The feature film version of Bess Wohl’s Tony Award-winning best-selling play Liberation is among the newest group of Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Lab fellows for 2026. But Wohl isn’t the only bold name in the group, as Emmy-nominated actor Himesh Patel also has a project optioned with Oscar-nominated director Smriti Mundra, among others.
The Directors Lab will host eight projects and will be held at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado from June 9-24. It is led by Artistic Director Gyula Gazdag with an advisory group of Colman Domingo, Ava DuVernay, Nisha Ganatra, Noel Gentile, Leslie Lenka Glatter, Afonso Gonçalves, Keith Gordon, Catherine Hardwicke, Ed Harris, Elaine Kuras, Ken Kwapis, Christopher McQuarrie, Terrilyn A. Shropshire, and Amy Vincent.
The Screenwriters Lab will support 10 projects and will be held online from June 29 to July 2. It is managed by Artistic Director Howard Rodman with advisors including Haifa Al Mansour, John August, Anna Boden, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Ryan Fleck, Rodrigo Garcia, Attica Luke, Jenny Lumet, Darnell Martin, Robin Swicord, Bill Wheeler and Tiger Williams.
Both labs are directed by Sundance Institute veteran Michelle Satter, who serves as founding senior director of artist programs, and Elise McKemmie, deputy director of the feature film program.
“For more than four decades, our labs have created a nurturing space where bold, powerful storytellers hone their craft and build lasting relationships,” Satter said. “Artists will work alongside respected consultants to hone their skills and enhance their vision for their projects. We are so grateful to the consultants, cast, crew and staff who make this possible and continue our mission of elevating independent storytellers and bringing the creative community together.”
Participants and their projects are listed below.
• Writer and director Roberto Fattal Electric guys (USA): Raya, a two-spirited social worker, is thrilled when she has the opportunity to upload her dying sister’s consciousness into a new digital utopia. But as thousands upload more and their neighborhood begins to disappear, Raya and the community must confront the true cost of this technological miracle. Assassin is a queer, cisgender artist whose work focuses on human beings who “sit at the intersections of time, space, and culture.”
• Writer and director Taylor Sangyun Lee Tours (USA): Years after a violent shooting devastated a Presbyterian community, impending deportation forces two Korean American families to confront the limits of their tolerance and the true meaning of grace. Lee, based in New York City, is the recipient of a Sundance Institute Ignite Fellowship, a CJ & TIFF K-Story Fund Award, a Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film, an ARRI Volker Bahnemann Award, and a Spike Lee Production Fund.
• Director Smriti Mundra and co-writers Nikesh Shukla and Patel Brown Baby (UK, USA): A mixed-race couple’s marriage begins to unravel when their young daughter’s reaction to a doll reveals the truths they’ve spent years avoiding. [Screenwriters Lab only] Mundhra is a DGA Award-winning, two-time Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker who created the hit Netflix film. Indian matchmaking. Shukla is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter whose credits include The good immigrant. Patel is an actor and writer best known for the series “Station Eleven”. He can next be seen in the Christopher Nolan film Odyssey.
• Writer and director Beck Pecot The terrible child (Canada): Set in Toronto in 2009, the film follows 16-year-old Augusta “Gusie” Goodman, who resists the pull of adulthood as her father’s terminal illness progresses. Pequot’s first short film, Are you afraid to be yourself because you think you might fail?It premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
• Writer and director Joanna Rothkopf Attachment (also known as blue is the warmest color) (USA): A mother becomes dangerously obsessed with a hugely popular child artist in this exciting thriller, which is described as… Fatal attraction meet All four meet Mrs. Rachel. Since 2019, Rothkopf has served as a senior writer at HBO Last Week Tonight with John OliverFor which she won numerous Emmy and WGA Awards.
• Writer and director Philip Thompson Monkey dance (USA): Told through television clips, voicemails and personal recordings, this fictional documentary follows 2000s black comedian Wesley Harris who gained fame by presenting stereotypes to white audiences. As his identity erodes, the film reveals how the media often celebrates black artists, but marginalizes them. Brooklyn-based Thompson was selected as one of exit Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”.
• Writer and director George Watzki Yellowwood (USA): A couple Zoe and Jordi, who never wanted to have children, face an unexpected pregnancy. Instead of choosing between two disparate futures, they enter into a radical technological experiment that allows them to walk both paths – one with a child and the other without. Watsky is a San Francisco artist whose work includes music and filmmaking. He has released six studio albums under the Watsky name and has toured internationally with a live band. His essay collection How to destroy everything (Penguin/Bloom) was A New York Times best seller.
• Writer and director Wall release (USA): In the wake of her mother’s death, Lizzie travels back in time to her mother’s feminist consciousness-raising group in the 1970s, only to discover that their questions from decades ago are shockingly similar to her own. Past and present blend as Lizzie asks: “What does it take for a woman to be free?” [Screenwriters Lab only] Wall is a playwright and film director whose plays have been produced on and off Broadway. She has won many awards for release Including a Tony and Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
• Writer and director Saeed Zagha Black Harvest (Palestine, France, United Kingdom, Jordan, Norway, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar): After the murder of his son, a Palestinian father’s quest for revenge drags him into a brutal spiral of crime and corruption that could destroy what’s left of his family. Zagha is a British-Palestinian filmmaker who works in the field of political cinema. His short film Coyotes It premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won Best Short Film at the London Film Festival.
• Writer and director Rene Zahn Pawpaw (United Kingdom): After China’s one-child policy is abolished, Mimi returns home to discover that her parents have had a second child. Her parents refuse to see that there is something unnaturally strange about their new baby and another evil presence haunts their luxurious home. Zhan is a Chinese-American director and animator whose work explores identity, obsession, and sexuality. She had a short live-action movie, Shi (snake)which screened at Sundance, TIFF, and SXSW.
Rolex is the official partner and exclusive watch of the Sundance Institute. Support for the organization’s feature film program comes from explore.org, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Walt Disney Company, Peter H. Friedland, Salman Al Rasheed, the Asian American Foundation, United Airlines, Big Newport Studios, NBCUniversal Focus Fellowship, the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, the Golden Globe Foundation, NHK Japan, Kperiod Media Foundation, Blumhouse, Walter Salles, and the Steward Family Foundation, and the Essex County Community Foundation (via Alexander McGrath), Sagendi. Spotlight San Francisco, Rosalie Swedlin & Robert Court, Karen & Ian Calderon, River Road Entertainment, Deborah Reinisch & Michael Theodore Fund, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, and an anonymous donor.
