[4] In 1985, the Sundance Institute assumed management of the fledgling United States Film Festival, which had been experiencing financial problems.

In addition to the creative support offered through Labs and workshops, Sundance Institute helps independent filmmakers complete their work through various grants and fellowships.

[8][9][10] Composers Lab Alumni include Bijan Olia, Cindy O'Connor, Sergei Stern, Jackson Greenberg, Camilla Uboldi, Jesi Nelson, Adam Schoenberg, Rebecca Dale, Ryan Rumery, and Darryl Jones.

Composers Lab Advisors in 2017 include James Newton Howard, Harry Gregson-Williams, Thomas Newman, George Clinton, Miriam Cutler, Laura Karpman, Doreen Ringer-Ross, Christopher Beck, Todd Boekelheide, Dennis Leonard, Bob Edwards, Pete Horner, Malcolm Fife, Bonnie Wild, David Accord, Adam Smalley, Miguel Arteta, Robb Moss, Amir Bar-Lev, Toby Shimin and Jon Burlingame.

[10] The Music Cafe is a night club venue for rock, singer-songwriters, folk, country, and hip hop on Main Street in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival.

Over the course of its history, the Sundance Film Festival has showcased a range of work by Native and Indigenous filmmakers including dramatic films like Sterlin Harjo's Four Sheets to the Wind, Sherman Alexie's The Business of Fancydancing, Chris Eyre's Smoke Signals, Rachel Perkins' One Night the Moon, and Willi White's Miye, Unkiye; documentaries such as Heather Rae's Trudell, Tom Murray and Allan Collins' Dhakiyarr vs. the King, and Merata Mita's Hotere; and short films like Gabriel Lopez-Shaw and Sherwin Bitsui's Chrysalis, Taika Waititi's Two Cars, One Night, Katie Doane Tulugaq Avery's Mama Dragon, and Shane McSauby's Mino Bimaadiziwin.

Lab Alumni and projects include Tanya Barfield's Blue Door, Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' The Light in the Piazza, Lisa Kron's Well, Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, Stew's Passing Strange, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening, Moisés Kaufman's The Laramie Project, Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife, Darko Tresnjak's A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's Fun Home.

Launched in 2007, the New Frontier Labs and residency programs foster the works of boundary-pushing artists and technologists, marked by its central themes of innovation and unconventionalism.

With the help of experienced advisors, Creative Producing Fellows have the chance to explore their own take on cinematic material and to equip themselves with the skills and experience necessary in the scripting and editing stages of a filmic piece.

Past Creative Advisors include producers Anthony Bregman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Heather Rae (Frozen River), Mary Jane Skalski (Mysterious Skin), Jay Van Hoy (American Honey), and more.

Recent Creative Producing Fellows and their Feature Film works include Annie Silverstein's Bull, Cesar Cervantes' Hot Clip, Hannah Utt's Stupid Happy, Nick Bentgen's Dey'Dey and his Brothers, Gabriella Moses' Leche, and Pippa Bianco's Share.

The institute offers a year-round program of Episodic Story Labs for 10 writers (or co-writing teams) to work with accomplished showrunners, non-writing creative producers, and studio and network executives.

"[17] Partnered with Adobe's Project 1324 contest, Sundance Ignite launched in 2015 as a short film challenge for young filmmakers ages 18 to 24.

Through online resources, workshops, and a network of organizations, CDI empowers filmmakers by teaching them the ever-changing ins and outs of what it takes to distribute and market independent film.

[21] The institute maintains the Sundance Collection at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) to conserve and archive the history of independent film.

From features to documentaries to shorts, prints in the Collection include Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Reservoir Dogs,[1] The Living End, Smoke Signals, Amores Perros, Harlan County, USA, Love & Basketball, and Welcome to the Dollhouse, among many other works that might otherwise no longer exist.