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By Evan L. Jackson

It has been announced that Tony Award winning, Grammy Award winning, Golden Globes nominated ‘Wicked’ actress Cynthia Erivo & Academy Award nominated ‘A Complete Unkonwn’ filmmaker James Mangold are set to be honored at the 2025 Sundance Gala presented by Google TV! Cythina Erivo will be recipient of the Trailblazer Award and James Mangold will receive the Visionary Award. Both have examplified excellency in their careers and that is what Sundance Film Fesitval is all about. This year's gala will be held at the new Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah and will be held January 24th, it will be co-chaired by Board Chair Ebs Burnough and long time Board Trustee Pat Mitchell. The annual gala enables the nonprofit to raise funds to support independent artists all year through labs, grants, and public programming that allow artists to flourish from all over the world. 

As said earlier in this article Cynthia is receiving a lot of acclaim for her role as Elphaba in the ‘Wicked’ musical where she’s received a Critics Choice Award nomination, Golden Globe nomination and many more! Fantastic moments in her career are also standouts like her Academy Awards nominated performance as Harriet Tubman in the 2020 film”Harriet”. Such an incredible run with Wicked! ‘Wicked’ is one of the highest grossing musicals brought to the silver screen of all time, a testament to Cynthia’s performance.

 Mangold’s experience with Sundance began in 1994 where he participated in the Institute’s year-round artist programs, designed to support up and coming filmmakers. There he honed his craft and developed the screenplay for his 1997 film Copland at the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs. His directorial debut, Heavy, he received the Special Jury Prize for Directing at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Most notably James Mangold directed the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk The Line” in 2006 which earned Reese Witherspoon her first Oscar, for Best Performance By An Actress in a leading role. Furthering his career most notably James Mangold directed the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk The Line” in 2006 which earned Reese Witherspoon her first Oscar, for Best Performance By An Actress in a leading role. He has went on to make such classics as the Western remake 2007's "3:10 To Yuma". Mangold stunned us again in 2018 with  “Logan”, the standalone, gritty and grounded Wolverine film for (then) 20th Century Fox starring Hugh Jackman. Mangold received an Academy Awards nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. James Mangold is receiving world wide acclaim for his latest film coming Christmas, the Bon Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” starring Timothee Chalamat in the title role as the musical icon.  

 The evening will also honor Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Artist Programs at Sundance Institute, for her long-running commitment to nurturing artists and cultivating independent film through the Sundance Labs, where emerging artist spark their ideas into a script that is a highly hands on experience with Sundance, where Michelle has been doing that for the past four decades. The annual Vanguard Awards Presented by Acura will be awarded during the evening to Sean Wang, writer and director of Dìdi (弟弟), and Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, co-directors of Sugarcane, who premiered their films at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The 2025 Sundance.

by Evan L. Jackson