Channeling Grief Through Storytelling with Chloé Zhao
About this Spotlight
Spotlights feature conversations with high-profile film and television industry professionals who share helpful advice and insights on their career experiences and creative processes.
Join Sundance Collab for this special conversation with writer/director Chloé Zhao on her poignant historical drama, Hamnet. Based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. The film is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama.
In this hour-long online conversation for filmmakers and film lovers, we’ll dive deep into Zhao’s process bringing this poignant and heartbreaking story to the screen. She’ll discuss adapting the novel with Maggie O’Farrell, directing her tremendous cast, and collaborating with her composer and post-production team to create an unforgettable cinematic experience. We’ll examine the role nature plays in the film as well as the character-driven approach to capturing the period.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of the most thoughtful and empathetic filmmakers working today, who was supported by the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program on her first feature Songs My Brothers Taught Me.
SpotlightTeam
Chloé Zhao
Chloé Zhao is a Beijing-born writer, director, editor, and producer. Previous films include Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider, Eternals, and Nomadland, which won three Oscars. Most recently, she directed, co-wrote, and co-edited Hamnet. She launched the production company Book of Shadows in 2023 and Kodansha Studios in 2025.
Erica Elson
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Erica Elson is a Producer, Writer and Educator based in the mountains outside Los Angeles. Her short film, WING NIGHT, premiered at Method Fest in Los Angeles. She is the co-author of the book THE AWKWARD HUMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE and co-hosted a podcast by the same name on the 5by5 network for five years. Elson's articles have been published by HuffPost, Lifehacker, and Reader's Digest. Prior to working in education, she worked in television development and writers’ rooms such as VH1’s HINDSIGHT, where she had the chance to write for the spinoff web series PLANET SEBASTIAN.
Elson joined the Sundance Collab team in October 2021 and produces courses, Master Classes, and events in the areas of screenwriting, television writing, directing, producing, and documentary filmmaking. She has moderated conversations with Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, and Susannah Grant, among others.
Prior to Sundance, Elson was the Thesis Production Supervisor at the American Film Institute for five years. She oversaw several award-winning graduate thesis films, notably the 2021 BAFTA student film winner APART, TOGETHER and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival short WE WERE MEANT TO. While at AFI, Elson developed a passion for sustainable production and created the Green Film School Alliance, which includes forty schools on four continents. She holds a BA in Communication and Film Studies from Concordia University and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.