SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES TWELVE FEATURE FILM PROJECTS FOR JANUARY SCREENWRITERS LAB

Sundance Institute has selected twelve projects for the annual January Screenwriters Lab, to be held January 15-20, 2010 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. This year's group includes filmmakers from regions throughout the world, including the United States, China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The Lab selections embrace a wide variety of subject matter, genre, and narrative forms, all from innovative storytellers from many different backgrounds and experiences.

The Screenwriters Lab is a five-day writers’ workshop that gives independent screenwriters the opportunity to work intensely on their feature film scripts with the support of established writers in an environment that encourages innovation and creative risk-taking.

The projects selected for the 2010 January Screenwriters Lab are:

· Bluebird / Lance Edmands (writer/director), U.S.A.
· Canary / Craig Zobel (writer/director), U.S.A.
· Drunktown's Finest / Sydney Freeland (writer/director), U.S.A.
· 40 Days of Silence/ Saodat Ismailova (writer/director), Uzbekistan
· HiM / Lance Weiler (co-writer/director) and Chuck Wendig (co-writer), U.S.A.
· How Many Trainings Must I Take Before I Can Be as Hard as Steel? / Cao Baoping (writer/director), China
· Martha Marcy May Marlene / Sean Durkin (writer/director), U.S.A.
· May in the Summer / Cherien Dabis (writer/director), U.S.A., Jordan
· My Favorite Nightmare / Myna Joseph (writer/director), U.S.A.
· Postcards from the Zoo / Edwin (co-writer/director) and Daud Sumolang (co-writer), Indonesia
· Slobs and Nags / Dash Shaw (writer/director), U.S.A.
· Unicorn Store / Samantha McIntyre (writer), U.S.A.

"The projects selected for the Lab celebrate the breadth of independent filmmaking with screenplays that boast originality, innovation, and deeply personal voices," said Michelle Satter, Director of the Feature Film Program. "For the first time, the Lab will support a transmedia project, which expands the narrative possibilities of a feature film by creating a storyworld that embraces film, gaming and technology to reach audiences across multiple screens in new and engaging ways."

The fellows will work with a distinguished group of creative advisors, including Lab Artistic Director Scott Frank, Sebastian Cordero, Naomi Foner, Rodrigo Garcia, Nelson George, Michael Goldenberg, Deena Goldstone, John Lee Hancock, Erik Jendresen, Richard LaGravenese, Jessie Nelson, Tom Rickman, Susan Shilliday, Zach Sklar, Dana Stevens and Tyger Williams.

For more info, go to: www.sundance.org.