10 Projects to Be Developed at Annual January Screenwriters Lab; 10 Projects to Be Supported at Screenwriters Intensive in March
PARK CITY, UTAH, January 17, 2025 - Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the fellows selected for the 2025 Screenwriters Lab and Screenwriters Intensive programs, which provide emerging artists with a creative and nurturing space to develop their first and second independent features. The 10 projects for the Screenwriters Lab were selected from over 3,380 submissions, and 11 fellows will work under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors to develop their scripts. The Screenwriters Lab will take place from January 18-22 at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah.
The lab will be led by Michelle Satter (Founding Senior Director, Sundance Institute's Artist Programs) and Ilyse McKimmie (Deputy Director, Feature Film Program), with Artistic Director Scott Frank and Co-Artistic Director Jessie Nelson and creative advisors Ritesh Batra, Scott Z. Burns, Linda Yvette Ch vez, Marielle Heller, Nicole Kassell, Walter Mosley, Nicole Perlman, Howard A. Rodman, Dana Stevens, Tyger Williams, Virgil Williams, and Doug Wright. In addition, advisors Joan Tewkesbury and Bill Wheeler led pre-lab writing workshops with the fellows.
We are honored to welcome a new group of visionary filmmakers who have created powerful, culture-changing stories through their work, said Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director, Sundance Institute's Artist Programs. The Screenwriters Lab marks the start of our in-depth development process with these 11 fiercely talented writer/directors. We look forward to seeing their projects flourish at the labs and will continue to support their filmmaking journey creatively and strategically as they move forward to get their films made and captivate audiences around the world.
The Screenwriters Intensive will bring 12 writers across 10 projects to a two-day online workshop, held March 6-7, where they will develop their first fiction features. Alumni of the Screenwriters Intensive include Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men), Adamma Ebo (Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul), Roger Ross Williams (Cassandro), Laurel Parmet (The Starling Girl), and Vuk Lungulov-Klotz (Mutt).
We feel privileged to bring together this remarkable group of storytellers, each of whom has written a uniquely compelling screenplay that connects us to fascinating characters and worlds we haven't often seen represented on screen, said Ilyse McKimmie, Deputy Director of the Feature Film Program. These are singular voices telling urgent stories, and the intensive is the first step in our long-term commitment to supporting them realizing their visions.
For over four decades, the Feature Film Program (FFP) Labs have supported and championed an exciting and groundbreaking array of independent filmmakers, including The Daniels (Swiss Army Man), Sean Wang (D di ( ), A.V. Rockwell (A Thousand and One), Charlotte Wells (Aftersun), Nikyatu Jusu (Nanny), Sterlin Harjo (Four Sheets to the Wind), Radha Blank (The 40-Year-Old Version), Chlo Zhao (Songs My Brother Taught Me), Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats), Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), Walter Salles (Central Station), Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station), Dee Rees (Pariah), Nia DaCosta (Little Woods), Robert Eggers (The Witch), Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox), Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball), Paul T. Anderson (Hard Eight), Miranda July (Me, You and Everyone We Know), and Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), among many others.
Two projects supported by the Feature Film Program will premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival: Rashad Frett's Ricky and Isaiah Saxon's The Legend of Ochi along with Gregory Nava's El Norte in the From the Collection section. In addition, FFP alumni with films premiering in this year's Festival include Andrew Ahn, Cristina Costantini, Cherien Dabis, Alex Heller, Glenn Kaino, and Ira Sachs. Other Feature Film Program-supported films which have premiered internationally in the past year include Happyend, written and directed by Neo Sora (Venice Film Festival, TIFF, NYFF), Who Do I Belong To, written and directed by Meryam Joobeur (Berlin Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival), and Santosh, written and directed by Sandhya Suri (Cannes Film Festival), which has been shortlisted in the Best International Film category as the United Kingdom's submission for the 97th Academy Awards.
The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program is supported by explore.org, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; The Asian American Foundation (TAAF); Hartbeat; United Airlines; The Walt Disney Company; Salman Al-Rashid; Ray and Dagmar Dolby Fund; Scott and Jennifer Frank; Golden Globe Foundation; NHK; Steward Family Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Levantine Films; Essex County Community Foundation; SAGIndie; Spotlight on San Francisco; Rosalie Swedlin and Robert Cort; Adobe; Karen and Ian Calderon; ShivHans Pictures; River Road Entertainment; the Deborah Reinisch & Michael Theodore Fund; and Brian Siberell.
The projects selected for the 2025 January Screenwriters Lab and the artists attending are:
Leo Aguirre with Verano (U.S.A./Mexico): An unruly teenager's summer plans are upended when his parents decide to foster an adolescent from southern Mexico who is seeking asylum in the United States. As the two teens realize they must share more than just a bedroom, they are forced to confront their differences amid their harsh realities.
Leo Aguirre is a first-generation Mexican American filmmaker and visual artist. His work has received international recognition through film and photography projects spanning the advertising, music video, and narrative land
