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A feature film version of Bess Wohl’s Tony Award-winning best play Liberation is among the Sundance Institute’s latest crop of fellows for its 2026 directors and screenwriters labs. But Wohl is not the only boldfaced name in the bunch as Emmy nominated actor Himesh Patel also has a project selected with Oscar nominated director Smriti Mundhra, among others.
The Directors Lab will host eight projects and take place at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado from June 9–24. It is led by artistic director Gyula Gazdag with an advisor cohort of 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 support 10 projects and take place online from June 29-July 2. It is led by artistic director Howard Rodman with an advisor cohort of 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.
Both labs are steered by Sundance Institute veteran Michelle Satter, who serves as founding senior director of artist programs, and Ilyse McKimmie, deputy director of the feature film program.
Said Satter: “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 participants and their projects are listed below.
• Writer-director Roberto Fatal with Electric Homies (U.S.A.): Ria, a two-spirit social worker, rejoices when they get the opportunity to upload their dying sister’s consciousness into a new digital utopia. But as thousands more upload and their barrio begins to disappear, Ria and the community must confront the true cost of this technological miracle. Fatal is a queer, gender fluid artist whose work centers on humans who “sit at the intersections of time, space and culture.”
• Writer-director Taylor Sanghyun Lee with Rounds (U.S.A.): Years after a violent shooting shattered their Presbyterian church community, an impending deportation forces two Korean American families to confront the limits of their forgiveness and the true meaning of grace. Lee, based in New York City, 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.
• Director Smriti Mundhra and co-writers Nikesh Shukla and Patel with Brown Baby (U.K., U.S.A.): 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. [Screenwriters Lab only] Mundhra is a DGA–winning, two-time Oscar-nominated and Emmy-nominated filmmaker who created Netflix’s hit 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 Station Eleven. He can next be seen in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
• Writer-director Bec Pecaut with The Terrible Child (Canada): Set in Toronto in 2009, the project follows 16-year-old Augusta “Gussie” Goodman who resists the pull of adulthood while her father’s terminal illness progresses. Pecaut’s debut short film, Are You Scared to Be Yourself Because You Think That You Might Fail?, had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024.
• Writer-director Joanna Rothkopf with Attachment (a.k.a. Bluey Is the Warmest Color) (U.S.A.): A mother becomes dangerously obsessed with a wildly popular children’s entertainer in this arch erotic thriller, described as Fatal Attraction meets All Fours meets Ms. Rachel. Since 2019, Rothkopf has worked as a senior writer on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, for which she has won multiple Emmy and WGA Awards.
• Writer-director Philip Thompson with Dance Monkey Dance (U.S.A.): Told through TV clips, voicemails, and personal recordings, this fictional found-footage documentary follows 2000s Black comedian Wesley Harris who gains fame performing stereotypes for white audiences. As his identity erodes, the film exposes how media often celebrates yet confines Black artists. Brooklyn-based Thompson was selected as one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
• Writer-director George Watsky with yellowwood (U.S.A.): Zoe and Jordie, a couple who never wanted kids, confront an unexpected pregnancy. Rather than choose between diverging futures, they enter a radical tech experiment that lets them walk both paths — one with a child, one without. Watsky is an artist from San Francisco whose work spans music and filmmaking. He has released six studio albums as Watsky and toured internationally with a live band. His essay collection How to Ruin Everything (Penguin/Plume) was a New York Times bestseller.
• Writer-director Wohl with Liberation (U.S.A.): In the wake of her mother’s death, Lizzie steps back in time to her mom’s 1970s feminist consciousness-raising group, only to discover that their questions from decades ago are shockingly similar to her own. Past blends with present as Lizzie asks, “What does it take for a woman to be free?” [Screenwriters Lab only] Wohl is a playwright and filmmaker whose plays have been produced on and off-Broadway. She’s won numerous awards for Liberation including the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
• Writer-director Said Zagha with Black Harvest (Palestine, France, U.K., Jordan, Norway, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar): After his son is killed, a Palestinian father’s pursuit of vengeance drags him into a brutal spiral of crime and corruption that could destroy his remaining family. Zagha is a Palestinian British filmmaker who works in political genre cinema. His short film Coyotes premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won a best short film prize at BFI London Film Festival.
• Writer-director Renee Zhan with BAOBAO (U.K.): After the revocation of the one-child policy in China, 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 boy and that an evil other presence haunts their stately home. Zhan is a Chinese American director and animator whose work explores identity, obsession and sexuality. She had a live-action short, SHÉ (SNAKE), that screened at Sundance, TIFF and SXSW.
Rolex is the official partner and exclusive timepiece of Sundance Institute. Support for the organization’s feature film program comes from explore.org, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Walt Disney Company, Peter H. Friedland, Salman Al‑Rashid, the Asian American Foundation, United Airlines, Big Newport Studios, NBCUniversal Focus Fellowship, Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, Golden Globe Foundation, Japan’s NHK, K Period Media Foundation, Blumhouse, Walter Salles, Steward Family Foundation, Essex County Community Foundation (via Alexander McGrath), SAGIndie. Spotlight on San Francisco, Rosalie Swedlin and Robert Cort, Karen and Ian Calderon, River Road Entertainment, the Deborah Reinisch & Michael Theodore Fund, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and an anonymous donor.