Filmmaker Christopher Nolan will be honoured at the Sundance Film Festival 2024, with the first Sundance Institute Trailblazer Award. Apart from this, Celine Song and Maite Alberdi, whose films Past Lives and The Eternal Memory premiered in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, will be receiving Vanguard Award as well.

The festival is scheduled to take place on January 18 to 28 and online from January 25-28.

As per the organisers, the Trailblazer Award is given for the recipient’s dedication and efforts towards contributing to independent film. It is to be noted that Nolan's Memento was screened in 2001 Sundance Film Festival

Meanwhile, the Vanguard Awards are given to those whose work is categorised under nonfiction and fiction storytelling. Celine will be receiving the award, whose debut feature Past Lives which she also wrote, was released by A24.

“I am incredibly honored to receive this award — it really means the world to me. Sundance is where I showed my very first film for the very first time, and I will never forget the experience — pacing around the green room at the Eccles, waiting to introduce the film to the world, meeting the audience afterward, being there together with everyone who made the movie with me. Sundance is the place that launched my career as a filmmaker: it’s a home for ‘Past Lives’ — and a home for me — in the deepest way. Thank you so much,” Celine said as per Variety report.

“It’s an absolute honor to receive the Vanguard Award. Sundance was the gateway to North American audiences for me and has been hugely supportive of my last two films,” added Maite.