goula (PRS), who scored All That Breathes, which won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary.

Also in the World Cinema Documentary category, Olivier Alary and Johannes Malfatti (SACEM), scored Midwives, which won the Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking, and Uno Helmersson (STIM), scored A House Made of Splinters, which won the Directing Award. In the World Cinema Dramatic category, Zvia Mgebry scored Klondike, which won the Directing Award.

Also in the US Documentary category, Nicolas Godin scored Fire of Love, which won the Jonathan Oppenhein Editing Award, and Sharmi Basu scored I Didn’t See You There, which won the Directing Award.

In the US Dramatic category, Michael Abels scored 892, which won the Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble. Emergency, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, was scored by Rene G. Boscio. In the Premieres category, DeAndre James Allen Toole scored God’s Country, which won the Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction

In the Shorts category, Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sarah Driver, which won the Special Jury Award for Screenwriting, featured music by Brian Mcomber and Bush Tetras, and If I Go Will They Miss Me, which won the Jury Award for US Fiction, was scored by Malcom Parson and Khalil Hazzard.

Read about all of the ASCAP composers who powered the 2022 Sundance Film Festival selections.

ASCAP celebrated its 24^th year of partnering with the festival by presenting two days of its  Sundance ASCAP Music Café, featuring outstanding video performances from an eclectic group of songwriters and artists, including Shungudzo, Brandy Clark, John Doe, Hayley Sales, Jordan Hawkins and EVAN + ZANE, featuring Zane Carney and actress/activist Evan Rachel Wood, who was the subject of the 2022 Sundance documentary Phoenix Rising.