About this Insider Session
Sundance Insider Sessions provide behind-the-scenes information and guidance on our Labs, grants and festivals. Sundance Institute staff will be on-hand to answer frequently asked questions and help guide you through discovering and applying to the many programs and funds that the Institute offers.
The Sundance Episodic Program is an entry point for emerging scripted fiction writers that includes alumni like Katori Hall (Starz's P-VALLEY), Barry Jenkins (Amazon's UNDERGROUND RAILROAD), and Heather Rae (Amazon's OUTER RANGE). We provide artists with the tools, guidance, and industry access to move your projects and careers forward. The in-person Lab is the cornerstone of the program, an immersive six-day opportunity to develop original series under accomplished showrunners, creative producers, and development executives at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah. So how will your submission cut through and bring you into the fold? Join us for a direct Q&A with the program director and a recent alum who will give you all the pro tips when you're ready to apply!
Submissions open February 9, 2024 and close March 9, 2024.
Find out more about the Sundance Institute Episodic Program here.
Live event registration for Sundance Collab Insider Sessions is free of charge. A recording will be posted on this page the business day after the event ends. All members who registered can watch the recording until March 9th, 2024. After that, on-demand access to this recording can be purchased for $5.
If you have a disability and require accommodation in order to fully participate in this event, please complete this form, contact us at (435) 776-7790, or email us at accessibility@sundance.org to discuss your specific needs. Every effort will be made to accommodate advance requests; however, requests made within five days of the event may not be guaranteed.
Insider SessionTeam
Jandiz Estrada Cardoso
Director, Episodic Progam
Jandiz Estrada Cardoso is the Director of the Sundance Institute Episodic Program. Previously, she was the Sr. Director of Global Talent Development & Inclusion for film, TV and streaming at NBCUniversal for a decade. Jandiz spearheaded the bicoastal NBCUniversal Short Film Festival, The YA TU SABES Monologue Slam, and the national tour of StandUp NBC. In her freelance career, she has worked on dozens of pilots and features for studios including Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, New Line, AMC, ABC, CBS, Starz, and NBC (notably on their Emmy-winning series 30 ROCK). As an instructor, she has led master classes across the US and Brazil. She is a recipient of the Golden Eagle Award for Diversity Impact in Television.
Hernando Cortes Watson
Episodic Lab Alum
Hernando Cortes Watson is a 2023 Sundance Episodic Program Fellow for their groundbreaking series, Horsepower. Born outside Los Angeles and raised outside New York City by their Filipino mother, they were inspired by the educational paths of mavericks Francis Ford Coppola and Ang Lee. They graduated from UCLA’s renowned Theater program in Stage Directing and began their career in entertainment working on the productions of master filmmakers (Oliver Stone, Mike Nichols, Noah Baumbach). They made their feature directorial debut with A Reunion, a queer semi-autobiographical road movie shot across nine states, during their final year at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where they earned their MFA in Film and TV Production.
Cortes Watson, whose work has screened at film festivals around the globe, is an alum of the Sundance Institute (Virtual Reality Lab, Short Film Connection), Tribeca Film Institute (Tribeca All Access), Film Independent’s Project:Involve and the Reykjavik International Film Festival's Talent Lab. Empowered to tell compelling and diverse stories under their Watson PublicWorks banner, they have developed projects with A24, Escape Artists, Catchlight Studios, A&E Studios, Carol Baum Productions, Will Packer Productions, and Eric Heisserer’s Chronology.
A relentless, experiential artist, they have also worked in premium television as Script Coordinator on American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace and Ratched and as Staff Writer on Netflix's Hollywood. Hernando is a proud member of the WGA and is in post of their first documentary feature, Body of Work: The Rebirth of Hernando Cortes, a cinematic memoir that chronicles their gender transition after near-death.
Katherine Street
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Katherine "Kat" Street is an LA-based award-winning filmmaker and Philadelphia native. A cinephile at heart, she writes female-driven stories with complex (oftentimes damaged) main characters, centered around self-discovery, self-love, and belonging.
She has written numerous short-form projects, including original shorts, pilots, and features. She wrote and directed the dramatic short film “Cycles,” which received festival recognition in both acting and best romantic short. She also created her award-winning flagship web series "The New Adult,” which is currently streaming on Kweli TV.
Kat is a Stowe Story Lab SAGIndie Fellow and a participant in the BlackMagic Collective Emerging Filmmakers Initiative. In 2021, she founded the Black Film Challenge, a project that showcases filmmakers of African descent and the movies they create.
She earned her BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a concentration in Cinematography and has literary representation with Yak Yak Mgmt.