Conversations from the Sundance Institute Labs | Case Study: Marielle Heller on Her First Feature (THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL)
About this Event Recording
Go behind the scenes to learn from Sundance Institute Advisors in our Conversations from the Labs series. This collection of videos will deepen your understanding of all the creative disciplines that are supported through our Labs including Feature Film Directing and Writing, TV Writing, Emerging Media, Documentary, Producing, Film Music, and Theater.
In this candid conversation from the 2022 Screenwriters Lab, filmmaker and actor Marielle Heller discusses the path to making her outstanding feature debut The Diary of a Teenage Girl on the 10th anniversary of the film being selected for the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs. Michelle Satter, Sundance Institute’s Founding Senior Director - Artist Programs, moderates the conversation through Marielle’s creative process in adapting the graphic novel/play and all that she learned in writing and making her first feature. Marielle reveals her experience at the labs and the process of finding and protecting her voice to tell this deeply delicate story as well as advice and insights on exploring film openings, character development, and working with actors on characters’ emotional journeys.
Other conversations in the series include those with editor Dylan Tichenor, actor/director Ed Harris, writer/director Karyn Kusama, writer/director/producer Kasi Lemmons, cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, and others.
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Marielle Heller
Marielle Heller is a director, writer, actor, and producer. Her directorial debut, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, premiered at Sundance in 2015 and earned the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Most recently, Heller wrote and directed Nightbitch (2024), starring Amy Adams and based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder.
Previously, Heller directed Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), both of which earned Academy Award nominations for their respective stars—Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, and Tom Hanks. Most recently as an actor, Heller co-starred as Alma Wheatley in the Emmy-winning series The Queen’s Gambit (2020). Heller’s film and television production company, Defiant By Nature, was established in 2019. Its first project was her filmed version of Heidi Schreck’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play What the Constitution Means to Me (2020). As a producer, Heller most recently executive produced Sundance Labs alum Hasan Hadi’s directorial debut The President’s Cake (2025).
Heller was a 2012 Sundance Fellow at the Screenwriters and Directors Labs.