Sterling Van Wagenen: Mormon Filmmaker
Sterling Gray Van Wagenen is a film director, producer, and filmmaker. He was the founding executive director of the Sundance Institute and co-founded the Sundance Film Festival held in Utah.
Van Wagenen was born on July 2, 1947, and grew up in rural Utah. He earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theater from Brigham Young University. During college, he took some time off and worked as an assistant to director Jonathan Miller, who was directing a production of a Shakespeare play at the Los Angeles Music Center. He also read scripts for a talent agency.
In 1976, he and his friend John Earle, who worked for the Utah Film Commission, put together a small festival that celebrated American film to participate in the nationwide United States Bicentennial. In 1978, while Van Wagenen was with the Utah Arts Council, he told Earle that they should organize another film festival, but with a new theme. They called Arthur Knight, a film professor at University of Southern California to brainstorm ideas. Knight said he was noticing more regional low-budget films being produced and suggested Van Wagenen and Earle feature some of those films in their festival. With independent films at its core, the Utah/U.S. Film Festival was born.
Van Wagenen’s cousin Lola had married Robert Redford in 1958. Van Wagenen saw him occasionally at family gatherings. Redford heard that Van Wagenen was featuring independent films and wanted to meet with him, which they did a few days later. Redford agreed to be on the festival’s board and attend the festival. The festival attracted the attention of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. But the festival also exceeded its budget by $20,000 and continued to run in the red for several years. When Van Wagenen met with Redford after the conclusion of the first festival, Redford said he was going to start a film center at Sundance devoted to independent filmmakers and offered him a job as its director. By 1985, the Sundance Institute acquired the Utah/U.S. Film Festival and by 1991, the name was changed to the Sundance Film Festival.
Van Wagenen left the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival and found success as a filmmaker. Among his many producing successes is A Trip to Bountiful, a Sundance hit and an Academy Award winner for Geraldine Page as Best Actress. The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay adapted from another medium. It won a Luminas Award, and a first prize in Women in Film-Retirement Research Foundation Owl Award.
His film Alan and Naomi (1992) won a Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival; a Jury Prize at the Kinderfilmfest in Vienna, Austria; Best Film at the Festival International Du Cinema Jeune Public in Leon, France; Best Director at the Carrousel Du Cinema De La Rimouski; and Gran Premo Citta Bellinzona Silver Award at Festival Ragazzi Bellinzona.
Van Wagenen is a partner in Pearl Farm Entertainment, based in Los Angeles. From 1993 to 1999, he was an adjunct professor of film at BYU, manager of the university’s TV Group, and from 2007 to 2010, he was director of content for BYU Broadcasting.
From 1999 to 2004, he served as director of the School of Film and Digital Media at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He has been a professor (Lecturer) in Film and Media Arts at the University of Utah. He has been a guest lecturer in film at Columbia University, Franklin College, Eckhart College, Franklin and Marshall College, the University of Florida, and Utah Valley University.
Van Wagenen has served on the media arts panels at both the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, twice chairing the Arts and Television Panel at the NEA. He has staged several productions of Shakespeare’s plays and produced and directed several television series and documentaries, including some that premiered on PBS. He was an executive producer for the film and video division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He directed parts 2 and 3 of The Work and the Glory trilogy.
Van Wagenen has six children.
