2025 SUNDANCE INSTITUTE PRODUCERS LAB AT UCROSS ANNOUNCED

Ucross Foundation announces the 11 producers participating in the annual Sundance Institute Producers Lab, which has returned this month to the nonprofit artist residency program on its historic 20,000-acre ranch in northern Wyoming. Fiction producers were in residence at Ucross from July 14–19, and nonfiction producers are in residence from July 21-26.
 
“We are honored to welcome Sundance Institute back to Ucross,” said Caitlin Addlesperger, Ucross President and Executive Director. “We look forward to discovering how the transformative benefits of uninterrupted time for creative work impacts these producers on our beautiful ranch.”
 
This marks the second year of Ucross hosting the Producers Lab and the 26th year of the organization’s partnership with Sundance Institute. For more than two decades, the two nonprofits collaborated over the Sundance Institute Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross. More than 100 artists benefitted from the partnership, including Billy Porter, Hannah Gadsby, Michael R. Jackson, Charlayne Woodard, Jeanine Tesori, Doug Wright, Annie Baker, Adam Guettel, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Tanya Saracho.
 
Over the last several years, the partnership evolved into an interdisciplinary retreat before transforming into the Producers Lab in 2024. 
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The Sundance Institute Producers Program champions independent producers across career stages, empowering them to refine their craft in recognition of their pivotal role in the storytelling ecosystem. The Producers Lab is the focal point of the program and kicks off a yearlong fellowship, creating a community for fiction and nonfiction film producers as they network and participate in professional development opportunities while working on a feature-length project.
 
This year’s participants experience a fresh energy that mirrors the changing landscape of contemporary storytelling — one that is increasingly fluid and cross-genre. Fellows enjoy blocks of solo creative time to create, augmented with organic conversations where they can reflect on process. While Sundance Institute has curated several artists who identify theatre as their primary discipline, for the first time, the group of selected fellows represents a multidisciplinary range of artistic work. As always, the Residency remains dedicated to uninhibited creativity, professional growth and peer mentorship.
 
Emerging independent producers selected for the Producers Lab build community while receiving project-specific support in one-on-one meetings and small group sessions with established producers and industry advisors. Fellows sharpen their leadership and problem-solving skills while cultivating creative thinking. They develop strategies for pitching, securing funding, managing production, navigating the marketplace, and achieving sustainability. The 2025 cohort includes six fiction film producers and five nonfiction film producers.
 
Following the lab, fellows receive ongoing support through a yearlong mentorship from a dedicated advisor, industry networking opportunities, regular cohort gatherings, Sundance Collab benefits, and participation in ELEVATE, Sundance Institute’s professional development track.
 
Fellows in the Feature Film Producers Lab include Ryan Bobkin with People You Follow, April S. Chang and Vicki Syal with Dying is Fine, Karen Madar with Little Phnom Penh, Steven Snyder with Tell Me a Secret, and Daniel Tantalean with Birthright. Fellows in the Documentary Producers Lab include Loi Ameera Almeron with Becoming Us, Wendy P. Espinal with Anna Borges do Sacramento, Crystal Isaac with Basketball Heaven, Elijah Stevens with Untitled Science Project, and Nicole Tsien with Spirited.
 
The 2025 Feature Film Producers Lab advisors are Anne Carey (Nightbitch), Sylvia Desrochers (MPRM Communications), Poppy Hanks (One of Them Days), Kimberly Parker Zox (The Last Black Man in San Francisco), Josh Peters (Dìdi (弟弟)), and Eugene Pikulin (Bruns Brennan Berry Pikulin & Jacobs PC). The 2025 Documentary Producers Lab advisors are Jamie Gonçalves (Caballerango), Rémi Grellety (Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat), Lance Kramer (Holding Liat), Andrea Meditch (Fathom), and Diane Quon (Minding the Gap).
 
“We’re energized by the singular storytelling in this year’s projects and the creativity and vision of the producers bringing them to life,” said Kristin Feeley, Director of Documentary and Artist Programs, and Shira Rockowitz, Director of Producing and Artist Support for the Feature Film Program. “Our team is excited to support these dynamic artists — from development through release — alongside the trailblazing group of producers and industry advisors whose wisdom and generosity play a vital role in their journeys.”
 
Launched in 2008, the Sundance Institute Producers Program boasts 174 fiction and nonfiction producer alumni, including Pierre Coleman (Ricky), Deidre Backs (Fancy Dance), Dan Janvey and Josh Penn (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Keith Wilson (I Didn’t See You There), and Kellen Quinn (Midnight Family). Program alumni have also garnered 8 Academy Award nominations overall for Nomadland, Moonlight, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Navalny, Time, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Minding the Gap, and Sugarcane. Program alumni have been nominated 16 times for the Independent Spirit Producers Award and taken home 10 of those prizes.

PROJECTS AND FELLOWS SELECTED FOR THE 2025 SUNDANCE INSTITUTE PRODUCERS LAB AT UCROSS
 
Feature Film Program
 
Ryan Bobkin with People You Follow (Canada, U.S.A.): Based on the memoir of the same name, People You Follow centers on Ellie, a young songwriter from Winnipeg, as she navigates the toxic labyrinth of the Los Angeles music scene, mistaking self-destruction for freedom and manipulation for love, until she is forced to confront herself to survive.
 
Ryan Bobkin is a Canadian producer focused on auteur-driven work, international co-production, and films with social impact. An experienced associate and co-producer of films that have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlinale, and TIFF, he is in post-production on Sophy Romvari’s debut feature, Blue Heron.
 
April S. Chang and Vicki Syal with Dying is Fine (U.S.A.): The worries of a suicidal woman disappear when she gets a piece of good news: brain cancer.
 
April S. Chang is a Los Angeles–based producer from Atlanta. Her experience spans indie and studio projects, through which she champions auteur filmmakers. Her work has been recognized by Sundance Institute, SXSW Sydney, and LAAPFF. She served as associate producer on The Bikeriders, released theatrically in 2024.
 
Vicki Syal is a Brazilian Indian filmmaker and producer whose work has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Festival, and LALIFF and on HBO and PBS. A 2024 AT&T Untold Stories top 5 finalist and returning member of Rideback RISE, she fosters collaborative sanctuaries where stories flourish.
 
Karen Madar with Little Phnom Penh (Cambodia, U.S.A.): Spanning two sweeping decades and two continents, from post–Khmer Rouge Phnom Penh to early 2000s California, a Cambodian woman searches for family, home, and belonging as her first love continues to resurface over time.
 
Karen Madar, 2025 Mark Silverman Honoree, is a French producer and NYU alum based in New York City and Paris. Through NoMad Productions, she’s produced 15+ shorts, including Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites (2025 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction). She is the PGA’s 2024 Debra Hill Fellow.
 
Steven Snyder with Tell Me a Secret (U.S.A.): Eighteen-year-old Iranian immigrant Azi Rahimi becomes involved in a psychosexual game with an older woman, Elizabeth Kessler, who later goes missing. Years later there is an update with the case that forces Azi to contend with her biggest secret.
 
Steven Snyder is an independent producer whose latest short film, Azi, was an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. He is a 2024 Film Independent Fellow and was an executive producer on Dreamin’ Wild, which world-premiered at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival.
 
Daniel Tantalean with Birthright (Canada, U.S.A.): When a pregnant Métis woman is suddenly abandoned at her sister-in-law’s home in Alberta, she uncovers a sinister plan for her unborn child, igniting a desperate fight for both of their lives.
 
Daniel Tantalean is an award-winning producer and founder of Yellow Nest Films. He produced In The Summers, winner of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic and a 2025 Independent Spirit Award nominee. His work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Festival, Hot Docs, and beyond.
 
Documentary Film Program
 
Loi Ameera Almeron with Becoming Us (U.S.A.): Five donor-conceived siblings, their mothers, and their newfound biological father unite through a DNA test, forging a path to redefine family. Together, they re-create childhood memories on home videos to heal emotional wounds, embrace their Filipino American heritage, and reshape their shared identity.
 
Loi Ameera Almeron is a Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Elevate Award winner from Berkeley Film Foundation and a Saul Zaentz Fellow with BAVC Media. Her films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and on PBS, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix, including a Student Academy Award winner and an NAACP Image Award nominee.
 
Wendy P. Espinal with Anna Borges do Sacramento (Brazil, Spain): In 18th-century slave-holding Brazil, Anna Borges fought for her freedom. Centuries later, Afro-Brazilian women “unarchive” her story through imagination and ancestral knowledge, weaving their own struggles and aspirations, bridging past and present into a compelling portrayal of Anna and themselves.
 
Wendy P. Espinal is a creative producer, filmmaker, and cultural manager. Rooted in research, process and meaning, she nurtures projects that open space for new Caribbean and Latin American cinema through a gendered lens, bridging diasporas, weaving memory, and crafting films through shared, collective creation.
 
Crystal Isaac with Basketball Heaven (U.S.A.): Kinston, North Carolina, a small majority Black town in Eastern North Carolina, is the single greatest producer of NBA players in the world. Basketball Heaven is a poetic look at the nuanced history and communal bonds that create the gritty athletes who come out of the ‘K.’
 
Crystal Isaac is an Emmy Award–nominated producer with more than a decade of experience in the documentary and news industry. Her work covers a broad range of issues, including education, poverty, race, sexuality, and criminal justice. You can see her work on HBO, CNN, PBS, BET, STARZ, and Paramount+.
 
Elijah Stevens with Untitled Science Project (Brazil, U.S.A., Belgium): A young chemistry student contemplates the nature of black holes.
 
Elijah Stevens is a producer in New York City, where he runs Space Time Films. With Sara Dosa and Shane Boris, he also runs Signpost Pictures. Prior work includes associate-producing Oscar nominee Fire of Love, King Coal, and Hollywoodgate, among others. He was a 2019 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio fellow.
 
Nicole Tsien with Spirited (U.S.A.): When a skeptical Hmong American is called to become a shaman, she turns the camera on her community, uncovering a clash of tradition, gender-based violence, and personal destiny — and reimagines healing as a new generation of spiritual leaders awaken, a once-in-a-century occurrence.
 
Nicole Tsien is a producer based in Queens, New York. She was previously the director of program development at CNN Films and the co-producer of POV on PBS. Tsien is on the Steering Committee for the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc) and is a board member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia.