Film alumna Claire Fowler '11 and Adjunct Assistant Professor Diana Peralta were both selected to participate in the 2024 Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs.
Held in Colorado, the Directors Lab 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.
Fowler will use the Lab to work on her project,Toad, a film which follows a woman living far away from home and ostracized from her strikingly successful twin brother. After seeing a disturbing accusation online, she begins to piece together memories of the teen theater experience that came between them.
Peralta's project, No Love Lost, follows a troubled young woman who brings her new husband home to meet the family, leading her devoted but insular sisters to reveal the extremes they will go to protect one another.
“For over four decades since their conception, the labs remain critical to the vitality of the independent filmmaking community," said Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Artist Programs. "It has never been more important to invest in the growth of independent storytellers. While our Directors and Screenwriters Labs take place over several weeks, our commitment to these emerging artists and their creative and career journey to making their films is far more enduring and meaningful. We are connected with the fellows year-round, building a robust and supportive community where they can grow as storytellers, hone their craft, and see their vision come to life. We look forward to welcoming this cohort of fellows to the labs and appreciate the time and generous efforts of the staff, advisors, actors, crew, and more who support this essential work of Sundance Institute.”
Claire Fowler is a writer and director from North Wales. She is an alum of Oxford University, Columbia University’s Film MFA, the WB Directors’ workshop, and the AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women. Her short Salam premiered at Tribeca and won a BAFTA Cymru, and she recently was a director on Netflix’s Manifest.
Diana Peralta is a Dominican American writer, director, and creative producer from New York City. Her debut feature film, De Lo Mio (The Criterion Collection), premiered as the closing night film of BAMcinemaFest in 2019 and was initially distributed by HBO. Peralta was featured in Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
