Morelia | Sundance Story Lab

After three successful editions in 2017, 2018, and 2019, the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), in collaboration with the Sundance Institute's Fiction Program, once again held the Morelia:Sundance Screenplay Lab. This Lab is an intensive and specialized assessment in writing and perfecting the film script, as part of its training and professional updating program, Morelia Pro.

The Screenplay Lab, led by producer Bertha Navarro, has been successfully running in Mexico for over 20 years. It involves writers collaborating directly with experienced advisors of international renown in personalized work sessions. The main goal is to assist writers in enhancing their scripts, ensuring they reach the production stage with the best screenplay possible.

The Morelia:Sundance Screenplay Lab was held online from October 25 to 28, 2021. It involved group analysis meetings focusing on specific aspects of film writing to promote reflection on this crucial creative discipline of cinema.

In past years, some of the projects participating in the Morelia:Sundance Screenplay Lab were Noche de Fuego by Tatiana Huezo, El hoyo en la cerca by Joaquín del Paso, Mano de obra by David Zonana, among others.

1. Cuando cae la lluvia by Yanilis Pérez (Dominican Republic)
2. La escuela del pueblo by Oli Quintanilla (Mexico)
3. El fuego que engulle la sangre by Jesús Torres Torres (Mexico)
4. La hija del general by Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson (Mexico)

1. Dominga Sotomayor (Chile)
2. Erik Jendresen (United States)
3. María Renée Prudencio (Bolivia/Mexico)
4. Martín Salinas (Argentina)

Supported by the experience of successful Mexican producer Bertha Navarro, the Morelia:Sundance Story Lab, an initiative created by the Morelia International Film Festival and the Sundance Institute International Program, designed an intensive program. It involves individual mentoring sessions, where participants collaborate with mentors on key aspects of the writing in their projects, such as the story's focus, character development, and dramatic structure.

1. Alondra dejó el nido (Mexico) by Samuel Kishi and Carlos Espinoza
2. La hija de todas las rabias (Nicaragua/Mexico) by Laura Baumeister
3. Una historia falsa (Mexico) by Miguel Lozano and Antón Goenechea
4. No nos moverán (Mexico) by Pierre Saint-Martin and Iker Compeán
5. Los reyes del mundo (Colombia) by Laura Mora and María Camila Arias
6. Sujo: bajo el nombre de un caballo (Mexico) by Astrid Rondero
    

1. Erik Jendresen (United States)
2. Gibrán Portela (Mexico)
3. Gonzalo Maza (Chile)
4. Gregory Nava (United States)
5. Laura Esquivel (Mexico)
6. Naomi Foner (United States)
   
    

Supported by the experience of successful Mexican producer Bertha Navarro, the Morelia:Sundance Story Lab, an initiative created by the Morelia International Film Festival and the Sundance Institute International Program, designed an intensive program. It involves individual mentoring sessions, where participants collaborate with mentors on key aspects of the writing in their projects, such as the story's focus, character development, and dramatic structure.

1. Angela y Leo (Chile) by Antonia Zegers and Marcela Said
2. ¡Asalto nacional! (Mexico) by Emiliano Rocha Minter and Santiago Mohar Volkov
3. Bienvenido a Pueblo Viejo (Mexico) by Indira Velasco and Nicolás Rojas
4. Cosas que no hacemos (Mexico) by Bruno Santamaría and Andrea Rabasa
5. El hoyo en la cerca (Mexico) by Lucy Pawlak and Joaquín del Paso
6. Una muchacha normal (Mexico) by Paula Hopf
7. La piel pulpo  (Ecuador) by Ana Cristina Barragán
8. ¿Qué les pasó a las abejas? (Mexico) by Adriana Otero and Jairo Mukul

1. Andrea Chignoli (Chile)
2. Eric Jendresen (United States)
3. Ligiah Villalobos (Mexico)
4. Leo Heiblum (Mexico)
5. María Renée Prudencio (Bolivia/Mexico)
6. Nicolás Echevarría (Mexico)
7. Peter Golub (United States)
8. Sebastián Cordero (Ecuador)

In partnership with the Sundance Institute and its international program to promote feature films, the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) will carry out, for the first time, a lab for enhancing screenplays. This initiative aims to improve and enrich the training activities directed at Mexican filmmakers.

The MORELIA SUNDANCE Screenplay Lab has the invaluable collaboration of Marina Stavenhagen and well-known Mexican filmmaker Bertha Navarro. Bertha Navarro, a producer of iconic Ibero-American films such as Reed: México Insurgente (1973), Cabeza de Vaca (1991), Cronos (1993), The Devil's Backbone (2001), and Pan's Labyrinth (2006), among many others, is a pioneer in Mexico for the realization of workshops to enhance the quality of the screenplays produced in Spanish.

At the MORELIA SUNDANCE Screenplay Lab, an international group of filmmakers, producers, and film writers will work closely and personally for four days with selected Mexican filmmakers and writers.

1. Los amantes se despiden con la mirada by Rigoberto Perezcano
2. Buchinos by Betzabé García
3. Mano de obra by David Zonana
4. Noche de fuego by Tatiana Huezo

1. Carlos Cuarón is a Mexican writer, director, and producer. He has directed Rudo y Cursi (2008) and Besos de azúcar (2013), as well as various short films. As a writer, the movies El misterio de trinidad (2003), Sólo con tu pareja (1991), and Y tu mamá también (2001) stand out. The last one was nominated for an Oscar and BAFTA awards and won the Silver Lion for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival.
2. Dante Harper is a producer, director, and screenwriter. He directed The Delicate Art of the Rifle (1996). He is best known as the screenwriter of Edge of Tomorrow (2014), directed by Doug Liman. He has collaborated with David Fincher, Roland Emmerich, Marc Foster, and Ridley Scott.
3. Erik Jendresen is a producer, writer, and showrunner known for his work on various television series in the United States, including the Golden Globe-winning Band of Brothers (2001). In film, his latest project was Ithaca (2015) featuring Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, and Sam Shepard.
4. Marcela Fuentes Beráin is a television and film screenwriter, poet, translator, and essayist.