Shari Frilot (b. 1965) is an artist, filmmaker, and chief curator of the New Frontier program at the Sundance Film Festival.
As Co-Director of Programming for OUTFEST (1998-2001), she founded the Platinum section, which introduced cinematic installation and performance to the festival. As Festival Director of MIX: The New York Experimental Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (1993-1996) she co-founded the first gay Latin American film festivals, MIX BRASIL and MIX MÉXICO. Frilot is a filmmaker and recipient of multiple grants, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Media Arts Foundation. She is a graduate of Harvard/Radcliffe and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. She joined the Sundance programming team in 1998. She is also a Guest Curator for AMPAS’ Academy Museum in Los Angeles.
Alongside her own extensive practice, she has hugely influenced and shaped the field of emerging talent and media, championing artists across virtual and augmented reality, AI, and experimental games, helping to institutionalise interactive storytelling at Sundance. Guided by her ethos to “follow the artist,” Frilot has fostered thousands of independent creators, securing visibility, investment, and legitimacy for groundbreaking work at the forefront of contemporary narrative culture.
Strange & Charmed (2003), Black Nations/Queer Nations? (1995), What Is A Line (1994), A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality (1992)
