Sundance Institute and Withoutabox Renew Exclusive, Multi-Year Agreement and Celebrate 10-Year Relationship That Has Helped Discover and Launch Breakout Independent Films

Sundance Institute Selects Withoutabox as the Exclusive Sundance Film Festival Submission Service Through 2021; Since the Relationship Began in 2008, Withoutabox has Processed More than 100,000 Submissions for the Sundance Film Festival

Withoutabox Launches Enhanced Submission Management Service for Film Festivals

LOS ANGELES--()--Withoutabox (https://www.withoutabox.com), a service of IMDbPro and the premier submission system for film festivals and filmmakers, and Sundance Institute today announced that they have renewed their long-standing exclusive agreement for an additional three years (through 2021). This year marks the 10th anniversary that Sundance Institute has exclusively relied on Withoutabox to process submissions, during which more than 100,000 feature films, short films, episodic content and Virtual Reality experiences have been received through Withoutabox, including many breakout independent films. Additionally, Withoutabox today announced the launch of their enhanced film festival submission management service (https://www.withoutabox.com/festival/submissionjudging), which was designed based on direct customer input from many leading festivals that rely on Withoutabox to process their submissions, including the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.

Withoutabox has been the exclusive online submissions system for the Sundance Film Festival since 2008, a successful arrangement that has now been renewed for an additional three-year term. The Sundance Film Festival, the centerpiece of the year-round public programs for Sundance Institute, has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Mudbound, Call Me by Your Name, Manchester by the Sea, Boyhood, Whiplash, Icarus, Last Men in Aleppo, Strong Island, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Fruitvale Station. Since 2001, Withoutabox has facilitated millions of submissions to the leading film festivals in the world, and more than 200 of these titles went on to receive an Academy Award nomination, with dozens eventually winning an Oscar. In addition to the Sundance Film Festival, other renowned film festivals that rely on Withoutabox to manage their submissions include the Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. Withoutabox is a service of IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals. Filmmakers submitting their work on Withoutabox can easily create IMDb title pages and reach 250 million monthly users worldwide.

“We are proud of the legacy of discovery the Sundance Film Festival has built over nearly 35 years, which has launched many of the most significant independent films to critical acclaim and box office success,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute. “We have chosen to extend our exclusive relationship with IMDbPro’s Withoutabox through 2021 because they have proven to be a supportive and responsive collaborator. Our submissions continue to increase in both number and quality year after year, helping us to discover and connect with a vibrant and diverse community of independent storytellers all over the world.”

“The Withoutabox mission is to collaborate with the leading film festivals in the world to provide unparalleled opportunities for filmmakers to reach a worldwide audience,” said Col Needham, IMDb’s founder and CEO. “We’re excited to build on our successful 10-year collaboration with the Sundance Film Festival team, who share our commitment to this mission. The significant enhancements to the Withoutabox submission management service which we announced today, many of which were guided by feedback from our esteemed colleagues on the Sundance Institute team, will help festivals of all sizes manage submissions even more efficiently, while also empowering them to customize the service to meet their unique business needs.”

About the Withoutabox Enhanced Submission Management Service

The Withoutabox newly enhanced film festival submission management service (https://www.withoutabox.com/festival/submissionjudging) was developed in close collaboration with many of the leading film festivals that rely on Withoutabox to manage their submissions, including the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, and introduces scaleable features that will serve festivals of all sizes. New features that launched today include the following: customizable tags to categorize and organize submissions; significantly faster search and improved filtering to refine results; the ability to take action on multiple submissions quickly and easily; advanced judging forms allowing users to choose from multiple templates and assign by role; option to export judging data; a suite of commonly used message templates; and easy-to-use, enhanced navigation. This new experience is available to festivals opening for submissions after today.

“The new features IMDbPro’s Withoutabox has added to their enhanced submission management service provide many smart and easy-to-use solutions built specifically with film festivals in mind, including assigning submissions to our programming team for review, ratings entry that is quick and simple, and a tagging system that gives us the flexibility to organize submissions in a variety of ways,” said Adam Montgomery, Senior Manager of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival. “These features save critical time and allow us to really focus on discovering new artists and projects to champion.”

“Our newly enhanced film festival submission management experience makes it easy to process submissions in a customizable manner so festival organizers can spend more time on what matters the most, discovering talented new filmmakers and helping them connect with audiences,” said Matt Kumin, Head of IMDbPro. “IMDbPro’s Withoutabox brings together one of the industry’s largest filmmaker communities and offers unique access to high-quality film festivals of all sizes as well as the ability to easily create IMDb title pages that reach hundreds of millions of movie lovers on IMDb and key industry decision makers on IMDbPro.”

Submissions for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival will open this summer and be accepted exclusively via: https://www.withoutabox.com/.

About Withoutabox

Withoutabox (https://www.withoutabox.com) is the premier submission service for film festivals and filmmakers. Since 2001, Withoutabox has enabled millions of festival submissions to the leading film festivals in the world, and more than 200 of these titles went on to receive an Academy Award nomination with dozens eventually winning an Oscar. Withoutabox provides a powerful and convenient solution for festivals seeking a service to manage their film festival submissions. World-renowned film festivals that rely on Withoutabox to exclusively manage their submissions include the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. Filmmakers using Withoutabox can easily submit their films to film festivals around the word and can automatically create a title page for their film on IMDb (the #1 movie website in the world), reaching more than 250 million unique monthly visitors worldwide. Withoutabox continues to evolve on behalf of its customers, including recently introduced features such as: an enhanced submission management and judging service for film festivals; promo codes; a Fire TV Festival Judging App; HD online screeners; a redesigned filmmaker experience; and support for Vimeo links. To learn more about Withoutabox or to sign up, visit https://www.withoutabox.com. Withoutabox is a service of IMDbPro (http://www.imdbpro.com), the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, and is owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) (http://www.amazon.com).

About IMDbPro

IMDbPro (http://www.imdbpro.com) is the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals. This membership-based service includes comprehensive information and tools that are designed to help entertainment industry professionals achieve success throughout all stages of their career. IMDbPro offers members the following: detailed contact and representation information; tools to manage and showcase their IMDb profile, including the ability to select their primary images and the credits they are best “known for”; exclusive STARmeter rankings that are determined by page views on IMDb; a casting service to post breakdowns and apply to roles; the IMDbPro app for iPhone and more. Additional IMDbPro services include Withoutabox (http://www.withoutabox.com), the premier submission system for film festivals and filmmakers, and Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com), the leading online source of box-office data. IMDbPro is a division of IMDb (www.imdb.com), the #1 movie website in the world with a combined web and mobile audience of more than 250 million unique monthly visitors. Follow IMDbPro on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/imdbpro/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/imdbpro/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/imdbpro).

About IMDb

IMDb is the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. The IMDb consumer site (www.imdb.com) is the #1 movie website in the world with a combined web and mobile audience of more than 250 million unique monthly visitors. IMDb offers a searchable database of more than 250 million data items including more than 4 million movies, TV and entertainment programs and more than 8 million cast and crew members. Consumers rely on the information IMDb provides -- including local movie showtimes, ticketing, trailers, critic and user reviews, personalized recommendations, photo galleries, entertainment news, quotes, trivia, box-office data, editorial feature sections and a universal Watchlist – when deciding what to watch and where to watch it. IMDb’s portfolio of leading entertainment apps (http://www.imdb.com/apps/) includes its popular “Movies & TV” app for iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, Android phones, Android tablets and its mobile-optimized website. To date, there have been more than 150 million downloads of IMDb’s mobile apps worldwide. IMDb's X-Ray for Movies & TV Shows (www.imdb.com/x-ray) is a feature that revolutionizes the viewing experience by bringing the power of IMDb directly to Kindle Fire HD, Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. IMDb’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/imdb) and official Twitter account (https://twitter.com/imdb) are followed by more than 12 million passionate entertainment fans. IMDbPro (http://www.imdbpro.com) is the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals. This membership-based service includes comprehensive information and tools that are designed to help entertainment industry professionals achieve success throughout all stages of their career. IMDbPro offers members the following: detailed contact and representation information; IMDb profile management tools; exclusive STARmeter rankings that are determined by page views on IMDb; a casting service to post breakdowns and apply to roles, a mobile optimized website and more. Additionally, IMDb owns and operates Withoutabox (http://www.withoutabox.com), the premier submission service for film festivals and filmmakers, and Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com), the leading online source of box-office data. IMDb.com is operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) (http://www.amazon.com). To learn more, go to: http://www.imdb.com/press.

About Sundance Institute

Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. 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. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices, and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as Boyhood, Swiss Army Man, Manchester By the Sea, Brooklyn, Little Miss Sunshine, Life, Animated, Sonita, 20 Feet From Stardom, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Sin Nombre, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Fun Home. Join Sundance Institute (http://www.sundance.org/) on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/sundance), Instagram (http://instagram.com/sundanceorg), Twitter (http://twitter.com/sundancefest) and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/sff).

Contacts

IMDb
Casey De La Rosa, 310-573-0632
caserosa@imdb.com
or
Sundance Institute
Spencer Alcorn, 310-360-1981
spencer_alcorn@sundance.org

Release Summary

Withoutabox and Sundance Institute today announced that they have renewed their long-standing exclusive agreement for an additional three years.

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Contacts

IMDb
Casey De La Rosa, 310-573-0632
caserosa@imdb.com
or
Sundance Institute
Spencer Alcorn, 310-360-1981
spencer_alcorn@sundance.org