You only get one chance for a first impression - tell the story of an important meeting that goes terribly wrong
First impressions can make or break an opportunity. Craft a true or imagined story about an important meeting gone bad. Set a scene with high stakes, establish the characters, select a protagonist with a clear want, and create a turn in the scene where the character must respond to a worst case scenario. Tell this story in any genre (comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi, thriller) and in any medium (scripts, video, audio/podcast).
SUBMISSION LIMITS
Scripts – 10 page limit; Video – 10 minute limit; Audio/podcast– 10 minute limit
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. Each person who participates will receive a completed feedback form on the work they submit by one of our Sundance judges. 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 will be able to be selected as the winner.
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, and will be featured prominently on the site.
Jurors
Bob Byington
Juror
Bob lives and works in Austin, Texas, where he's best known for his role as the checked out older brother in a Sundance Lab film he wrote and directed, Harmony and Me. His film Infinity Baby, a comedy about babies that won’t age, won Best Narrative Feature at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2017. And Somebody Up There Likes Me won Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival in 2012. Bob is also an Annenberg Fellow.
Jen Tullock
Juror
Jen Tullock is an actor and writer best known for the Turner series Disengaged, which she co-created, co-wrote, and starred in alongside Hannah Pearl Utt. Her short with Utt, Partners, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and their feature Before You Know It (formerly titled Stupid Happy) was a participant in the 2017 Sundance Screenwriter Labs before premiering in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which stars Tullock alongside Utt, Alec Baldwin, Judith Light, and Mandy Patinkin, will be released in 2019.
Her writing has been featured onstage at The New York Stage & Film Festival and in print as a contributing writer to the Huffington Post, as well as the Funny or Die original interactive series The Coop, which she also stars in.
She is currently developing a feature, a dark comedy VR episodic, and a book of essays.
Lina Patel
Juror
Lina Patel is writer whose work explores colonialism, family, and the environment. Her near-future play, The Ragged Claws, about what happens when the adopted Indian son of a power couple questions his mother's politics, was nominated for Cherry Lane Theater’s Mentor Project. She was awarded an NEA Art Works grant for her play, The Half-Breed Spy, or How I Learned to Love Imperialists. Selected commissions/residences include, Yale Rep, New Harmony Project, the Japanese American National Museum, the Sewanee Writer’s Conference as a Walter E. Dakin Fellow. Lina’s work has been developed/presented at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, CTG, The New Group, The Lark, Chalk Repertory, Circle X, East West Players. Lina also writes for television, currently on “Krypton” for SyFy. She is a member of Chalk Repertory’s Writer’s Group and a proud alumna of CTG and Warner Brothers Writer’s Workshops. Lina is also a critically acclaimed theater actor and voice-over artist.
Cory Finley
Juror
Cory Finley is a Saint Louis-born, Brooklyn-based director and playwright. His film Thoroughbreds premiered at Sundance 2017 and was released by Focus Features, and was nominated for Independent Spirit and Gotham awards for its screenplay. He is currently in post-production on a second feature, from a script by Mike Makowsky, starring Hugh Jackman, Alison Janney and Geraldine Viswanathan. His plays have been produced around the country.
Chris Lavis
Juror
Chris Lavis is an Academy Award-nominated director and animator. His first film, Madame Tutli-Putli (NFB), garnered awards at the Cannes film festival and was recognized with an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short (2007).
Lavis (and longtime collaborator Maciek Szczerbowski) went on to adapt Maurice Sendak’s Higgelty-Piggelty Pop! and direct Meryl Streep in the film. In 2014, he and Szczerbowski helped create the innovative VR experience Strangers with Patrick Watson (Felix & Paul Studios) winning Best Live Action Experience at the inaugural Proto Awards in Los Angeles. In 2019, they premiered their second VR film, Gymnasia at the Tribeca film festival.