Released: 04/21/08

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF 2008 MARYLAND FILMMAKERS FELLOWSHIP

Park City, Utah — Sundance Institute and the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship today announced the recipients of this year’s Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship: John Morgan and Meg LeFauve, and their feature-film project, THE CAVANAUGHS. Presented in partnership with the Maryland Film Office, the annual fellowship provides both Morgan and LeFauve with a $10,000 grant to help with the critical phases of advanced development and pre-production.

“The generous support of the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship will have a real impact in providing Meg and John, the filmmakers, with the resources they need to move forward into the next stage in getting this film made,” said Michelle Satter, Director of the Institute’s Feature Film Program. “They will now be one step closer to sharing with audiences their voices and bringing this film to life.”

In THE CAVANAUGHS, when the mother of a deeply evangelical family suddenly rejects motherhood, falls in love with a woman, and disavows her faith, the remaining members of the family are thrown into chaos, forcing each of them to construct new meaning for the ideas of family, love, and identity. Morgan and LeFauve developed the project at last year's Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs, and are now working with producer Julie Lynn (THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, NINE LIVES) to get the film made.

“When the scripts come in from the Sundance Labs, I work with a varied group of people in Baltimore who have no film experience but support us. This year, John and Meg’s script really stood out from the rest,” said Jed Dietz, Director of the Maryland Film Festival. “We think it will make a great movie.”

A graduate of UCLA’s MFA film directing program, John Morgan’s short films END OF A DOG and IN MEMORIAM each won UCLA’s awards for Best Screenplay, Best Direction of Actors, and Best Narrative Film. He began his career as an actor, receiving an MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University, and is a co-founder of Kitchen Dog Theater, an award-winning theater company based in Dallas, Texas.

Meg LeFauve began her film career as an executive at Jodie Foster’s Egg Pictures, where she produced films including THE BABY DANCE, which received a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Movie and a Peabody Award, and THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS, winner of an IFP Spirit Award for Best First Feature. She also served as co-chair of the Graduate Producers Program at UCLA’s School of Film and Television. As a writer, LeFauve completed a month-long residency at Hedgebrook, a writer’s retreat in Seattle, where she began a novel currently making its way to publishers. THE CAVANAUGHS is her first screenplay.

Maryland Filmmaker Fellowship

The Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship was created in 1993 by independent producer Jed Dietz to help the Maryland Film Office promote the state as an ideal place for film and television location work. Twelve Maryland Filmmakers Fellowships (formerly known as The Producers Club of Maryland Fellowship) have been awarded to date. Past projects include Doug Sadler - Swimmers; Michael Burke - The Mudge Boy; Rodrigo Garcia - Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her; DeMane Davis Khari Streeter – Liftl; and Jacob Kornbluth -THE BEST THIEF IN THE WORLD. Two projects are currently in pre-production: Tanya Hamilton's STRINGBEAN AND MARCUS and Andrew Dosunmu and Darci Picoult's MOTHER OF GEORGE, both scheduled to shoot later this year.

Sundance Institute Feature Film Program

The year round Feature Film Program is dedicated to supporting artist development and the advancement of distinctive, singular independent projects. Each year, 20-25 emerging filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad participate in the program which includes the Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs, ongoing creative and practical advice, the post-production initiative, and financial support through fellowship opportunities. In many cases, the Institute has helped filmmakers find a producer, financing and other significant resources, helping to bring these projects into production. The Feature Film Program also presents the Screenplay Reading Series in Los Angeles and New York, which provides a valuable opportunity for writers to hear their scripts read aloud by professional actors.

Sundance Institute

Dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute was founded by Robert Redford in 1981. The Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk-taking and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with US artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world.

For More Information Contact:

Irene Cho

435.658.3456

Irene_Cho@sundance.org