Sundance Institute Names Ten 2026 Episodic Intensive Fellows
The Sundance Institute has named ten writers as 2026 Episodic Intensive fellows, with the two-day virtual program running on August 20 and 21, 2026 (Deadline).
The fellows are Christin Campbell, Lisa Corn, Daphne Di Cinto, Grant Fortune, Courtney Graham, Caia Lee, Alejandra Lopez, Ssuuna McKitty, Francesco Staluppi and Daud Sumolang. Each brings a scripted project to the intensive, a short-form workshop where writers receive feedback from established showrunners and producers.
Sundance runs two episodic programs each year: a six-day in-person lab and this two-day virtual intensive. The institute named its 2026 Episodic Lab fellows back in May, when ten writers working across eight projects gathered in Georgia (Deadline; Sundance Institute). The intensive serves as a complementary track, reaching writers who may not attend an in-person lab.
Nine creative advisors will work with the fellows. Their credits span some of the most notable series of recent years. Jeff Melvoin worked on Killing Eve. Kira Snyder worked on The Handmaid's Tale. Katherine DiSavino worked on Silo. Tash Gray worked on Snowfall. Tasha Huo worked on The Mighty Neen. Don Joh worked on Sugar. Brandon Sonnier worked on Boston Blue. Tatiana Suarez-Pico worked on Invasion. Marcie Ulin worked on The Flight Attendant (Deadline).
The projects the fellows are developing cover a wide thematic range. Campbell's The Visitation is a Southern mystery with a sci-fi twist, set in a Bible Belt community where mysterious lights appear and a local disappears. Corn's Ugly Sister follows a truck inspector drawn into interstate smuggling while caring for her addicted, grieving sister.
Di Cinto's The Moor dramatises the true story of Alessandro, the pope's secret son of African descent, as he seeks the Medici succession. Fortune and McKitty's Heavy is the Crown centres on a New Orleans socialite family caught in a deadly conspiracy involving a Haitian American Olympian and her fashion mogul brother.
Graham's Nobody's Horses follows a disgraced veterinarian rescuing wild horses on a military base ahead of the NATO Games. Lee's Skullcrusher tracks a single mother in early-2000s Los Angeles searching for her missing friend amid a conspiracy linking real estate developers to disappearances.
Lopez's The 51st State imagines a future in which Puerto Rico has become the 51st U.S. state, with its first Puerto Rican senator containing a resistance group. Staluppi's With Blades of Iron pits an Indigenous huntress against Norse invaders and a Viking shield-maiden. Sumolang's Blood and Wax follows a Chinese Indonesian girl in 1920s Java who marries to save her family and must master the dangerous arts of her gilded cage.
For writers hoping to enter a future cohort, the Sundance Institute's episodic program is currently accepting applications. The deadline is August 25, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. PT (Sundance Institute).
What makes the intensive worth watching is the pipeline it feeds. Sundance's episodic programs have a track record of helping writers move from spec scripts to staffed positions and, in some cases, to series of their own. The nine advisors in the room this week carry credits across streaming and cable, from Apple TV+ to FX — a signal of the networks and platforms that Sundance's development work touches, even if there is no guarantee any of these projects will reach a screen.
The full list of fellows, advisors and project descriptions was published by Deadline on August 20, 2026 (Deadline).
