Sundance Institute Announces the 2026 Episodic Lab Fellows

EXCLUSIVE: The Sundance Institute has announced its 2026 Episodic Lab fellows and projects, selected for a five-day program set to take place at Dunaway Gardens in Newnan, Georgia, from May 15 to 20. The 10 fellows leading eight projects include Carmiel Banasky with Wonderboom, Jeremy Dauber and Olivia Krebs with Cupidity, Celine Foster with Male Loneliness Epidemic, DeZell Lathon and Simone Williams with The Runaways, Michael Mount with The Circuit, Larry V. Santana with On Death’s Precipice, Liba Vaynberg with Loupe, and Natacha Yazbeck with borderline_.

Designed to support emerging writers, the Episodic Lab offers guidance from established showrunners and development executives. Participants will workshop their pilots and series pitches, engage in one-on-one story meetings, and attend panels and writers’ rooms focused on enhancing their writing craft and adapting to the current industry landscape. Fellows will also benefit from workshops leading up to the lab and a year-long support framework.

Creative advisors for this year include notable names such as Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights), Nick Jones Jr. (Tulsa King), and Graham Yost (Silo). Additionally, industry mentors include Dante Di Loreto of Fremantle, Sarah Timberman of Timberman/Beverly, and Jasmyn Lawson of Netflix. Pre-lab workshops will feature leaders such as Rika Dharmesh Bhakta, Daniel Chun (The Office), and Adamma & Adanne Ebo (Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.).

This year marks a relocation for the program to Georgia, coinciding with the Sundance Film Festival’s move to Boulder, Colorado, after years at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah. “This post–golden era of TV has prompted enormous questions asking what audiences crave right now and what networks are willing to give them,” said Jandiz Estrada Cardoso, Director of the Episodic Program. She emphasized that this year’s projects explore themes relevant to current societal challenges, stating, “These projects are the cheat codes to risking it all.”

Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of the Artist Programs, expressed enthusiasm about the new partnership with Dunaway Gardens, noting, “Our gratitude goes to Tena Clark and her team as their connection to supporting groundbreaking and bold artists connects deeply to Sundance Institute’s ongoing work.”

Carmiel Banasky with Wonderboom: When Earth violently rejects humanity’s ancient climate solutions, an idealistic butterfly-human scientist and her bitter mentor must sail an antique ship with a misfit crew, racing to implant an AI into Earth’s consciousness before methane explosions end civilization — but they may be awakening something beyond their control.

Carmiel Banasky brings a diverse background in television, film, novels, and audio, standing out in climate storytelling. Following her role on Amazon Prime Video’s Undone, she created the acclaimed sci-fi podcast The Last City, which reached #1 in fiction. Currently, she serves as VP of Editorial for the climate storytelling nonprofit Good Energy.

Jeremy Dauber and Olivia Krebs with Cupidity: CupidCo, a secret agency, has engineered relationships among the affluent for millennia. When enigmatic leader Finn recruits impulsive relationship researcher Beatrice, they partner on military-grade, science-backed missions to ensure couples remain in love — at any cost.

Jeremy Dauber is a professor at Columbia University and author of two children’s novels alongside several other books. Olivia Krebs has served as a creative consultant on DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys movies. Together, they aim to unveil hidden power structures through modern myths.

Celine Foster with Male Loneliness Epidemic: After her billionaire boyfriend adopts celibacy in solidarity with the male loneliness epidemic, a self-centered sorority girl teams up with an overzealous feminist scholar to address the crisis and save her sex life.

Celine Foster is a Black queer comedy writer known for her community-focused narratives that offer incisive humor. A Stanford graduate, her work has found support from the Roadmap Writers, the TRIBE Writers’ Fellowship, and the Disabled BIPOC Film Collective.

DeZell Lathon and Simone Williams with The Runaways: The arrival of Harriet Tubman inspires three enslaved friends to turn their plantation upside down — only to oversleep. Now with no guide or plan, they embark on a chaotic journey north, inadvertently teaching others how to claim their own freedom.

Based in Los Angeles, DeZell Lathon and Simone Williams focus on the absurdities within sociopolitical norms and expectations tied to race, gender, and sexuality, crafting layered characters in dynamic narratives.

Michael Mount with The Circuit: This storyline follows three families unraveling as their hidden histories emerge during a week-long tour of Ivy League campuses.

Michael Mount’s writing has appeared in NPR, Pacifica Literary Review, and Longreads. He has received fellowships from the Orchard Project and MacDowell, along with a grant from the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts at Brown University to photograph his hikes along the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails.

Larry V. Santana with On Death’s Precipice: A devoted husband makes a desperate pact with a Grim Reaper to cure his wife’s terminal illness, which involves facing violent death repeatedly. As his wife recovers, each cycle draws him closer to something profoundly unsettling.

Larry V. Santana is a Puerto Rican writer-director with experience as a TV producer. A graduate of UC Berkeley, he previously worked for MSNBC and Investigation Discovery. His narratives often ground the supernatural in everyday realities, drawing on real-world fears.

Liba Vaynberg with Loupe: After her husband’s mysterious death, a pregnant Hasidic chemistry teacher inherits his family’s jewelry business, uncovering unsettling truths that challenge her understanding of marriage and identity.

Liba Vaynberg, a Jewish daughter of refugees, is an award-winning playwright with off-Broadway productions and a staff writer on Star City (Sony/Apple TV). She holds an MFA from Columbia and a degree in molecular biology from Yale.

Natacha Yazbeck with borderline_: Following the assassination of his handler, a smuggler escapes with his baby daughter, leaving his wife behind. Thirty years later, their daughter confronts traumatic truths in therapy, unearthing buried secrets.

A writer and journalist originally from New Jersey, Natacha Yazbeck has reported extensively from Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. A Columbia University Tow Center for Digital Journalism Fellow, she holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.