Sundance Institute announces 2026 Directors and Screenwriters Labs Fellows

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While the Directors Lab moved to Estes Park, Colorado in 2024 due to construction at the Sundance Resort, Amy Redford stated during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival that labs will return to Utah in the future

PARK CITY, Utah — In 1981 Robert Redford chose to host the first labs at Sundance Resort “because of the natural impact that these mountains have on your framing. They have a way of making you understand the thing that you’re trying to conceive,” said Amy Redford in an interview with Richard Ellis. The Sundance Labs have gone through many changes since then. In 2009 the first Native Filmmakers Lab was held in New Mexico. During the Covid pandemic all labs were held online. The Screenwriters Labs have remained online. While the Directors Lab moved to Estes Park, Colorado in 2024 due to construction at the Sundance Resort, Amy Redford stated during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival that labs will return to Utah in the future.

Sundance Institute’s signature labs offer filmmakers a nurturing, immersive environment to develop their projects and refine their artistic voice with the guidance and generosity of accomplished creative advisors. The Directors Lab will support the development of eight projects and fellows, with two additional projects and four fellows joining for the Screenwriters Lab.

The Directors Lab provides a robust community for visionary artists to convene and cultivate bold storytelling; artists supported by the program over its history have created work whose impact has endured for decades. The Directors Lab offers hands-on experience to fellows as they rehearse, shoot, and edit scenes from their original screenplays under the guidance of experienced advisors. Fellows will focus on directing actors, building a visual language, and refining their overall creative vision while embracing risk-taking and collaboration. Led by Artistic Director Gyula Gazdag, this year’s advisor cohort includes Colman Domingo, Ava DuVernay, Nisha Ganatra, Noëlle Gentile, Lesli Linka Glatter, Affonso Gonçalves, Keith Gordon, Catherine Hardwicke, Ed Harris, Ellen Kuras, Ken Kwapis, Christopher McQuarrie, Terilyn A. Shropshire, and Amy Vincent.

The Screenwriters Lab will be led by Artistic Director Howard Rodman; the Screenwriters Lab advisor cohort includes Haifaa Al Mansour, John August, Anna Boden, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Ryan Fleck, Rodrigo García, Attica Locke, Jenny Lumet, Darnell Martin, Robin Swicord, Bill Wheeler, and Tyger Williams. 

“We’re honored to welcome this incredible cohort of filmmakers to the annual Directors and Screenwriters Labs,” said Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Artist Programs at Sundance Institute. “For over four decades, our labs have created a nurturing space where bold and powerful storytellers hone their craft and build lasting relationships. The artists will work alongside esteemed advisors to sharpen their skills and strengthen their vision for their projects. We are so incredibly grateful to the advisors, actors, crew, and staff who make this possible and carry forward our mission of uplifting independent storytellers and bringing a creative community together.”

The 2026 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs fellows are:

Roberto Fatal (Writer-director) with Electric Homies (U.S.A.), a Mestize Chicana filmmaker and storyteller from Rarámuri, Genízaro, and Spanish ancestry. Their Queer, genderfluid, Mestize/Mixed identity informs the sci-fi films they make. Their work centers on humans who sit at the intersections of time, space, and culture.

Taylor Sanghyun Lee (Writer-director) with Rounds (U.S.A.), a filmmaker based in New York City. He is a recipient of the Sundance Institute Ignite Fellowship, CJ & TIFF K-Story Fund prize, Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film, ARRI Volker Bahnemann Award, and Spike Lee Production Fund. He earned his MFA from the NYU Tisch Graduate Film program, where he was an Ang Lee Scholar.

Smriti Mundhra (Director), Nikesh Shukla (Co-writer), and Himesh Patel (Co-writer) with Brown Baby (U.K., U.S.A.) wherein a mixed-race couple’s marriage begins to crack when their young daughter’s reaction to a doll exposes the truths they’ve spent years avoiding.

Bec Pecaut (Writer-director) with The Terrible Child (Canada), a filmmaker based in Los Angeles and Toronto.

Joanna Rothkopf (Writer-director) with Attachment (a.k.a. Bluey Is the Warmest Color) (U.S.A.), an award-winning writer and filmmaker living in Brooklyn.

Philip Thompson (Writer-director) with Dance Monkey Dance (U.S.A.), a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who was included as one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

George Watsky (Writer-director) with yellowwood (U.S.A.), a multidisciplinary artist from San Francisco who has toured internationally with his live band. His essay collection How to Ruin Everything (Penguin/Plume) was a New York Times bestseller.

Bess Wohl (Writer-director) with Liberation (U.S.A.), a playwright and filmmaker whose play Liberation won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Said Zagha (Writer-director) with Black Harvest (Palestine, France, U.K., Jordan, Norway, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar), a Palestinian British writer-director working in political genre cinema.

Renee Zhan (Writer-director) with BAOBAO (U.K.), a Chinese American director and animator whose first live-action short film, SHÉ (SNAKE), screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, TIFF, and SXSW.