Producers get a share of the spotlight each and every Sundance, typically on the first Sunday of the festival thanks to the Producers Celebration presented by Amazon MGM Studios.
Held today at Park City venue The Park, the morning event featured a keynote by Oscar nominated producer David Hinojosa as well as the distribution of a pair of $10,000 grants to producers with projects in this year’s Sundance lineup.
Snagging Hinojosa for a speech was a bit of a coup as the veteran producer — an alum of Killer Films who co-founded his own production company 2AM — is coming off a banner year with credits on Brady Corbet’s best picture nominee The Brutalist and Halina Reijn’s Nicole Kidman-starrer Babygirl. His other credits include Bodies Bodies Bodies, Brothers by Blood, The World to Come, Shirley, Zola, Vox Lux, Beatriz at Dinner and more.
Hinojosa, who is active in the collective Producers United, spotted some of his fellow members in the room and gave them a shout out during his comments.
“I see more than a few faces from Producers United in the room. A group of folks that are often pitted against each other are instead joining forces to solve a really big problem. By addressing inequalities affecting producers of all kinds, including commencement wages and healthcare, we’re taking control of our destiny and assuring the sustainability of this career path,” he explained of the well-documented challenges facing his profession. “This collective effort, supported by the Producers Branch of the Academy, the PGA and the Producer Program at the Sundance Institute, also demonstrates the power of unity in our community. Will we act on that power? The moment is ours to do so.”
It’s “crucial” that producers recognize the “unique” position they occupy in the industry, he continued from the podium, which he shared with fellow speakers including Sundance Institute’s Amanda Kelso, Michelle Satter, Kristin Feeley, Shira Rockowitz and Maria Clement.
“Our power lies not just in our ability to make films, but in our capacity to inspire, to challenge, and, you could say, to bring people to our cause,” he said. “We must fuel our own self-renewal. No one’s going to fix it for us. As the textbook definition of ‘doers,’ it’s exactly that — we must activate. We are so lucky that we have a job that rewards creative entrepreneurship. But I also know for sure — we have to rely on the people in this room. We have to pool our talents, famously impossible to define or fit in a job description. We have to harness it all.”
In closing his remarks, he encouraged his peers to look out for one another in an ever-changing landscape in Hollywood. “In many ways, I’m still the same internet-loving kid from Indiana: Sassy, talkative and short. But now I have this outlet and this canvas. A place to put the cocktail of random skills, open computer tabs and obsessions to work. And best of all, a creative community that works together and builds coalition. We must look out for one another.”
Hinojosa, far left, poses with his ‘Babygirl’ family including Sophie Wilde, Antonio Banderas, Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson and Halina Reijn during the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 30, 2024.
(Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Back to those grants. The Sundance Institute Producers Program is supported by an endowment from the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Charitable Foundation with additional support from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Amazon MGM Studios.
Winning the awards today were producers Joe Pirro (Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet) on the fiction side and Danielle Varga (Brittany Shyne’s Seeds) on the nonfiction side. Pirro is head of production at James Schamus’ company Symbolic Exchange and based in New York City. Varga has produced Brett Story’s The Hottest August, Todd Chandler’s Bulletproof, Vicky Du’s Light of the Setting Sun, and Rachel Elizabeth Seed’s A Photographic Memory.
