By Jandiz Estrada Cardoso

Join me in celebrating the fourth edition of the Sundance Institute Episodic Intensive! This commemorates the end of a long Institute lab season laced with all the glories of collaborative creative breakthroughs. 

Ten artists, nine projects, and for the first cycle ever, all running the gamut of one-hour dramas. 

Our cohort gathers virtually August 20–21 from the tropics of Bali, the mosaic of Toronto, the Big Smoke (aka London), la dolce vita d’Italia, and spanning the U.S., heavily repping the City of Angels all the way to Washington, D.C.

And this year’s projects take us from modern metropolitan Manhattan down through small town Virginia, past the deep South, crossing the deserts of the Southwest, straight into the underbelly of downtown Los Angeles. When we leap over oceans and time, we bask in the island breezes of Puerto Rico and Indonesia before docking in Renaissance Florence.

Leading up to the two-day event, we kicked off the summer with several meaningful engagements. The first was a case study, hosted by the Sundance Institute Artist Accelerator Program and led by development consultant Emmeline Yang Hankins, on the success of Crave’s Heated Rivalry (HBO), followed by an in-person cross-Institute alumni mixer in Los Angeles where all the U.S.-based fellows met for the first time. The official online programming always commences with a writers room practicum, this year focused on “Adapting Existing IP.” Other workshops included “The Art of the Elevator Pitch” with insights from a powerful panel of development executives, a “Writing For the Horizon” workshop with strategic guidance from literary managers, and on the final day, a Spotlight Event with Vince Gilligan hosted by Sundance Collab. We wrapped the final day with concentrated emphasis on the original pilot drafts, pairing fellows with their creative advisors — who are showrunners and writing executive producers — for dedicated one-on-one creative feedback sessions. Additionally, with immense gratitude to our allied organization Rideback Rise, the entire cohort received an invitation to attend a reception and two in-person Master Classes with Andy and Barbara Muschietti and Hasan Minhaj and Lena Khan at Rideback Ranch.

Endless thanks to our extraordinary creative advisors Katherine DiSavino (Silo), Tash Gray (Snowfall), Tasha Huo (The Mighty Nein), Don Joh (Sugar), Jeff Melvoin (Killing Eve), Kira Snyder (The Handmaid’s Tale), Brandon Sonnier (Boston Blue), Tatiana Suarez-Pico (Invasion), and Marcie Ulin (The Flight Attendant).

Roaring applause for all our generous industry guests, including Corey Trent Ackerman (Evoke), Hannah Baker (Proximity Media), Cameron Cubbison (Zero Gravity Management), Allard Cantor (Epicenter), Ori Chevio (Fifth Season), Matt Dartnell (Writ Large), Camilla Grove (Matt Tolmach Productions), Lindsay Harrop (Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed), Jennifer Katz (The Jackal Group), Jordan Lindsay (M88), May Lo (Buchwald), Dahlia Metchis (In Success), Camille Muth (wiip), Stephanie Newman-Smith (Loudmouth Media), Lynnette Ramirez (Bassett Vance Productions), Scott Schulman (Schulman Management), Jamie Wager (Capital Creations), and Zack Zucker (Bellevue Productions), and a standing ovation for Amy Rardin (Every Year After), who led the adaptation workshop.

Following the intensive, writers also receive Sundance Film Festival benefits and an invitation to join ELEVATE, the Institute’s innovative, year-round professional development track that empowers Sundance Institute–supported artists with essential business acumen to propel their projects forward and build a sustainable career. The track includes private workshops, connections with other Institute-supported artists, and a Community Package to Sundance Collab, our digital artist platform where they can enroll in self-guided craft training curricula. 

The Sundance Institute Episodic Program is made possible by Founding Supporters Lyn and Norman Lear and Cindy Harrell Horn and Alan Horn. Leadership Supporters are the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Tena Clark – Dunaway Gardens Foundation, Ann M. Drake, Netflix, and Sundance Now. Additional Support is provided by Michelle Ashford, Daniel Chun, Nancy Cotton, Dante DiLoreto, Lee Eisenberg, Adamma L. Ebo, Adanne M. Ebo, Mark Gordon Pictures, Susannah Grant, Patrick Harbinson, Dave Holstein, Marta Kauffman, Alex Kurtzman and Samantha Kurtzman Counter, Amy Lippman, Chuck Lorre, Erica Rivinoja, Sarah Timberman, and Graham Yost.

I want to extend a very special thanks to our Episodic Advisory Council members: Board Member Lead: David Nevins; Council Members: Michelle Ashford, Daniel Chun, Nancy Cotton, Dante Di Loreto, Adamma L. Ebo, Adanne M. Ebo, Mark Gordon, Patrick Harbinson, Dave Holstein, Marta Kauffman, Alex Kurtzman, Amy Lippman, Chuck Lorre, Erica Rivinoja, Sarah Timberman, and Graham Yost.

The 2026 Sundance Institute Episodic Intensive projects and fellows are:

Christin Campbell with The Visitation: In this Southern mystery with a sci-fi twist, tensions rise in a small Bible Belt community when faced with the appearance of mysterious lights in the sky, the strange disappearance of a local sweetheart, and the possible connection between them.

Christin Campbell is a Southern genre writer now based in LA whose work spans television, audio, and mobile gaming. Her audio drama When Angels Visit Armadillo was recognized at Austin Film Festival. Previously a showrunner’s assistant on The Mighty Nein, Campbell recently wrapped a room for a new Amazon Prime Video show with animation studio Titmouse.

Lisa Corn with Ugly Sister: Disillusioned by her dead-end job and crushing debt, a truck inspector is lured into the world of interstate smuggling, where the promise of quick money collides with the burden of caring for her addicted, grieving sister.

Lisa Corn is a writer from New Jersey whose work has been published in Reductress, The Plentitudes, and Bodega Magazine. In her television career, she has worked at Saturday Night Live, BBC Studios/BritBox, and Disney+. Now based in Los Angeles, Corn’s writing focuses on offbeat, character-driven narratives set in overlooked communities.

Daphne Di Cinto with The Moor: When the Medici dynasty remains without a legitimate heir, Alessandro, secret son of the pope and a servant of African descent, becomes their best hope for succession. However, claiming his birthright means surviving the Renaissance’s most ruthless rival — his own family, who refuse to accept him. A true story.

Daphne Di Cinto is a Black Italian filmmaker whose work centers stories of identity, historical memory, migration, and the female gaze. She won the Cultured Focus Visionary in Film Award in 2022 and the Leader of Change in Creativity Award at the 2023 Black Carpet Awards.

Grant Fortune and Ssuuna McKitty with Heavy is the Crown: When a prominent New Orleans socialite family is thrust into the center of a deadly conspiracy, a decorated Haitian American Olympian and her estranged fashion mogul brother are forced to confront the secrets that fractured their crumbling empire before their family’s legacy — and lives — are destroyed from within.

Grant Fortune is a Jamaican American writer, director, and actor from Houston and a J.D. candidate at Howard University School of Law. Ssuuna McKitty is a Jamaican Ugandan writer-director from Chicago and a recent Morehouse College alum. Together they craft stories exploring legacy, identity, and the complexity of the human spirit.

Courtney Graham with Nobody’s Horses: After 122 wild horses mysteriously die on a military base, a disgraced veterinarian is pulled into an impossible mission: Rescue the remaining herds before the NATO Games. Battling addiction, media scrutiny, and a military cover-up, he risks everything for a shot at redemption.

Courtney Graham is a Canadian writer-producer and IATSE camera assistant whose collaborators include Guillermo del Toro, Alexander Payne, and the Duffer Brothers. A Canadian Film Centre Producers’ Lab alum, her debut feature sold to Netflix and her pilot Nobody’s Horses has been recognized by Austin Film Festival, The Writers Lab International, The CineStory Foundation, and Stowe Story Labs.

Caia Lee with SKULLCRUSHER: In early 2000s Los Angeles, a single mother working in Hollywood’s adult entertainment industry searches for her missing friend after police dismiss the case. Her investigation leads to a high-end underground club and a deadly conspiracy linking powerful real estate developers to disappearances across the city.

Caia Lee is a London-based writer born and raised in Los Angeles. Her work explores identity and embodiment through emotionally honest stories that lend complexity and narrative centrality to women who are often misunderstood or misrepresented. She earned her M.A. in script writing with distinction from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2025.

Alejandra López with The 51st State: In the not-too-distant future, where Puerto Rico has become the 51st U.S. state, we follow the first Puerto Rican senator, tasked with containing a resistance group on the island who have been perpetrating a series of attacks aimed at inciting a revolution and, ultimately, secession.

Alejandra López’s short The Blue Cape screened at 10 Oscar-qualifying film festivals. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she’s written for Sony Pictures Television’s StartUp, earned fellowships from Sundance Institute, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Starz, and Rideback Rise, and is currently preparing two proof-of-concepts backed by Dirty Films, Netflix, and TDE Films.

Francesco Staluppi with With Blades of Iron: After Norse invaders shatter her tribe and butcher her father, an Indigenous huntress leads a war of annihilation to erase them from her homeland, bringing her on a collision course with a merciless Viking shield-maiden equally committed to securing the land for her exiled war band.

Francesco Staluppi is a screenwriter and competition winner at Austin Film Festival and The Script Lab. His stories range from character-driven genre dramas to vulgar 2000s-esque comedies to morally tangled mafiosi.

Daud Sumolang with Blood and Wax: In 1920s Java, a Chinese Indonesian girl sacrifices herself into marriage to save her family, only to discover that survival in a gilded cage requires her to master the dangerous arts of seduction and betrayal, while revolutionizing the batik trade and guarding a forbidden love that could destroy her.

Daud Sumolang writes about identity, kinship, and belonging. His passion for collecting antique Peranakan batik led him to explore the Chinese roots he was once reluctant to claim, inspiring a body of work deeply attuned to heritage, memory, and cultural inheritance.