The longtime head of the Sundance Institute’s filmmaking labs, a springboard for generations of independent filmmakers to workshop and experiment in the mountains of Utah, is receiving one of Hollywood’s highest honors.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that hands out the Oscars, announced Monday that Michelle Satter, founding senior director of the Sundance Institute’s Artist Programs, will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award during the academy’s Governors’ Awards ceremony on Nov. 18.
In a statement, academy president Janet Yang called Satter “a pillar of the independent film community, [who] has played a vital role in the careers of countless filmmakers around the world.”
The institute, on its Twitter account, posted, “We couldn’t agree more with the academy’s decision to honor Michelle for the impact she has had on the industry.”
Satter, writing on Twitter, called the award “an incredible honor … which I share w/ my amazing Sundance colleagues, artists we’ve had the privilege of supporting, advisers who’ve given back with such wisdom & care, Robert Redford, whose values, generosity & vision has been a guiding force, & my family!”
Satter was one of actor-director Robert Redford’s early hires when he launched the Sundance Institute. The labs were launched by Jenny Walz Selby in 1981 — and Satter organized a three-day producer’s weekend that June, before being hired to run Sundance’s Los Angeles office. The labs bring new directors and writers to the Sundance Mountain Resort in Provo Canyon for intensive workshops of their projects.
In the filmmakers lab held every June, new directors get the chance to workshop scenes from their scripts, film scenes at the Sundance resort with real actors and crews, and get advice from Hollywood professionals and stars who serve as faculty advisers. In June and in January, Sundance conducts weeklong screenwriting labs, an intensive program focusing on scripts.
The labs have been the launchpad for such movies as Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Hard Eight,” Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale Station,” Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Love and Basketball,” Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream,” Miranda July’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You.”
Among the now-major directors who brought their early films to the labs are James Mangold (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” opening this Friday), Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”), the Daniels (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Nia DaCosta (“Candyman” and the upcoming “The Marvels”). J.F. Lawton’s script for the Julia Roberts vehicle “Pretty Woman” also got its start at the Sundance labs.
In recent years, Sundance has expanded its lab programs to cover documentary editing and composing film music. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Satter led the effort to move the labs online, creating the Sundance Collab, a global digital platform, and directing its vision and content.
Satter also has led Sundance’s international initiatives in Asia, Europe, India, Latin America and the Middle East.
Because of her work over more than 40 years, the academy noted, Satter “has been given special thanks in the credits of countless films.”
Satter will be the 43rd person to be given the Hersholt award, an Oscar statuette, which is awarded periodically to an “individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.” Last year, The academy gave the award to actor and activist Michael J. Fox.
Satter will share the Nov. 18 ceremony — at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles — with three recipients of honorary Oscars, the academy announced Monday. Those honorary Oscars will go to actor Angela Bassett, writer-director-producer Mel Brooks, and film editor Carol Littleton (“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Body Heat,” “The Big Chill”).
Correction, July 3 • An earlier version of this story omitted mention of Jenny Walz Selby, who was hired in 1980 to launch the first Sundance filmmakers lab in 1981.
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