I was once an applicant, but I didn’t make it past the initial round. In a nutshell, unless the rules have changed since I applied about 4 years ago, applicants submit answers to a questionnaire about their project, accompanied by the first 5 pages of the feature script referenced in their answers to the questions in the questionnaire.

If the judges like your first 5 pages – or at least are intrigued enough to want to read the rest of it, based on all your submitted materials, you will be notified and asked to submit the entire feature script for further consideration. And, from that group of likely thousands, 12 projects are selected.

My story goes…

Given that I rushed to write the first 5 pages of a feature script that didn’t yet exist, based on a story I had only recently thought of, but found interesting, imagine how shocked I was when I got the email telling me that they liked my project application and those initial 5 pages enough to want to see the whole script!

I blasted that email to every freaking person I knew – friends and enemies!

However, my euphoria didn’t last very long, once I remembered that I had to write a script of at least 90 pages (their requirements) within about a month, the deadline given – and certainly a very reasonable deadline, considering that I really should have already completed the script before applying for the program.

But I took a chance, and spent the next 30 days and nights grinding out page after page of an amalgamation of streams of consciousness, and ascetic prose, with some support from my then girlfriend, also a writer.

I knew I wouldn’t be one of the 12 selected in the final round, because I knew what I had wasn’t good enough, with so little time to write what was a rather complex story; and, of course, as expected, I wasn’t selected.

Disappointed? Not really. If anything, I felt re-energized, and in some ways, validated. Although, I never applied again; my focus shifted and I took on other projects.

So, it’s with enthusiasm that I mention those 12 applicants who made it all the way to the end, and are now officially Sundance fellows. Congrats to the lot of you! Now, the work really begins. Some will go on to further successes in the industry; some may have, unfortunately, reached the zenith of their film careers with this award. Over the next 2 to 5 years, we’ll know a lot more.

Of particular note is a script titled The American People by writer/director Keith Davis, the lone African American filmmaker on the list, based on the little research I did. I only recently heard about Mr Davis via a tweet by one of my Twitter pals, who happens to know Keith (by the way, if you’re on Twitter, you can find me at http://twitter.com/tambay).

The synopsis for The American People is described as follows: Deep in the heart of Alabama wiregrass country, a woman haunted by visions of the future struggles to find hope when a shattering loss fractures her family.

Check out Keith’s personal website here: http://keithldavis.com. While you’re there, take a look at his short films – he’s got 3 of them there.

Other fellows of note: Sally El Hosaini and her project titled, My Brother the Devil, Alejandro Landes and his project Porfirio, Tala Hadid’s The Narrow Frame of Midnight, and Ritesh Batra’s The Story of Ram.

Check out the full list of 12 men and women selected for this year’s Sundance labs HERE. Be inspired! I was.