Sundance Institute Selects 12 First-Time Feature Filmmakers for Screenwriters Intensive

Writers and Advisors from a Broad Array of Backgrounds Come Together to Advance Distinctive Screenplays

LOS ANGELES - Twelve screenwriters have been selected to participate in Sundance Institute's eighth annual Screenwriters Intensive in Los Angeles, to take place March 4-5, 2020. The Intensive, a two-day workshop for select emerging writers and writer/directors from underrepresented communities, focuses on the development of first fiction features. Fellows at the Intensive will advance the art and craft of their work under the guidance of experienced filmmakers and the Institutes Feature Film Program, led by that Program's Founding Director Michelle Satter and Deputy Director Ilyse McKimmie.

Advisors for the 2020 Intensive include Gregg Araki, Lee Isaac Chung, Shana Feste and Susanna Fogel. Previous alumni of the Intensive include Andrew Ahn, Natalia Almada, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Tina Mabry, and Roger Ross Williams.

We're thrilled to be supporting a remarkable group of writers at a crucial stage in the development of their work, said McKimmie. By providing dynamic dialogues with advisors and a rigorous creative process, we hope the Intensive will have significant impact on the advancement of these projects, and will offer the fellows an inspiring expanded artistic community.

The Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive is made possible with leadership support from the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation.

The 2020 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive Fellows, and their projects, are:

Rosa Tran

writer/director, Bardo

Bardo is an animated story about the Vietnam War through the eyes of a civilian. After the fall of Saigon, Thao stops at nothing to keep her family together as they journey across the sea, but the battle takes its toll on her and she begins to hallucinate. Its a story of a mother's strength, sacrifice, and will to leave the world she knows in pursuit of a better life for her family.

Rosa Tran started her career in animation on the Emmy- and Annie Award-winning series Robot Chicken. As she made her way through the puppet fabrication ranks to the animation floor, Tran worked to streamline the departments and foster a production order that allowed the creative vision to flourish. She excels at finding creative solutions for sophisticated and elaborate imaginations. In 2012, Tran launched a Kickstarter campaign and raised money to produce Anomalisa, directed by Academy Award winner Charlie Kaufman and starring Academy Award nominee Duke Johnson. Anomalisa was not only nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, it was one of the very few animated films to be nominated for four Film Independent Spirit Awards. Currently, Tran is the co-executive producer on Final Space, created by Olan Rogers and executive produced by Conan O'Brien, and currently in development at Legendary TV. Tran has penned her first animated feature screenplay, Bardo, which will be her directorial debut.

Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez, Bar Mitzvah Boy

writer/director

The horniest, most closeted 7th grade loner does whatever he can to find true love and friends before the biggest and most dreaded day of his young life-his bar mitzvah.

Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez is a gay, Mexican-Israeli-American, Jewish writer, director, and comedian. His #humblebrags include: being selected for the Ryan Murphy Half Directing Mentorship Program, Fox Writers Intensive, National Hispanic Media Coalition Writers Program (sponsored by ABC and NBC), Film Independent's Project Involve, and CBS Showcase. As a writer/director, Rodriguez has had multiple comedic and dramatic shorts produced, with some playing international festivals and garnering awards. Rodriguez has also created two sold-out sketch shows for Comedy Central Stage. Before coming out as a full-blown artist, Rodriguez assisted the producers of Django Unchained, was a talent manager in Miami for telenovela stars, and a feature exec for the Lionsgate-backed 3Pas Studios. Rodriguez is a filmmaker mentor with Edward James Olmos' Youth Cinema Project, and a charter member of the queer Latinx writers collective, The Clubhouse.

Francesca Sloane, Headbangers

writer/director

1997, Philly. When Ethans mom dies, this teenage, devout punk is forced to raise his kid sister with his estranged boozer grandma. They move to an all black and Chicano neighborhood where he finds himself secretly falling in love with rap music. Life finally starts to open up for him-until Ethan makes a mistake that changes everything.

Francesca Sloane was raised between Philadelphia and El Salvador. She is currently writing on the newest season of Atlanta (FX). Francesca is co-creating a series at Netflix, as well as developing a project with Legendary. Prior to working on Fargo (FX), she developed a series at Apple and worked on set, writing with Beau Willimon on The First (Hulu), which starred Sean Penn. Francesca began her writing career on the staff of Veena Sud's Seven Seconds (Netflix) and Startup (Crackle). She will be making her directorial feature debut on Headbangers, which was recently recognized by the Black List and NALIP on their inaugural list of best unproduced LatinX screenplays. After graduating from the film and video program at CalArts, Sloane travelled the globe shooting lo-fi political video art before getting her Masters in Screenwriting from UCLA. Sloane enjoys finding beauty in the specific and the mundane and considers herself well-suited for the one job that encourages daydreaming at work: writing. She lives with her two big dogs, Billie and Lucy and her fianc Brandon.

Young Jean Lee, Mistress Hand

co-writer/director

Jesse Short Bull, Mistress Hand

co-writer

A Lakota family is terrorized by a demon that maneuvers its way into their home by exploiting their matriarchs blindly devout Catholicism.

Young

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