Bold Innovation and Risk-Taking Encouraged at Immersive Lab, Part of Ongoing Creative Support; Twelve Alumni Projects to
Premiere at 2018 Sundance Film Festival
Los Angeles, CA – Sixteen emerging screenwriters will come together at Sundance Institute’s 2018 Screenwriters
Lab, an immersive five-day writers’ workshop announced today and taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah, January 12-17,
2018. The Lab brings independent screenwriters together with accomplished writers, in an environment that encourages the
art and craft of writing and creative risk-taking. Through one-on-one story sessions with Creative Advisors, Fellows work
intensively on their feature film scripts and engage in an artistically rigorous process that offers them indispensable
lessons in craft. The Lab is the first step in a year-round continuum of customized creative and tactical support for each
project and team.
The January Screenwriters Lab has been created and organized under the leadership of Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program
Founding Director
Michelle Satter and Labs Director
Ilyse McKimmie. The team of Creative Advisors includes Artistic Director
Scott Frank, Andrea Berloff, D.V. DeVincentis, Naomi Foner, Richard LaGravenese, Kasi Lemmons, Jenny Lumet, Ole Christian
Madsen, Walter Mosley, Jessie Nelson, Nicole Perlman, Howard Rodman, Michael Showalter, Zach Sklar, Joan Tewkesbury,
Bill Wheeler
and
Tyger Williams.
“We’re excited to bring together this remarkable group of emerging artists with distinctive voices and dynamic stories,”
said
Satter. “Strong female characters challenging traditional narratives, issues of migration and disenfranchisement,
and the shared human desire for connection and family are several of the timely themes explored in these scripts. We’re
thrilled to begin our relationship with these storytellers, and look forward to supporting them throughout the lifecycle
of their projects.”
Twelve films supported by the Feature Film Program will premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In U.S. Dramatic Competition,
those films include
American Animals, written and directed by Bart Layton;
Blindspotting, co-written by Rafael Casal & Daveed Diggs and directed by Carlos López Estrada;
I Think We’re Alone Now, written by Mike Makowsky and directed by Reed Morano;
Monsters and Men, written and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green;
Nancy, written and directed by Christina Choe; and
Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley. In World Cinema Dramatic Competition, those films include
Butterflies, written and directed by Tolga Karaҫelik, and
Un Traductor, written by Lindsay Gossling and co-directed by Rodrigo and Sebastián Barriuso. Other FFP-supported films
include
Night Comes On, co-written by Angelica Nwandu and Jordana Spiro and directed by Jordana Spiro;
Skate Kitchen, co-written by Crystal Moselle and Aslihan Unaldi and directed by Crystal Moselle; and
We the Animals, co-written by Daniel Kitrosser and Jeremiah Zagar and directed by Jeremiah Zagar, all of which will
premiere in NEXT. Additionally,
What They Had, written and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, will screen in the Premieres section of the Festival.
The projects and fellows selected for the 2018 January Screenwriters Lab are:
Afrika
(Bulgaria) /
Maya Vitkova (writer/director):
Afrika weaves together the stories of a family over the course of one year, a fantastical journey of love and loss,
across three generations.
Maya Vitkova is a director, screenwriter, and producer, whose debut film,
Viktoria, was the first Bulgarian feature in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The film played at more than
70 international festivals, including Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Busan, AFI Fest and BFI London, and received praise from
the Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, Vogue Magazine and other publications.
The New Yorker listed it at number 4 of the best films of 2016, and named Maya Vitkova one of the five best directors
in the world. Vitkova was chosen as a European Film Promotion’s “Producer on the Move” in Cannes and is an EAVE 2017 graduate.
Broadway
(Greece) /
Christos Massalas (writer/director): A band of young street performers and pickpockets find an unlikely home in
an abandoned mall in Athens. The balance of their makeshift family is threatened when a former member of their group returns
after being released from prison.
Born in Greece, Christos Massalas is a graduate of the London Film School. His short films have received awards from around
the world and have screened at international film festivals including Cannes, Locarno, AFI Fest, Guanajuato, BFI, and Nouveau
Cinéma, among others. His latest short film
Copa-Loca is nominated for the European Film Academy Award.
Broadway will be his feature directorial debut.
Doha
(U.S.A. / Morocco) /
Eimi Imanishi (writer/director): Disheartened by her deportation from Europe, Mariam is forced to return home
to Western Sahara. Adrift in the very place that’s supposed to be her home, she searches for the means to assert agency
over her own life.
Eimi Imanishi is a Japanese American filmmaker. She earned her BFA at the Slade School of Art, University College London
where she majored in sculpture. She has directed two award-winning short films,
Battalion to My Beat and
One Up, that have played at numerous festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival and Clermont Ferrand.
The Huntress
(U.S.A. / Mexico) /
Suzanne Andrews Correa (writer/director): In Juarez, Mexico, where violence against women goes unnoticed and unpunished,
an unlikely heroine emerges to seek justice.
This project is the recipient of the Feature Film Program Latina Fellowship.
Suzanne Andrews Correa is a Mexican American director and screenwriter based in New York City. A recent MFA graduate of the
Film Program at Columbia University, she has worked in the industry for almost a decade as a member of IATSE. Her latest
short,
La Casa de Beatriz, premiered at the 2017 Morelia International Film Festival and received awards from the Princess
Grace Foundation and Directors Guild of America.
The Huntress will be her feature directorial debut.
Josephine
(U.S.A.) /
Beth de Araújo (writer/director): After accidentally witnessing a rape in Golden Gate Park, eight-year-old Josephine
is plunged into a maelstrom of fear and paranoia. Surrounded by adults helpless to assuage her and unable to understand
her, she acts out with increasing violence, searching for any way to regain control of her own safety. This project is
the recipient of the Asian American Fellowship.
Beth de Araújo is a Los Angeles-based writer and director recently featured in
Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. In 2017, her feature screenplay
Josephine participated in IFP No Borders and was a recipient of the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grant. Araújo has directed
two episodes of television for Lifetime Movie Network and is currently in post on two short films, one of which she shot
through the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.
Josephine
will mark her feature directorial debut.
Katie Wright
(U.S.A.) /
C. Wrenn Ball (writer): Just as the Wright Brothers are about to capitalize on the invention of their airplane,
Orville is badly injured in a public crash, and sister Katie unexpectedly emerges to lead their business. Fighting resistance
from businessmen, society, and even her own brothers, she strives to keep the family together and claim her place as part
of their legacy. Based on the forgotten true story.
This project is the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.
Hailing from North Carolina, C. Wrenn Ball exchanged life in the Southeast for work as an assistant on network television.
He directed web series pilots in Los Angeles before completing an MFA at USC’s John Wells Division of Writing for Screen
and Television. Obsessed by the twang and rhythm of life, Ball is constantly merging his Southern sensibilities with feature
and television writing.
Let’s Not Get Crazy
(U.S.A.) /
Joey Ally (co-writer/director) and
Catie Ally (co-writer): It’s the night before Christmas, and two estranged sisters are about to do something crazy
to help their mom get sane.
Joey Ally is a writer, director, and actor who first realized she wanted to make films while volunteering at the 2011 Sundance
Film Festival. Her short film
Partners screened at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and can be seen on Vimeo Premieres. Her most recent film,
Joy Joy Nails, was made for American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, premiered at the 2017 Tribeca
Film Festival, and can be viewed as part of
The New Yorker’s “The Screening Room.” She is a fellow of the Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program: Through Her
Lens, the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s Directors Intensive, and the Fox Filmmakers Lab.
Catie Ally graduated from the New School with honors in Creative Writing and Film Theory. She is between hometowns and careers
right now as she makes the move from copywriter in Brooklyn to screenwriter in Seattle. When she’s not packing her entire
life into the back of her car, she enjoys small dogs and
Chopped reruns. Ally’s lifelong passion for movies is largely thanks to a mother who indulged her love of film from
a young age (and took her to see
Boogie Nights
when she was eight years old.)
Nobody Nothing Nowhere
(U.S.A.) /
Rachel Wolther (co-writer/co-director) and
Alex H. Fischer (co-writer/co-director): Just like everyone she knows, Ruth is a “non-person” in a solipsistic
universe built around the only being to truly exist, a congenial Midwestern bachelor named Dave. Tired of serving someone
else’s story, she unexpectedly upends the narrative when she has the audacity to demand a life of her own.
Rachel Wolther is a director and producer whose work has screened at the Berlinale, BFI, Rotterdam, and New York Film Festivals,
among others. Since 2015, she has directed episodes of GE Podcast Theater’s science fiction series
The Message, which was the #1 podcast on iTunes and won numerous awards. Wolther was named one of
Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film in 2017, along with her directing partner, Alex Fischer.
Alex H. Fischer is a writer and director with a body of work including music videos, experimental shorts, ads, and funny
videos. His longest movie yet,
Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone (co-directed with Rachel Wolther) premiered at BAM Cinemafest this
year.
Silhouette
(U.S.A.) /
Amman Abbasi (writer/director): Pakistani immigrant Raju is chasing his dreams of success, trying to work his
way up the ladder of an unsavory pyramid scheme and pursuing MMA matches for which he is woefully underprepared. But when
someone who strikingly resembles him commits a local terrorist act, Raju becomes increasingly isolated and identifies with
the perpetrator in progressively unsettling ways.
Amman Abbasi is a Pakistani American writer/director, editor and composer from Little Rock, Arkansas. His first feature film,
Dayveon, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and screened at the 2017 Berlinale. For
Dayveon, Abbasi has been nominated for the Someone To Watch Award and the John Cassavetes Award at the 2017 Independent
Spirit Awards.
The Sugar Hill Express
(U.S.A.) /
Christopher Grant (writer/director): Found to be an unfit parent because of her mentally ill husband, a desperate
mother steals her children from New York City’s Child Protective Services and goes on a raucous journey to evade the cops
and finally find a safe home for her family. Based on a lot of people’s true stories.
Christopher Grant is an African American filmmaker based in New York City. His short film work has won numerous festival
awards including screenings in the Showtime Black Filmmaker’s Showcase, the Clark Atlanta Festival, and the Mill Valley
Film Festival. After a prolific career as a television producer, Grant has most recently worked as a Creative Director
at two of the Discovery Networks: Destination America and The American Heroes Channel. Additionally, he’s received multiple
New York Foundation of the Arts Grants for improvisational theater and film production.
Thomas in 10 Dimensions
(Norway) /
Jakob Rørvik (writer/director): Quantum physicist Thomas believes he is about to crack the code of the universe,
but he can’t seem to untangle the mysteries of his own life, even as the people he loves most—his young son, ex-wife, and
mother—all try to bring him back to earth.
Norwegian writer/director Jakob Rørvik received his MA from the National Film & Television School in the UK. His award-winning
shorts have screened at numerous festivals including Cannes, Cinéfondation, South By Southwest and Aspen Shortsfest. His
latest short,
Nothing Ever Really Ends, was recently selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere. He is currently in development on
both a television series and
Thomas in 10 Dimensions, which will be his feature directorial debut.
Wolf in White Van
(U.S.A.) /
Andrew Bruntel (director),
Ben Collins (co-writer), and
Luke Piotrowski (co-writer): Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of 17, Sean Phillips is the sole creator
of the The Trace Italian, a turn based, fantasy role-playing game run entirely through the mail. When tragedy strikes two
of his young players, Sean is forced to re-examine his self-inflicted departure from the world in which most people live.
Based on the novel by John Darnielle.
Andrew Bruntel was born and raised in a rural town on the edge of Pennsylvania’s rust belt. After studying experimental filmmaking
and design in Baltimore, he moved to Los Angeles to work for Mike Mills at The Directors Bureau. He has since become a
director and writer, creating award winning short films, commercials and music videos for artists such as Will Oldham,
St. Vincent, No Age, and Liars.
Ben Collins was born in Alabama and spent the first 24 years of his life in the south. Collins and his wife moved to Los
Angeles in 2009, where he worked in commercial casting for several years. He co-wrote the film
Super Dark Times, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released in 2017.
Luke Piotrowski was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago before moving with his family during his sixth grade year to
the suburbs of Atlanta, where he stayed until he was able to make a family of his own and move them to the suburbs of Los
Angeles, where he currently resides. Along with Ben Collins, he co-wrote the 2017 feature
Super Dark Times.
The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program is supported by The Annenberg Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; YouTube;
RT Features; Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation; Time Warner Foundation; Amazon Studios; NBCUniversal; Hollywood Foreign
Press Association; National Endowment for the Arts; Sandra and Malcolm Berman Charitable Foundation; The Ray and Dagmar
Dolby Family Fund; NHK Enterprises, Inc.; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; SAGindie; Grazka Taylor; Rena Dillon
Cruz and Rene Simon Cruz; Philip Fung – A3 Foundation; and The Ammon Foundation.
The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program
Since its founding in 1981, the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program (FFP) has supported an extensive list of leading-edge
independent films. Recent acclaimed films to come out of the program include
Beach Rats, written and directed by Eliza Hittman, and
Patti Cake$, written and directed by Geremy Jasper. Other notable films supported over the program’s history include
Swiss Army Man, written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert,
The Fits, written and directed by Anna Rose Holmer,
Spa Night, written and directed by Andrew Ahn, Marielle Heller’s
Diary of a Teenage Girl, Jonas Carpignano’s
Mediterranea, Nate Parker’s
The Birth of a Nation, Damien Chazelle’s
Whiplash, Malik Vitthal and Ismet Prcic’s
Imperial Dreams, Ryan Coogler’s
Fruitvale Station, Ritesh Batra’s
The Lunchbox, Haifaa Al Mansour’s
Wadjda, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin’s
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Andrew Dosunmu and Darci Picoult’s
Mother of George, Sean Durkin’s
Martha Marcy May Marlene, Dee Rees’
Pariah, Cary Fukunaga’s
Sin Nombre, Andrea Arnold’s
Red Road, Miranda July’s
Me and You and Everyone We Know, Hany Abu-Assad’s
Paradise Now, Debra Granik’s
Down to the Bone, Joshua Marston’s
Maria Full of Grace, Peter Sollett’s
Raising Victor Vargas, John Cameron Mitchell’s
Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Darren Aronofsky’s
Requiem for a Dream, Kimberly Peirce’s
Boys Don’t Cry, Lucrecia Martel’s
La Cienaga, Walter Salles’
Central Station, Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie’s
Smoke Signals, Allison Anders’
Mi Vida Loca, Paul Thomas Anderson’s
Hard Eight, and Quentin Tarantino’s
Reservoir Dogs.
Sundance Institute
Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space
for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. The Institute’s signature Labs, granting, and mentorship
programs , dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. The Sundance
Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices,
and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as
Pariah,
Boyhood, Swiss Army Man, Manchester By the Sea, Brooklyn, Little Miss Sunshine, Life, Animated, Sonita, 20 Feet From Stardom,
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Sin Nombre, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
and
Fun Home. Join
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