Videos: Cynthia Erivo Receives the 2025 Visionary Award at Sundance

On January 24, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo was honored with the Visionary Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s gala fundraiser for her work and notable contributions to the entertainment industry. Olivia Colman presented Erivo with the award, highlighting her dedication to the craft, her commitment, her accuracy in her performance, charisma, and warmth.  

Erivo took the stage to accept the award, noting that her identity as a visionary comes in the form of belief and the imagination to believe that one can accomplish many things as an artist and creative person. Watch her acceptance speech here.

Erivo has received acclaim for her performance as Elphaba in Wicked and was recently honored with an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the film. From her breakout portrayal of Celie Harris in Broadway’s The Color Purple, for which she won a Grammy, Tony, and Daytime Emmy Award, to her commanding performance in Kasi Lemmons’ Harriet, for which she was nominated for two Academy Awards — Best Actress and Best Original Song — Erivo consistently elevates every role with her profound skill, depth, and artistry.

During the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Erivo served as a jury member and returned to the Festival in 2023, as both an actor and producer, for her mesmerizing performance in Drift. Now, as the star of the highest-grossing Broadway musical film adaptation in history, Erivo’s success serves as a testament to her ever-growing impact on film. The annual gala enables the nonprofit to raise funds to support independent artists year-round through labs, grants, and public programming that nurture artists from all over the world.

The 2025 event is made possible with the generous support of Google TV. The Festival takes place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with a selection of titles available online from January 30–February 2, 2025 for audiences across the country to discover bold independent storytelling.

About The Sundance Institute

As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from Sundance advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling.

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