Challenge Submissions

Document
Document

Anaïs’ Collage

Dilzz

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Document
Document

Raised

Mike Gonzalez

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Document

Hlf pSt nInE

Douglas Stark

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Peasant Ridge

Frank Anthony Polito

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Matriline

Amanda Blanchard

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Video
Video

Fairytales (are true)

Katharina Meerle Goodshield

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Video
Video

INNER JOURNEY

Mirjana Grbic

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Video
Video

HANDS ON HEALING

Mirjana Grbic

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Storyville

Alejandro de los Rios

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Untitled on the run - teaser.

Thomas Murphy

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BIG SISTER

David Hal Chester

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Same, Different

Aria Harrison

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Video
Video

Memorial of a Miraculous Man

Stephanie Mark

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You Promised Me Love

Eva Todica

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Julia and Ben

Zach Freshley

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MONSTER TOWN

Garrett Vander Leun

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Between the wind and the sea.

Miguel Angel (Angel Price)

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Black Mold

Jeremiah Lewis

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Whistle

Selim Sevim

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Identify Me

Samuel Tebandeke

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Video
Video

I AM NANA

Petra Terzi

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Visiting Hours

Jeremy Burkett

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Cowgirl Down

Adrienne Thorne

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Video
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God Is Schizophrenic

Jennifer Reyes

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Video
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TMH

Nathan

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Rob And Ché

Bre

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Treasure Road

Lauri Donahue

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Crashing the Net

Meghan Frederico

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Infractions

David Brashear

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Hurt Me

Zach

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XYX

Walon Costello

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Chiropractor / Poltergeist

Nate Clark

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Video
Video

INDIGO TOGETHER

Grant Conversano

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INCOMPLETE

Kenn

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Looking for Bandero

Juan C. Ysaguirre

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Video
Video

Ella (She, Her)

shireen

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THE GREAT IN-BETWEEN

Peter Barnes

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A Penny Saved, A Penny Heard

Ramzey Bunley

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Netherworld

Christopher Tedrick

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Video
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Shifted Dreams

Sasha Shavit

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Imperial Beach - "Pilot"

Fred Pelzer

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Future Behind Me

Hazuki Aikawa

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The Judge, The People Vs.

Poppy Powers

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Journey's End

Meghna

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Signal 13

Eddie ray Gray

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MAGNIFICENT BASTARD

Shaula Evans

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Sketch

Edward A. Juice

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The Careful Art of Atonement

Sarah Juma

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Belly of the Dragon

Devonte Sanchez

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Video
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You, Me, Us

LCT

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Video
Video

Magic Parlour

Joanna Izowska

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Challenge

Challenge is closed
Winner

Treasure Road

Lauri Donahue

"Treasure Road" is based on the true story of one of the first times the US used violence to promote its economic interests abroad.

Logline: In Panama, a former Texas Ranger recruits a mercenary army to protect travelers to the California gold fields – and help build the first transcontinental railroad.

I'm an award-winning screenwriter who has worked with Amazon Studios and producers and directors on five continents. My resume, loglines, and samples are on my website at www.lauridonahue.com.

Create the moment when the audience is first introduced to the main character in a written scene or video. The entrance is an opportunity to reveal what makes the character unique and should show: what they want or aspire to, what they fear the most, or what inside them is a bigger obstacle than anything they externally face. You can craft this scene as fiction or nonfiction, and in any genre (comedy, horror, psychological thriller, drama). Eligible works may be no more than 10 pages or 8 minutes in length.

We're including several scenes from a range of films to watch that are fun examples of unforgettable entrances. 


The Piano (1993)

Writer/Director: Jane Champion

Selected by Sundance Advisor Erin Cressida Wilson


Suddenly Last Summer (1959)

Director: Joseph Mankiewicz

Screenplay: Gore Vidal

Based on the play by Tennessee Williams

Selected by Sundance Advisor Doug Wright


Dirty, Pretty Things (2002)

Director: Stephen Frears

Writer: Stephen Knight

Selected by Sundance Advisor Tyger Williams


The Hustler (1961)

Director and Co-Writer: Robert Rossen

Co-Writer: Sidney Carroll, 

Based on the novel by Walter S. Tevis

Selected by Sundance Advisor Howard Rodman


The Station Agent (2003)

Writer/Director: Tom McCarthy

Selected by Sundance Advisor Susan Shilliday


SUBMISSION LIMITS

Your written work cannot exceed 10 pages and short films should be under 8 minutes.

Deadline to submit: August 30, 2019 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 August 30 2019 at 12PM/Noon PT.


PRIZE

The winner will receive a Sundance Co//ab subscription for one year, a one-on-one mentoring session with a Sundance Advisor, a free master class of their choice, and will be featured prominently on the site.

Aristotle Torres
Juror
Aristotle Torres is a writer, director, creative from The Bronx, NYC. He has built a career as a visual artist directing music videos, experimenting with photography, and telling award-winning stories. He most recently was chosen as a Sundance Institute Feature Film Program as a Directing and Screenwriting Fellow. The journey into narrative filmmaking began in 2015 when he self-funded, wrote and directed his first short film, S2T, a loose adaption of Notorious BIG’s I GOT A STORY TO TELL. Sean “Puffy” Combs went on to purchase the film. Shortly after he went on to produce a feature film ARE WE NOT CATS which premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2016 and won the audience award at Sitges 2016. The film was purchased and distributed by Cleopatra Entertainment. In 2017, he created a proof of concept short film for STORY AVE which has received an official selection to a variety of regional film festivals across the US with an international premiere at Festival Sayulita in Mexico City 2019. He recently wrote and directed his third short film, The Chair, a Mandarin thriller shot on location in Taiwan, starring Tzu-Chiang Wang.
Valerie Soe
Juror
Since 1986 Valerie Soe has produced nearly two dozen short films and documentaries, which examine gender, pop culture, identity, and anti-racism struggles. Her work has received dozens of awards, grants, and commissions, and exhibited at venues such as the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art, and the New Museum in New York City, on cable and broadcast television, and at film festivals worldwide. Her essays and articles on Asian and Asian American art, film, culture, and activism have been published in books and journals including COUNTERVISIONS: ASIAN AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM; AFTERIMAGE; ASIAN FILM, and AMERASIA JOURNAL, among others. Soe is the author of the blog beyondasiaphilia.com (recipient of a 2012 Art Writers’ Grant from the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation). She is Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. Her latest film, LOVE BOAT: TAIWAN, premiered in 2019.
A.V. Rockwell
Juror
A.V. Rockwell is an award-winning commercial, film and television director from New York City. Hailed as a “rising indie filmmaker” by Entertainment Weekly, her distinctive voice has been celebrated for slyly addressing issues of race, family, identity, and systematic oppression.
Kobi Libii
Juror
Kobi Libii is an actor/writer/comedian, most recently seen writing and performing on Comedy Central’s THE OPPOSITION with Jordan Klepper and Klepper. Past acting credits include TRANSPARENT (Amazon), GIRLS (HBO), JESSICA JONES (Netflix), MADAM SECRETARY (CBS), ALPHA HOUSE (Amazon) and DOUBT (CBS). Kobi studied theater at Yale University, comedy at Second City Chicago and is an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and Director’s Lab. He is currently in pre-production to direct his debut feature.
Barbara Cigarroa
Juror
Barbara Cigarroa is a Mexican-American filmmaker from South Texas. She holds an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University and a BA in English from Yale. Cigarroa’s screenplay, EL OTRO LADO (THE OTHER SIDE), was a featured project at IFP's 2018 No Borders Co-Production Market, and was selected for the 2019 Sundance Institute Directors & Screenwriters Lab, as well as the 2019 Hamptons Screenwriters Lab.
Submission Guidelines

One entry per person, per monthly challenge. The limits for monthly challenge submissions are the following: scripts – 10 page limit; video – 8 minute limit; audio/podcast– 8 minute limit

Technical Details

Videos: Accepted video file formats: AVI , FLV, MOV, MP4 or MPEG-2. Note: If you choose to upload a .MOV file make sure that it is not using the Apple ProRes compression. We do not support reading Apple ProRes files or raw camera formats like ARRI and RED at this time.


Scripts: PDF format only, please


Other: If your file format fits outside of the video, pdf, audio file category, please contact us and we will see if we can accommodate it.


(Please do not use copyrighted material without permission as part of this monthly challenge.)

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