April 15, 2009 — SIFF will present the 2009 Golden Space Needle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Directing to Spike Lee, in recognition of his extraordinary filmmaking career. This special Tribute ceremony at the 35th Seattle International Film Festival will include a montage of clips highlighting his diverse work as a director and pioneer of contemporary cinema, followed by a screening of Passing Strange, Lee's original visualization of the celebrated Broadway hit.

April 9, 2009 — Wally Weisman, Chair of the Board of the Sundance Institute, today announced the resignation of Ken Brecher, Executive Director of the Institute, effective April 30, 2009. Weisman stated that Ken Brecher had led the Institute for nearly 14 years through a period of significant growth, productivity and global impact. Brecher will assume the role of Strategic Advisor for the Institute for the next two years.

The 27th TFF dedicates a retrospective to Nagisa Oshima which is curated by Stefano Francia di Celle and will include all his feature films and a wide selection of the many works he has made for television, from his TV films to the documentaries he made in the 1960s and ‘70s (including The Forgotten Army, A Small Child’s First Adventure and The Life of Mao) and his recent, beautiful history of Japanese cinema (Nagisa Oshima 100 Years of Japanese Cinema).  
 

Unlike the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which used the “Year of the Woman” as its 1993 Oscar theme — a proclamation widely derided as having more bark than bite — organizers for Sundance 2000 can more legitimately lay claim to the phrase.

March 17, 32009–Judi Krant's debut feature “Made in China” has won the narrative feature jury competition at South by Southwest while Scott Teems' “That Evening Sun” won the narrative feature audience award.  “Made in China,” which premiered at the festival, follows a Texas novelty inventor who travels to Shanghai.