Six Filmmakers Picked for The Black List's 2026 Projects Lab

Six filmmakers have been chosen for the 2026 Projects Lab run by The Black List, the screenwriting organisation. Deadline reported the names on 10 November 2026.

The lab is now in its third year. Its participants are Mike Ambs, Sierra Falconer, Georgia Fu, Seth Kelman, Megan Spatz and Brandon Tyson. Each is working on a feature film script, and each has a project title attached: Ambs with Falling Forward, Falconer with Cry For Me, Baby, Fu with Approximate Joy, Kelman with Vessels, Spatz with North and Tyson with Ta Ta Dear.

The programme centres on a weeklong workshop in Ojai, California, where the filmmakers work on their scripts. It grew out of The Black List's Writers Labs, which have run every year since 2013. A script, in this context, is the written blueprint a film is built from, and the lab is a chance to sharpen that blueprint before anyone shoots a frame.

Several people return to help. Pippa Bianco, Hannah Fidell, Kaz Firpo, Molly McGlynn and Anu Valia are back as mentors. Scott Myers will lead the pitching sessions and peer workshops, where writers present their work and get feedback from each other. Noga Pnueli joins this year as a session mentor.

One name carries an extra honour. Falling Forward, by Mike Ambs, has been named The Black List's 2026 Sloan Foundation Fellow. The Sloan Fellowship was set up in 2018 with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which supports work in science and technology. The fellowship is aimed at scripts with a science or technology theme.

For a writer, the lab sits early in the long road from page to screen. Scripts often change many times before a studio, streamer or independent backer commits money, and a workshop like this is one of the steps in between. The six projects now have a week of development ahead of them, and the lab's next results will be whatever those scripts become.