The Sundance Institute has announced the 12 projects which have been selected for this year's annual Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs which take place May 29 to June 25 at the Sundance Village in Utah. The labs offer emerging directors and screenwriters an opportunity to develop new work under the guidance of experienced filmmakers, with this year's creative advisors including Robert Redford, Kathryn Bigelow, Alfonso Cuaron, Sally Field, Miguel Arteta, Akiva Goldsman, Allen Daviau, Stanley Tucci, Christopher McQuarrie, Jon Turteltaub and Alexander Payne. Gyula Gazdag is the artistic director for the 2002 lab.

During the first three weeks of the programme, the six selected film-makers collaborate with professional actors and video production crews, shooting and editing key scenes for their projects. The screenwriters lab is held in the fourth week, when writers involved with six additional projects join the group to participate in one-on-one story conferences with creative advisors.

The projects and participants selected are:

- Jacob Kornbluth, writer/director of The Best Thief In The World, whose previous feature Haiku Tunnel was a collaboration with his brother Josh. The Best Thief is the story of a young boy who turns to house-breaking in an attempt to make sense of the turmoil surrounding him in his own home.

- Mark Bomback, writer/director of Disturbing The Peace, a feature debut adapted from the novel by Richard Yates about an ordinary suburbanite who convinces himself that he is worthy of an extraordinary life.

- Michael Kang, writer/director of The Motel, the story of a 13 year-old who befriends a troubled man in his family's sleazy motel.

- Christa Collins, writer/director of POV, another feature debut in which 10 San Franciscans find love, heartbreak and harsh realities as their lives intertwine during a hectic 24 hours.

- Jodi Gibson, writer/director of The Supreme Belief In Lady Luck, in which two people whose lives are governed by odds meet at a blackjack table.

- Doug Sadler, writer/director of Swimmers, Sadler's second film after Riders, in which he explores life in a small Maryland fishing town.

Other screenwriters and projects joining these six at the lab are:

- Matt Tauber, writer of All Fall Down, a project based on David Greig's play The Architect, following two families from opposite ends of the social spectrum.

- Jessica Hagedorn, writer of Dogeaters, based on her own novel set in the last days of the brutal Marcos regime in the Philippines.

- Emily Hubley, writer/director of Reasons To Rhyme, an animated/live action mix about the search by a young woman for her wallet.

- Przemyslaw Nowakowski, co-writer, and Malgorzata Szumowska, co-writer/director, of Strangers, the story of a young girl who discovers that she can communicate with her unborn child.

- Charles Tonderai Mudede, co-writer, and Robinson Devor, co-writer/director of Super Power, about an African child soldier who returns to his village to try and resume life as a normal child.

- David Rousseve, writer/director of Urban Scenes/Creole Dreams, about an old Creole woman and her gay grandson who find the elusive connections between in them in the telling of her true-life bayou stories.