85% of Sundance Filmmakers Choose Adobe as Company Releases New AI Video Innovations and $10M in Creator Grants
Tuesday, January 20, 2026 6:00 AM
- Adobe Premiere now seamlessly connected with Adobe Firefly app, delivering latest AI models from Adobe, Google, OpenAI, Runway and more to power video teams' collaborative ideation and brainstorming processes
- New AI video innovations in Premiere and major new motion graphics upgrades in After Effects transform post-production workflows for more powerful and seamless storytelling
- Adobe invests nearly $10M in Film & TV Fund to empower aspiring filmmakers with professional video tools, career development, fellowships, apprenticeships and training opportunities
SAN JOSE, Calif. — January 20, 2026 — Adobe (Nasdaq: ADOBE), the global technology leader that unleashes creativity, productivity and customer experiences through innovative tools and platforms — today announced it is empowering video creators with new AI innovations and investments in career development. Ahead of the Sundance Film Festival, where 85% of all films were created with Adobe products, the company unveiled new innovations designed to make post-production more seamless. These upgrades include AI-enhanced masking features in Premiere and a broad set of new capabilities in After Effects — including new typography, materials, and 3D features — that meaningfully expand motion design and visual storytelling. Premiere now seamlessly connects to Firefly Boards, Adobe’s AI-powered ideation surface, enabling video teams to brainstorm and explore concepts collaboratively using the latest AI models from industry-leaders including Adobe, Google, OpenAI, Runway and more.
At a time when filmmakers and creators are exploring new ways to bring their stories to life, Adobe is furthering its commitment to empowering creatives with this year’s $10M contributions in new commitments and donated products, welcoming new partners like Rideback RISE and Dimz Inc., and continuing collaborations with Group Effort Initiative, Gold House, and others. Adobe is also launching a new direct grant application designed specifically for filmmakers integrating AI into their creative workflows.
New integrations between Adobe Firefly and Premiere build on the array of video AI capabilities in Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative AI studio that offers the industry’s leading AI models alongside the best creative tools for design, imaging, video, audio and motion creation. Recent innovation milestones include new precision controls with prompt-based edits and camera-motion refinement; the public beta of the Firefly video editor, a lightweight creative assembly space that lets creators combine generative clips, footage, graphics, and audio into polished stories directly in the browser and a multi-year partnership with Runway to deliver next-generation AI video models across Adobe workflows. These latest innovations empower video professionals to move faster from idea to edit with full creative control and access to top industry models, delivering unmatched choice and flexibility.
“We’re thrilled to see so many filmmakers creating their stories with Adobe’s industry leading tools," said Deepa Subramaniam, vice president of product marketing, creative professionals, Adobe. “The creative community inspires everything we do, and we’re committed to advancing AI video tools with new innovations and investments for the next generation of storytellers.”
New Premiere, Firefly Boards and After Effects Innovations for Video Editing and Motion Design
New innovations in Adobe Premiere and After Effects empower video professionals to accomplish tasks that were previously time prohibitive. For example, rotoscoping can now be accomplished in seconds with new masking features:
- Object Selection and Mask: New feature completely transforms the selection and masking process, making tracking complex subjects drastically faster, simpler and more intuitive for video editors, empowering them to spend more of their time iterating and experimenting with unique creative effects.
- Shape Masks: Redesigned Ellipse, Rectangle, and Pen masks now offer more creative control when working with effects such as blurring faces, relighting sections of a frame, and more.
- Firefly Boards Integration: Seamless connection between Adobe's AI-first collaborative workspace and industry leading video editing tools enables real-time ideation and visual planning across pre- and post-production, with assets sent straight into Premiere for polished, professional editing.
- Stock Panel: New Adobe Stock integration within Premiere keeps video editors in the flow, enabling them to browse, preview, license, and import over 52 million clips without leaving the app.
Major new After Effects release opens up new creative possibilities for motion designers and visual storytellers, with:
- Native 3D Parametric Meshes: New capabilities for designing and customizing 3D shapes using parametric meshes and combinable shapes, with new spot and parallel shadows to enhance assets like stylized graphics and photorealistic set pieces.
- 1,300+ Free Substance 3D Materials: Access to thousands of new assets and animatable properties to apply materials to native and imported meshes and create stunning motion graphics with enhanced realism and creative control.
- Variable Font Animation: Additions to the Text Animator system providing full support for keyframes, expressions, and flexible controls for titles and templates that add exciting and eye-catching dynamics to videos.
- Enhanced Vector Workflows: Tool for importing SVGs as native shape layers, preserving editable gradients and transparency from Illustrator to enable designers to start animating with full vector fidelity and more precise control over fills and strokes.
Adobe Advances the Future of Culture-Shaping Storytelling
These updates expand capabilities across Adobe’s creative tools that are already fundamental to the work of Sundance filmmakers. According to the annual Sundance Institute survey, 85% of 2026’s entrants used Adobe Creative Cloud applications—including Premiere, Frame.io, After Effects, Photoshop and the Substance 3D Collection—to bring their stories to life. Films cut on Premiere that debuted at Sundance include “Chasing Summer,” “Wicker,” “The A.I. Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist," “Union County,” “Zi,” “The Moment,” and “The Brittney Griner Story”.
Adobe Adds Nearly $10M to Film & TV Fund Supporting Underrepresented Creators
To help jumpstart the careers of aspiring video professionals and creators from underserved communities, Adobe is committing $10 million in contributions and donating projects in 2026 through the Adobe Film & TV Fund. The new investment builds on the $10M Adobe has already committed since launching the fund at Sundance in 2024, bringing the three-year total to $20 million in contributions and donated product. The fund provides grants, professional video tools, career development, fellowships, apprenticeships and training opportunities to the creative community, including participants in the Gold House, Rideback RISE and Sundance Ignite programs. Adobe will continue to elevate films produced by these artists at Sundance and beyond, investing in key industry partnerships, and providing the platform and opportunities for career-defining moments.
In partnership with Sundance Institute, Adobe is also introducing Ignite Day—for emerging creatives ages 18–25, Ignite Day brings together hands-on learning, mentorship, and creative exchange for young storytellers to connect, experiment, and gain real-world insight as they explore pathways to bring their ideas to life. Designed in partnership with Sundance Institute, Ignite Day.
For more information on Premiere and After Effect’s 26.0 release, read here, for more information on Adobe’s presence at Sundance, read here, and for more information on the Adobe Film & TV Fund, read here.
Pricing and Availability
The latest innovations in Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Firefly Boards are rolling out this week.
About Adobe
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Adobe
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