Quiche, pastries, and coffee weren’t the only treats served up at the annual Producers Lunch yesterday – Sundance Institute Executive Director Ken Brecher and Michelle Satter, Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, had a special announcement to make, which Brecher called the “missing piece from Sundance.”

Brecher and Satter explained that the Institute has for many years proudly hosted Lab programs for narrative and documentary directors, writers, editors, and film musicians. And now producers will have one to call their own: The Creative Producing Initiative is a year-long fellowship program designed for emerging American producers who have a project to take to the screen. The program will focus on the creative aspects of producing – the first Lab will focus on both the scripting and editing stages as they apply to producers.

“We want them fully engaged, as many of them are, in the creative process of producing,” said Satter. “We really believe in the holistic producer. It’s a complicated marketplace right now … and we want to train that next generation of producers.”

The deal includes two dedicated mentors and ongoing staff support over the year-long period, a small living stipend, and a pre-production grant for the project; all selected fellows will attend the Institute’s annual Independent Producers Conference.

Veteran producer Paul Mezey (Maria Full of Grace, Sugar) expressed his approval of the new initiative in his keynote address: “At a time when there are more and more pressures bearing down on the industry, it works against a lot of producers to take risks with their projects,” he said. “I think we need to be all the more vigilant about bringing the best, most original voices to the screen.”

Director and producer Morgan Spurlock, whose Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? is screening at the Festival this year, attended the Lunch. “The Sundance Institute has already shown that they can do it with writers, they can do it with editors, and they can do it with directors,” he said. “So now to slide over and do it with producers is a perfect idea.”