Alejandro Iñárritu Honored at Sundance Institute Celebration in LA

Photo Credit: Getty Images for Sundance Institute

Independent filmmakers, stars and industry enthusiasts came together for an intimate dinner honoring Oscar-winning Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu on Tuesday evening at the Sundance Institute Celebration in Culver City.

Iñárritu received the Vanguard Leadership Award, while Marielle Heller, who wrote and directed The Diary of a Teenage Girl at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, accepted the organization’s Vanguard Award.

Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios Alan Horn, Cindy Horn and writer-producer Norman Lear

Photo Credit: Getty Images for Sundance Institute

Attendees at the VIP cocktail reception and dinner at 3Labs in included Ava DuVernay, a former Sundance Film Festival Best Director winner whom most might know as the director of Selma, Sundance Institute Board Chair Pat Mitchell, Alan and Cindy Horn, Sally Field, Maria Bello, Greta Gerwig, Ron Livingston, Brit Marling, Norman and Lyn Lear, Amy Redford, Trevor Groth, John Coope, Nadine Shiff-Rosen, Adam Godley, Adam Salky, Adam Smalley, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Meredith Danluck, Tabitha Jackson, Philip Himberg, Liesl Tommy, Walter Mosley, and many more.

Actor Ron Livingston (L) and director Ava DuVernay

Photo Credit: Getty Images for Sundance Institute

The benefit is important to the Institute’s ongoing efforts to support bold, risk-taking, and important new voices whose work will have great impact on the industry and culture in the coming years. The Sundance Institute itself—which was founded in 1981 by Robert Redford—provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, film composing, and digital media to create and thrive.