Sundance Institute to Honor Bingham Ray With Creative Producing Fellowship

Prominent indie film executive Bingham Ray, who died Jan. 23, will be remembered by the Sundance Institute, which announced Saturday that it has created a Creative Producing Fellowship in his honor.

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The recipient, who will be announced this summer, will have access to project-specific support through Labs, grants and long-term advisor relationships with industry mentors and Sundance Institute Feature Film Program staff.

“Bingham embodied so much of what makes a great independent film producer – passion, unwavering commitment, tenacity and a deep love of cinema,” Keri Putnam, Sundance executive director, said. “We hope that his clarity of purpose around films that he championed lives on in the spirit of a new generation of producers.”

The fellowship is one of five annual Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellowships. Producers selected to participate receive a $5,000 living stipend, $5,000 pre-production grant, year-round mentorship from two industry Advisors, year-round support from Institute staff, and attendance at the Feature Film Creative Producing Lab, Creative Producing Summit and Sundance Film Festival.

Ray's sudden death from the complications of a stroke at the age of 57 just as the most recent edition of the Sundance Film Festival was getting underway sent shockwaves through the independent community, where Ray had long been a dominant and much-loved figure. A co-founder of October Films, he also served a stint as president of United Artists and most recently had taken up a new post as executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, which presents the annual San Francisco International Film Festival.