The Sundance Institute recently announced its selections for the acclaimed Screenwriting Lab and Screenwriters Intensive, and several School of the Arts filmmakers were selected to participate in the two opportunities.
Film students Rali Chaouni and Arthur Gay were selected for the Screenwriters Intensive for their project When the Goats Came. The film follows Cyrus and his adoptive mother, Flora, who return to their hometown in New Zealand in search of Cyrus’s long-lost father. However, when the real motive behind Flora’s desire to return is revealed, the two must reconcile the resentments they hold for a life they never had and accept each other’s love. The two-day online intensive is set to take place from February 29 to March 1, 2024.
Film alumna Claire Fowler '11 participated in the Screenwriters Lab with her feature screenplay Toad. The film features a woman living far away from home and ostracized from her strikingly successful twin brother, who—after seeing a disturbing accusation online—begins to piece together memories of the teen theater experience that came between them.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Diana Peralta was selected for her feature screenplay, No Love Lost, which follows a troubled young woman who brings her new husband home to meet the family. Soon, her devoted but insular sisters reveal the extremes they will go to protect one another.
Fowler and Peralta participated in the Lab at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah from January 13-17, 2024, alongside 14 other filmmakers selected to develop their scripts under the guidance of experienced creative advisors.
Leaders of the Lab included Michelle Satter (Founding Senior Director, Sundance Institute’s Artist Programs), Ilyse McKimmie (Deputy Director, Feature Film Program), and Artistic Director Jessie Nelson.
