Even though we’ve been doing this for over 40 years, a spark of excitement rushes through us whenever we reveal the fellows for this year’s labs. It might be because these fresh fellows are joining the ranks of Paul Thomas Anderson, Lulu Wang, Sterlin Harjo, the Daniels, Ryan Coogler, Taika Watiti, A.V. Rockwell, Quentin Tarantino, Ira Sachs, and so many more iconic storytellers. The rush this year also might be due to the fact that these profound and indescribable forays into the world of the purely creative are happening right now.

The 2024 spring/summer labs season is kicking off this morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with the start of the Native Lab. This is directly followed by the Directors Lab at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, and then the Screenwriters Lab in early June online.

Below get a brief introduction to each of the 2024 fellows, click here for more information about this year’s labs including the creative advisors for each, and stay tuned for more stories from the labs this spring and summer.

The 2024 Native Lab fellows

Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Writer-Director) with Hum (Philippines, U.S.A.): Haunted by the six-year absence of her missing husband, Esther, a single mother who works as a tour guide for mountaineers, embarks on her own treacherous journey of searching for him in the jungle where he had retreated to live with the beasts.

Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan is a filmmaker from the Philippines. Eblahan’s works explore  themes of trauma, spirituality, and nature, told through the cosmic lens of post-colonial spaces and Indigenous identities. His film The Headhunter’s Daughter was awarded the Short Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Ryland Walker Knight (Writer-Director) with The Lip of the World (U.S.A.): When Cassandra discovers a young Indigenous woman washed ashore with no memory, the pair journey into the violent underworld of the Northern California psychedelic culture to uncover her true identity.

Ryland Walker Knight is a Cherokee writer and a filmmaker, and once upon a time he was called a film critic. An avid basketball and audiobook enthusiast, Knight lives and works in Oakland and Los Angeles, California.

Charine Pilar Gonzales (Writer-Director) with NDN Time (U.S.A.): A Tewa college student must master her new dimension-bending abilities to expose the nuclear secrets threatening her Pueblo.

Charine Pilar Gonzales wrote and directed the short films River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh) and Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez. She co-produced the 2024 Sundance Film Festival short doc Winding Path. A Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico, she aims to intertwine memories, dreams, and truths through story.

Lindsay McIntyre (Writer-Director) with The Words We Can’t Speak (Canada): A terrible Arctic accident leaves an Inuk interpreter unwelcome in her community. She is forced to weather impossible conditions and hateful prejudices, yet still care for her daughter, when she embarks on a dangerous 1,000-mile journey by dog sled with an inexperienced RCMP constable who fancies her for his wife.

Lindsay McIntyre (Inuit/settler) is a filmmaker whose works explores themes of portraiture, place, and personal histories. After 40+ experimental/documentary films and many festival awards, her recent

PARK CITY, UTAH, April 29, 2024 — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the fellows selected for the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs. The Native Lab in New Mexico will support four fellows and two artists in residence, and the Directors Lab in Colorado will support the development of eight projects with nine fellows, with an additional three fellows also joining for the online Screenwriters Lab held immediately after. 

For over four decades, Sundance Institute’s signature labs have provided burgeoning filmmakers a nurturing, immersive environment to develop their projects and refine their artistic voice under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors. 

The 2024 Native Lab, taking place in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 29–May 4, is designed for participants of Native and Indigenous backgrounds and focuses on centering Indigeneity in their storytelling. Fellows will build community and refine their feature film and episodic scripts through one-on-one feedback sections and roundtable discussions with advisors. Four fellows were selected: three who are U.S.-based, and another from Canada. Also attending will be two artists in residence, Fox Maxy (Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and Payómkawish) and Shea Vassar (Cherokee), experiencing the lab while in script development. This year’s Native Lab creative advisors are Patrick Brice, Tai Leclaire (Mohawk and Mi’kmaq), Kishori Rajan, and Jon Raymond.

“Our Indigenous Program team looks forward to returning to Santa Fe to spend a week supporting some of the best and brightest Indigenous artists working today,” said Adam Piron, Director of Indigenous Program. “This group is diverse in the work they are bringing to develop and in how their Indigeneity shapes it — their differences are their strengths. We can’t wait to see what those combined strengths help them add to each other’s projects as they collaborate with each other and with our creative advisors.”

The 2024 Directors Lab will take place May 7–22 in person at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, which is hosting a Sundance Institute program for the very first time with support from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). During the Directors Lab, filmmakers will rehearse, shoot, and edit selected scenes from their work-in-progress original screenplays in a workshop environment with support from experienced creative advisors. Directors focus on core elements of filmmaking, including directing actors, workshopping their scripts, and defining their visual language. Led by Artistic Director Gyula Gazdag, the Directors Lab advisor cohort includes Miguel Arteta, Joan Darling, Rick Famuyiwa, Stephen Goldblatt, Keith Gordon, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Andrew Haigh, Randa Haines, Ed Harris, Siân Heder, André Holland, Karyn Kusama, Pam Martin, Estes Tarver, and Dylan Tichenor.

The 2024 Screenwriters Lab will be held online from June 4–7, where fellows will refine their scripts through individual story sessions with screenwriter advisors and group sessions on the art and craft of screenwriting. Led by Artistic Director Howard Rodman, the Screenwriters Lab advisor cohort includes John August, Scott Z. Burns, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Scott Frank, Susannah Grant, Tamara Jenkins, Meg LeFauve, Jenny Lumet, Josh Marston