Davis Filmmaking Society attends 2026 Sundance Film Festival

‘Embrace the absurd’: DFS reflects on attending the event as college students in the industry 

By MIRIAM RAMAKRISHNAN — arts@theaggie.org 

If you like movies a tad more than the average person, the Sundance Film Festival is not an unfamiliar event. In fact, the independent movie celebration has existed annually for almost 50 years in Park City, Utah, premiering now-classic indie films Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Napoleon Dynamite (2004), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and more. 

In 1981, Sundance Founder Robert Redford created the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit designed to support indie filmmakers through workshops and mentorship programs — cementing Sundance’s subsequent legacy as the most significant experimental movie festival in the country. In 2023, the cumulative online and in-person attendance for Sundance was close to 450,000 people.

UC Davis’ very own Davis Filmmaking Society (DFS) took a trip to the esteemed festival in January 2026, bringing student directors to the big stage. DFS President Manuel Maravilla, a fifth-year cinema and digital media major, spoke on the importance of the club’s opportunity to join such a large cinematic space. 

“[Sundance is] a moment where we can really galvanize our base to show them that it takes a village to make a movie,” Maravilla said. “By bringing our members over and showing them the greatest version of what finishing your project looks like, it allows a lot of people to fall in love more deeply with filmmaking.”

DFS Treasurer Kayla Tran, a third-year communication and cinema and digital media double major, shed some light on how the club afforded the trip — each member paying individually for their Sundance admission ticket.

“Most of the funding was through the CFC [Club Finance Council] grant created by the Center of Student Involvement,” Tran said. “We’re incredibly grateful that we were able to get funding from UC Davis itself because going to Sundance is a huge educational learning experience, especially for those interested in filmmaking.”

DFS Vice President Aaron Nguyen, a fourth-year molecular and medical microbiology major, also shared what attending Sundance as a student meant to him.

“[Sundance] is a place where filmmakers from all over the world can come together and collaborate with each other,” Nguyen said. “I love that aspect of Sundance, where we as college students can connect with people from the industry.”

When asked about their favorite conversation from the festival, Maravilla and Tran brought up the same answer.

“We met with Kristina Mueller, the creative director of Sundance, and she’s involved with what the Sundance Festival’s brand identity looks like — the trailers and graphics change every year, and she basically runs all of that,” Tran said. “Being able to hear her perspective on what it’s like handling the creative direction of a film festival was really enlightening.”

Maravilla added that Mueller gave DFS advice regarding their own film festival, planned for spring quarter 2026.

 “It was kind of reassuring to hear that what we're doing is what [Mueller] recommended us to do,” Maravilla said. “Something that really stuck with me, though, is that she really wanted us to embrace the absurd a little bit. Anything that gets attention that's a little funny, a little weird, [she wants us to] go for it.”

Tran emphasized the importance of college students partaking in independent film, especially in large spaces like Sundance, which may be intimidating for budding filmmakers. 

“To be able to put UC Davis on the map and to show that there are students at the school dedicated to independent filmmaking is critical,” Tran said. “I've met students from across the country who have their own projects and are doing their own things to really put themselves out there, and to meet other filmmakers who are like-minded in wanting to save indie film is amazing.”

Maravilla emphasized that there was a bigger meaning behind the Sundance trip than the physical journey itself.

“Going to Sundance was such an important thing for us, and it sort of opened our eyes to the fact that student organizations should be doing stuff like this more often,” Maravilla said. “Everyone should try getting closer to their worlds because it really is a beautiful thing, and it really helps get students motivated for the future of their field.”

DFS hosts their winter quarter meetings on Thursdays from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Art Annex. Their aforementioned film festival is set to take place next quarter. To learn more, visit their Instagram page @davisfilmmakingsociety.

Written by: Miriam Ramakrishnan — arts@theaggie.org