American Cinema Editors (ACE) will present the Sundance Institute with its highest honor, the ACE Golden Eddie Award, at the 72nd Annual ACE Eddie Awards ceremony at the ACE Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles on March 5. The ACE Golden Eddie Award traditionally recognizes a filmmaker who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film but ACE broke tradition for the first time in its history this year by recognizing a film organization. “This year, for the first time ever, the ACE Board voted to honor an organization rather than an individual,” stated ACE president Kevin Tent. “An organization that over the last 40 years has done more than any other to democratize and diversify cinema in America. An organization that has supported and nurtured the voices of countless filmmakers, many of whom have been honored by ACE in the past. We are thrilled to recognize the extraordinary contributions that the Sundance Institute has made on our art, industry and American cinema as a whole.”
 
Founding sr. director of artist programs Michelle Satter will accept the honor on behalf of the Sundance Institute.
 
Past recipients of the Golden Eddie have been Quentin Tarantino, Kathleen Kennedy, Christopher Nolan, Lauren Shuler Donner, Guillermo del Toro, Spike Lee, Vince Gilligan, J.J. Abrams, Nancy Meyers, Martin Scorsese, Norman Jewison, Robert Zemeckis and George Lucas, among many other accomplished filmmakers.
 
Sundance Institute
As a champion and curator of independent stories for film and media, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists in film, television, emerging media, live performance, and film composing to create and thrive.

Robert Redford founded the Institute in 1981 to foster independence, risk-taking, and new voices in American film. That year, 10 emerging filmmakers were invited to the Sundance Resort in the mountains of Utah, where they worked with leading writers, directors, and actors to develop their original independent projects.

The Sundance Institute provides 25 labs and intensives, grants exceeding $3 million, and ongoing mentorships and professional development that supports more than 900 artists each year.

Each January, the Sundance Film Festival introduces a global audience to groundbreaking work and emerging talent in independent film. Year-round, the Institute’s programming inspires new ideas, creates community and inspires change making in the ecosystem of independent storytelling.

And, most recently, the Sundance Institute launched Sundance Collab, a digital community platform that provides year-round learning opportunities for global creators developing new work through courses, master classes, live events and a video library of curated resources.

As a key executive of the leadership Team, Satter has been one of the chief architects of the Institute’s programs since 1981 and has created and leads all programs supporting scripted storytelling.
 
Under Satter’s tenure, the Feature Film Program has provided year-round and in-depth support to the ground-breaking and award-winning filmmakers Radha Blank (The 40-Year-Old Version), Edson Oda (Nine Days), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You), Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station), Dee Rees (Pariah), Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl), Gina Prince Bythewood (Love and Basketball), Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), Chloe Zhao (Songs My Brother Taught Me). Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox), Taika Waititi (Boy), Rick Famuyiwa (The Wood), Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre), Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight), Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry), John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), and Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know), among many others. Satter also created and led the Institute’s international initiatives in Latin America, Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and India, the Producing Program, the New Frontier Story Lab (now, Interdisciplinary Program) and the Episodic Program. More recently, Satter founded and is charged with creative oversight and vision for Sundance Collab, and the Institute lead for the Sundance Artist Program Group. In recent years, Satter has been recognized with the Women in Film Business Leadership Award, the ACLU Bill of Rights Award, the Indian Film Festival Los Angeles U.S.-based Industry Leadership Award, the MPAC Media Award, the Coral de Honneur at the Havana Film Festival, and a tribute celebrating her 30 years leading the Feature Film Program at the Sundance Institute. Prior to joining the Sundance Institute, Satter was a partner and program director of ArtiCulture, Inc, responsible for producing hundreds of events in the Boston area and the director of public relations for Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. Additionally, Satter co-produced the Academy Award-nominated documentary Waldo Salt, A Screenwriter’s Journey.