Sundance Institute Selects Projects for 06 January Screenwriters Lab

-- Los Angeles, CA - Sundance Institute announced today the 12 projects selected for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab, an immersive, five-day writers' workshop at the Sundance Resort in Utah, January 15-20. The Lab is one of 25 residency Labs the Institute hosts each year for independent artists in theatre, film, new media and episodic content.

Under the leadership of Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, with Ilyse McKimmie, Labs Director, Feature Film Program, participating independent screenwriters will have the opportunity to develop their feature film scripts with the support of accomplished writers in an environment that encourages creative risk-taking and original storytelling.

Satter said, We're excited to welcome sixteen new Fellows to the January Screenwriters Lab, which is the beginning of a year-round customized system of creative and tactical support. The filmmakers reflect a broad and diverse spectrum of independent storytelling from the U.S. and around the world, all bringing a personal and distinctive voice and aesthetic to the projects we selected.

At the Screenwriters Lab, Fellows will work with a distinguished group of Creative Advisors, led by Artistic Director Kasi Lemmons, including Paul Attanasio, Marcos Bernstein, Thomas Bidegain, Naomi Foner, John Gatins, Michael Goldenberg, Susannah Grant, Erik Jendresen, Walter Mosley, Jennifer Salt, Susan Shilliday, Zach Sklar, Dana Stevens, Joan Tewkesbury, Audrey Wells, Bill Wheeler and Tyger Williams.

Following the Lab, nine films supported by the Feature Film Program will premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The U.S. Dramatic Competition will feature: Birth of a Nation, written and directed by Nate Parker; Spa Night, written and directed by Andrew Ahn; and Swiss Army Man, co-written and co-directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The World Cinema Dramatic Competition will feature Halal Love (and Sex), written and directed by Assad Fouladkar. The NEXT section will include The Fits, co-written by Anna Rose Holmer, Saela Davis, and Lisa Kjerluff, and directed by Anna Rose Holmer, and Jacqueline Argentine, written and directed by Bernardo Britto. The Midnight section will include Under the Shadow, written and directed by Babak Anvari. In addition, the Premieres section will feature Frank and Lola, written and directed by Matthew Ross, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, written and directed by Taika Waititi.

The projects and fellows selected for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab are:

Bull (U.S.A.) / Annie Silverstein (Co-writer/Director) and Johnny McAllister (Co-writer)

In a near-abandoned subdivision west of Houston, a wayward teen runs headlong into her equally willful and unforgiving neighbor, an aging bullfighter who's seen his best days in the arena; it's a collision that will change them both.

Annie Silverstein is an award-winning filmmaker and youth worker based in Austin, Texas. Her fiction and documentary films have screened at international festivals including Cannes, SXSW, Silverdocs and on PBS Independent Lens. Most recently she wrote and directed Skunk, which won the jury award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival-Cin fondation. Silverstein is a recipient of the San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant for developing her first fiction feature.

Johnny McAllister is a filmmaker and writer based in Austin, Texas. Born in Iran to Irish parents, McAllister grew up an itinerant, living and working throughout the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. He's written for films that played at Cannes and Sundance and co-founded a news and doc startup based in Beirut, Lebanon. Recently, he co-wrote and produced Booger Red with director Berndt Mader and executive producer David Gordon Green, which premiered at The American Film Festival in Poland. He received his MFA from Columbia University.

The Gold Bug Variations (U.S.A.) / Mark Levinson (Writer/Director)

The Gold Bug Variations is a double helix of two love stories spiraling across 25 years and the mysterious disappearance of a scientist on the verge of understanding the code for life, but derailed by the search for the code for love. Script based on the novel by Richard Powers. This project is the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.

After first getting a doctoral degree in theoretical particle physics, Mark Levinson began his film career as an assistant editor on the feature film Smooth Talk. He developed his writing and directing skills as an ADR Supervisor on films such as The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain and The Rainmaker. Levinson wrote, produced and directed the narrative feature Prisoner of Time, which had an acclaimed premiere at the Moscow International Film Festival. Most recently, he directed the award-winning documentary feature Particle Fever about the discovery of the Higgs boson, the so-called God Particle.

Hot Clip (U.S.A.) / C sar Cervantes (Writer/Director)

A week after their best friend's fatal confrontation with a cop, three Southeast Los Angeles skaters spend 24 hours chasing dreams, making trouble and trying to survive in a community on the verge of exploding. This project is the recipient of the Feature Film Program Latino Fellowship.

C sar Cervantes is a first-generation Chicano filmmaker from Maywood, California. His skateboarding do-it-yourself background and whatever-it-takes approach to filmmaking got him into the Emerging Filmmakers Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival, led him to create an after-school film program for inner-city youth with the help of CAA, and put him on tour with the Grammy-winning band La Santa Cecilia as their lead videographer. A Vassar College graduate, Cervantes will make his feature debut with Hot Clip.

House of Tomorrow (U.S.A.) / Peter Livolsi (Writer/Director)

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