During challenging times, there are always "helpers" to be found that remind us of the kindness of strangers. Write a scene/sequence about a character who experiences an "all is lost moment" who fortuitously receives the help of a stranger.
During challenging times, there are always "helpers" to be found that remind us of the kindness of strangers. Write a scene/sequence about a character who experiences an "all is lost moment" who fortuitously receives the help of a stranger. You'll want to write the scene where everything changes for your protagonist, then introduce a secondary character who performs an act of kindness. This is a scene that might take place in the third act of a script and leads to a resolution that restores hope and possibility for the main character. We encourage you to exercise your creative muscles and write (no more than 10 pages) in any genre (drama, comedy, action, horror).
SUBMISSION LIMITS
Your written work cannot exceed 10 pages.
Deadline to submit: April 30, 2020 at 12PM/Noon PT.
CHALLENGE RULES
Our monthly challenges are open to everyone in the Sundance Co//ab community. One entry per person, per challenge. All submissions will be viewable to the community. All submissions will be given equal consideration and the final winner will be determined by the consensus of the designated Sundance judges.
Only those submissions that meet the criteria outlined in the submission guidelines can be selected as the winner.
The challenge closes on April 30, 2020 at 12PM/Noon PT.
PRIZES
Winner will receive:
- The winner will have their work featured on Sundance Co//ab
- One-on-one mentorship session with a Sundance Advisor
- Sundance Co//ab All Access Membership (12 months) which includes:
- Master Classes - One free registration in every monthly Master Class ($900 value)
- Online Courses - Save 50% on first live, online multi-week course and 25% on each subsequent online course (Fees apply)
- Member-only Events - Invitation to monthly Advisor Q&A Live webinar
- Live Events - Priority access to select live Sundance learning events
Runners-up (two will be selected) - Sundance Co//ab Annual Membership (12 months)
Jurors
Omer Ben-Shachar
Juror
Omer Ben-Shachar is a writer/director most recently named a 2026 Young Guns winner by The One Club for Creativity. His debut short film Tree #3 won a Student Academy Award, his follow-up short Single Residency Occupancy earned the Academy Award-qualifying Jury Award for Best Narrative Short at the Atlanta Film Festival, and his latest short Houston, We Have A Crush is currently on the festival circuit, with wins at Leeds and Guadalajara, and selections at SXSW Sydney, Palm Springs, Urbanworld, NewFest, and Austin, among others.
Omer has directed music videos and commercials featured in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Nowness, Directors’ Library, and at the Hammer Museum's Flux Series, earning multiple Vimeo Staff Picks, a Webby Award, and a Cannes Lions Young Directors Award nomination. He is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Program, where he received the Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award, and has been a fellow of Film Independent’s Project Involve and Screenwriting Lab, the Warner Bros. Television Directors Workshop, and Paramount’s Directing Program.
Lauren Ludwig
Juror
Lauren Ludwig is a writer/director who specializes in comedy, immersive theater, and creating communities for artists. Lauren has directed episodes of Rob Riggle's Ski Master Academy (SonyCrackle) and was the showrunner and director of the sketch series Passive Aggressive History (truTV). Their independent pilot Everyone Together was an official selection at the 2020 SXSW Festival. As a comedy writer, Lauren has developed episodic projects with various partners including FX, NBC Universal, and TruTV. Lauren co-founded the award-winning immersive theater company Capital W whose work has won “Best Overall Immersive Work” at Hollywood Fringe 2017 and the “Game Design” award at the 2016 IndieCade Festival. A passionate educator, Lauren was the Director of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and is a co-founder of Wayward, a retreat in the Canadian wilderness for artists of marginalized genders.
Zoe Sua Cho
Juror
Zoe Sua Cho is a Korean-born New Zealand-bred producer based in Los Angeles. In 2015 she co-founded Mass Ornament Films and has since produced numerous transnational films spanning features, documentaries and hybrid projects by emerging international artists. Her producing work has been screened and awarded at festivals around the world, including Cannes Film Festival, Berlinale, Rotterdam, Toronto, Busan and Tribeca. Zoe’s feature producing credits include THEY, directed by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Laura Stewart’s DRIFTING TOWARDS THE CRESCENT, and Bora Kim’s debut feature HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD - winner of over 50 awards including the Grand Prix Award for Best Film at Berlinale’s Generation section, Best International Feature at Tribeca Film Festival, and Best Film Award at the Korean Critics Awards and the Korean Producers Association Awards. Zoe earned her MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is a fellow of LA Film Independent’s Project Involve, a Berlinale Talents alum, a two-time IFP Forum participant, a Sundance Feature Film Program Fellow, and a IFP Cannes Producer Fellow.
Dana Lustig
Juror
Dana Lustig is an LA-based Israeli filmmaker. She has directed five feature films, produced over twenty-seven independent features, and two TV series. Among many, Dana had produced the true survival story starring Daniel Radcliffe, JUNGLE and directed the BIFA-nominated dramatic thriller A THOUSAND KISSES DEEP. Dana is an executive producer on the upcoming movie READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN, based on the NYT bestseller.
Upon graduating from AFI, she formed the production company Bergman Lustig Productions with Ram Bergman. BLP produced many movies together, including the Spirit Award-nominated BRICK and DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA, directed by Oscar-nominated Michael Radford. Dana is an alum of AFI, where she is now a faculty member and a member of the PGA, SAG, DGC, and the Israeli Film Academy. She is the writer of the book MAKING A MOVIE, FROM CONCEPT TO RED CARPET.
Maria Burton
Juror
Named by Variety as "talent to watch," Maria Burton has directed 6 successful feature films, the latest of which are currently available on Netflix and Amazon: A Sort of Homecoming, starring Laura Marano and Katherine McNamara, and For the Love of George with Rosanna Arquette, Tate Donovan, Rex Lee & Kristen Johnston. Earlier films include Just Friends, Temps, and Manna from Heaven (MGM/SONY), Sign My Snarling Movie – a doc about The Bobs – as well as the web series Old Guy, starring Peri Gilpin (Frasier) and her dad, Roger Burton (Baskets), based on his real life experiences as an actor late in life. She helms Five Sisters Productions with her real life siblings and has produced Julia Sweeney's Letting Go of God (Showtime), The Happiest Day of His Life (MTV/Logo), and Kings, Queens & In-Betweens.
Burton is one of the directors chosen for the current DGA DDI Mentorship Program and the Disney/ABC 2018-20 Directing Class and has been selected for Television Directing Programs including the 2018/19 SONY Diverse Directors, the 2018 Ryan Murphy HALF Initiative, the 2017-18 CBS Directing Program, and the Conde Nast, Rodrigo Garcia - Jon Avnet Indigenous Incubator ProjectHER, for which she wrote and directed Good Eggs.
She's a Co-Chair of the DGA's WSC and recently elected as Alternative to the DGA's National Board, as well as a member of Alliance of Women Directors and Film Fatales. Burton is currently developing three projects: MidLife, a thematic companion piece to Temps; Searching for Tamsen Donner, based on her mother's award winning books; and The Mercury 13, a drama inspired by the "Mercury 13" women who were tested for the original astronaut program in 1961-62. The script has been selected for the Athena List, named to the Bechdel/Bitch List and is a Nicholl Quarterfinalist. See more at http://www.mariaburtondirector.com/