Published: December 17, 2025
Updated: December 18, 2025
2:08 pm
By: Creators Faire Editorial Team

2026 Sundance Film Festival Trailblazer and Vanguard Awards Announced

2026 Sundance Film Festival’s Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford Event Honorees Include Chloé Zhao to Receive Trailblazer Award Presented by Google, Nia DaCosta and Geeta Gandbhir to Receive Vanguard Awards Presented by Acura

PARK CITY, UTAH, December 17, 2026 — The nonprofit Sundance Institute today announced additional honorees for the 2026 Sundance Film Festival’s annual fundraiser, Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford, taking place on Friday, January 23, 2026, at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah. During the evening, Chloé Zhao will receive the annual Trailblazer Award Presented by Google, Nia DaCosta will be presented with the annual Vanguard Award Presented by Acura for Fiction, and Geeta Gandbhir will receive the annual Vanguard Award Presented by Acura for Nonfiction. Additional special guest participants include Amy Redford, Ava DuVernay, Ethan Hawke, David Lowery, Tessa Thompson, and more. The Festival will be held from January 22–February 1, 2026, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with the at-home program available online from January 29–February 1, 2026, for audiences across the country.

As previously announced, the evening will be a meaningful tribute to Sundance Institute’s Founder, Robert Redford — his legacy, vision, and enduring mission to support independent storytellers, and the inaugural Robert Redford Luminary Award will be presented to Gyula Gazdag and Ed Harris. The annual event enables the nonprofit to raise funds to support artists year-round through labs, intensives, grants, fellowships, a continuum of support, and public programming.

Recognizing an artist’s unwavering dedication and notable contributions to the field of independent film, the Sundance Institute Trailblazer Award Presented by Google will be presented to Academy Award–winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao. Previous honorees include Christopher Nolan and James Mangold.

Chloé Zhao is a Beijing-born writer, director, editor, and producer. Her debut feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), was supported by the 2012 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs and later premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Zhao’s other films include The Rider (2017), Eternals (2021), and Nomadland (2020), which won three Oscars. Most recently, she directed, co-wrote, and co-edited Focus Features’ Hamnet (2025), from the bestselling novel of the same name. Led by her masterful creative vision and collaborative storytelling, the film has earned nine audience awards, as well as Golden Globe and Critics Choice Association nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. She launched the production company Book of Shadows in 2023 and Kodansha Studios in 2025.

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The annual Vanguard Awards Presented by Acura honor emerging artists whose work highlights the art of storytelling and creative independence in both fiction and nonfiction. The Vanguard Award for Fiction will be presented to Nia DaCosta, director of Hedda (2025), and the Vanguard Award for Nonfiction will go to Geeta Gandbhir, director of The Perfect Neighbor (2025). Previous honorees include Sean Wang, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, Celine Song, Maite Alberdi, Ryan Coogler, W. Kamau Bell, Nikyatu Jusu, Siân Heder, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Radha Blank, Lulu Wang, Boots Riley, Dee Rees, Marielle Heller, Damien Chazelle, Benh Zeitlin, and many more.

Nia DaCosta wrote, directed, and produced Hedda, which was released this fall. Previously, DaCosta directed and co-wrote The Marvels (2023), Candyman (2021), and Little Woods (2018), her debut feature supported by the 2015 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Her next film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, will be released in theaters on January 16, 2026.

“It is such an honor to be receiving the Vanguard Award from the Sundance Film Festival,” said Nia DaCosta. “It’s also incredibly fitting because all of the qualities of creative independence and intentional storytelling I am being recognized for are things I learned there, on the mountain during the Sundance Institute labs with Bob Redford, Michelle Satter, and their wonderful team. I can’t wait to accept this award, but most importantly I cannot wait to celebrate Bob, the Festival, and all of the amazing filmmakers in Park City next year.”

Director Geeta Gandbhir is an Emmy, Independent Spirit, and Peabody Award–winning filmmaker. Her documentary The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix) premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition category at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and won the juried Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. As a director, her other recent credits include Katrina: Come Hell and High Water(2025), Eyes on the Prize (2025), The Devil Is Busy (2024), How We Get Free (2023), Born in Synanon (2023), and Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (2022).

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Be sure to check out the previously announced Feature Film and Episodic Program for the 2026 Festival. Visit the Sundance Film Festival website for more information: festival.sundance.org.

“Sundance Institute was where my journey as a filmmaker truly began, so to be honored with the Trailblazer Award by this community feels like coming home,” said Chloé Zhao. “I’m deeply grateful for the support, friendship, and inspiration I’ve found here over the years, and I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of this empathetic and fearless community of storytellers.”

“For many years, the Sundance Film Festival has been a guiding light for me — a place where bold, uncompromising stories find their home,” said Geeta Gandbhir. “The Festival has always embodied the kind of filmmaking I strive for: courageous, deeply human, and unafraid to confront difficult truths. What has meant the most to me is how the Festival continues to build community — one that not only celebrates artistic excellence but actively uplifts underrepresented voices and filmmakers who challenge the status quo. As someone whose work is rooted in justice, empathy, and the power of storytelling to spark change, being recognized with the Vanguard Award is profoundly meaningful. I’m deeply honored to be part of this community and this legacy of truth-telling and transformation.”

Sundance Institute

As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from Sundance Institute advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs, we have supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick, Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Boys State, Call Me by Your Name, Clemency, CODA, Dìdi (弟弟), Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, Fruitvale Station, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, The Infiltrators, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Woods, Love & Basketball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mudbound, Nanny, One Child Nation, Pariah, Raising Victor Vargas, RBG, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, Sin Nombre, Sorry to Bother You, Strong Island, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Swiss Army Man, A Thousand and One, Top of the Lake, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and Zola. Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of such artists as Paul Thomas Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Nia DaCosta, Ryan Coogler, The Daniels, Robert Eggers, Rick Famuyiwa, David Gordon Green, Sterlin Harjo, Marielle Heller, Miranda July, Nikyatu Jusu, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Boots Riley, A.V. Rockwell, Ira Sachs, Walter Salles, Quentin Tarantino, Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao. Support Sundance Institute in our commitment to uplifting bold artists and powerful storytelling globally by making a donation at sundance.org/donate. Join Sundance Institute onFacebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Bluesky.

Sundance Film Festival®

The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the nonprofit Sundance Institute, is the preeminent gathering of original storytellers and audiences seeking new voices and fresh perspectives. Since 1985, hundreds of films launched at the Festival have gone on to gain critical acclaim and reach new audiences worldwide. The Festival has introduced some of the most groundbreaking films and episodic works of the past three decades, including Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prime Minister, Pee-wee as Himself, Dìdi (弟弟), A Real Pain, Daughters, Thelma, Will & Harper, Past Lives, 20 Days in Mariupol, The Eternal Memory, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, A Thousand and One, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, Rye Lane, Navalny, Fire of Love, Flee, CODA, Passing, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Minari, Clemency, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Zola, O.J.: Made in America, On the Record, Boys State, The Farewell, Honeyland, One Child Nation, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Top of the Lake, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Call Me by Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Precious, The Cove, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Napoleon Dynamite, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Reservoir Dogs, and sex, lies, and videotape. The program consists of fiction and nonfiction features and short films, series and episodic content, innovative storytelling, and performances, as well as conversations and other events. The 2026 Festival will be held January 22–February 1, 2026, in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, and online January 29–February 1, 2026, across the country. Be a part of the Festival at festival.sundance.org and follow the Festival on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Bluesky.

The Festival is a program of the nonprofit Sundance Institute. To date 2026 Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Acura, Sundance Now, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Adobe; Leadership Sponsors – Audible, Casamigos, Hulu on Disney+, Ketel One Vodka, Omnicom, United Airlines; Sustaining Sponsors – Canon U.S.A., Inc., Dropbox, World of Hyatt®, IMDbPro, Patagonia, Rabbit Hole Bourbon & Rye, White Claw Hard Seltzer; Media Sponsors – Deadline Hollywood, IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Vulture. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival’s costs and sustain the Institute’s year round programs for independent artists. Please visit festival.sundance.org for more.