2016 Sundance Institute | Universal Fellows
The Sundance Institute | Universal Fellowship awards four filmmakers a grant to use towards making their second film. This Fellowship stems from the Sundance Institute FilmTwo Initiative which is an artist development program dedicated to supporting filmmakers that are working to get their second narrative features made.
Andrew Ahn
Hometown
Los Angeles, CA
First Film
Spa Night
Post-Program Update
Alum of the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab.
Honors/Awards
Spa Night received a Special Jury Award at Sundance in 2016 for Breakthrough Performance for lead actor Joe Seo. It also won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards.
Steven Caple Jr.
Hometown
Cleveland, OH
First Film
The Land
Post-Program Update
IFC Films acquired the U.S. rights to The Land, and London-based Film Constellation acquired the international rights.
Honors/Awards
The Land won Outstanding First Screenplay at the 2017 Black Reel Awards and 2016 Special Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the deadCenter Film Festival.
Anna Rose Holmer
Hometown
Pawling, NY
First Film
The Fits
Post-Program Update
Holmer teamed up with New York’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle and Academy Award®-nominated composer Nicholas Britell to create a short dance film that pays homage to the award-winning feature Moonlight titled Moonlight x Alvin Ailey.
Honors/Awards
2017 Independent Spirit Award Someone to Watch winner; Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2015.
Crystal Moselle
Hometown
Mill Valley, CA
First Film
The Wolfpack
Post-Program Update
Approached by fashion label Miu Miu to direct a short for their Women's Tales series in which female directors were given carte blanche to make short films as long as they featured Miu Miu clothing. Moselle, who had been collaborating with teenage skater girls she had met in a park, decided to film them for her short That One Day which premiered at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. She is currently directing the feature version of the short. She directed the documentary Our Dream of Water in partnership with Stella Artois and Water.org that premiered on National Geographic.
Honors/Awards
The Wolfpack won the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Grand Jury Prize in 2015