This 12 months’s Sundance featured 18 who acquired early breaks from NewFilmmakers Los Angeles — a nonprofit champion of rising indie filmmakers.

By month-to-month festivals that always spotlight underrepresented voices, NFMLA — led by government director Larry Laboe — offers many filmmakers their first introduction to business professionals and opens the doorways to alternatives like distribution, illustration, and, sure, Sundance. NFMLA additionally featured a wonderful panel at this 12 months’s closing Sundance during which panelists urged filmmakers to type friendships and alliances to persevere via darkish occasions.

We’re proud to share interviews with NFMLA standouts each month, and to share the next accounts from NFMLA veterans who offered movies at Sundance 2026, the “Final Dance” to be held in Park Metropolis earlier than the competition strikes to Boulder subsequent 12 months.—M.M. 

JOYCE LIU-COUNTRYMAN 

Producer of the 2026 Sundance brief “Taga”

When did you make your first movie? 2008

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker? NFMLA has made me really feel like somebody cares about me as a storyteller and artist. They’re those who say your title while you’re not within the room — and even when you find yourself — and remind you that your expertise issues and that it’s actual. They’re the antidote to our imposter syndrome.

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had?: That is the primary one the place I’ve had a undertaking because the above-the-line producer. The expertise has opened up my eyes to the heat and accessibility of the Sundance neighborhood, serving to me see that it’s not pretentious however somewhat supportive and grounded. They’ve excessive requirements for a motive, however when you’ve achieved these requirements, it reveals you ways a lot greater you possibly can climb.

What’s subsequent? We’re creating “Taga” right into a characteristic, and I simply utilized to the Sundance Options Producing Lab with a sensible, post-Me Too period psychological thriller from my slate of options in growth.

LOUISE BARRETTO

Producer of the 2026 Sundance brief “Taga”

When did you make your first movie? 2022

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker? NFMLA showcased a brief that I produced and at all times creates areas for filmmakers to attach. They’ve constructed such a supportive neighborhood of filmmakers. Making movies doesn’t occur in a vacuum. All of us want a great village and Larry and the remainder of NFMLA proceed to maintain that village working.

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had? Actually, it was so surprising to get into Sundance. Think about, there’s 11,000 entries and solely 54 shorts made it. It’s such an honor to be a part of the “Final Dance at Sundance” programming and I’d identical to to thank the superb Sundance programmers for championing new filmmakers. Shout out to Shorts Programmer Irene Soriano, too, for at all times supporting Filipino-American filmmakers.

What’s Subsequent?: I’d like to work on a characteristic however till then, I’m going to proceed collaborating with administrators with distinctive voices. Have some shorts within the works!

MIREIA VILANOVA

Producer of the 2026 Sundance shorts “Residing with a Visionary” and “As soon as in a Physique”

When Did You Make Your First Movie? 2017

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker? Again in 2019 after I was a graduate pupil at USC, the Hollywood International Press Affiliation (now known as the Golden Globe Basis) gifted me a one-year pupil membership to NFMLA and it was an unimaginable method for somebody like me, who on the time had been in L.A. for a comparatively brief time period, to fulfill filmmakers, watch fascinating movies and, most significantly, construct a neighborhood.

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had? I used to be lucky sufficient to have been a co-producer on By Design, which was on the competition final 12 months. However this 12 months was positively probably the most particular one, not solely as a result of I used to be in a position to display screen two tasks in competitors, however particularly since “Residing with a Visionary” gained the Jury Award for Animation, which was positively not one thing we had been anticipating. It might be too early to know the impression this award can have in our careers, however I hope we’ll quickly be capable of discover out.

What’s Subsequent? I’ve two options popping out this 12 months: Sender, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Britt Decrease and premiering at SXSW, and Moonfish, my first animated characteristic, premiering on the Venice Movie Competition as a part of Biennale School Cinema.

WILLIAM D. CABALLERO

Director and co-writer of the Sundance 2026 characteristic TheyDream

When did you make your first movie? 2009

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker?NFMLA has supplied invaluable providers, equivalent to panels and networking occasions, that basically helped increase my confidence as an rising latino filmmaker.

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had? This was my third time coming to Sundance, however first time with a characteristic (the opposite two had been for shorts). This 12 months, TheyDream gained the NEXT Particular Jury Award for Inventive Expression. I’m past excited to see the place this 12 months takes me, creatively.

What’s subsequent? I’m at the moment touring the competition circuit, whereas additionally creating some tasks on the aspect. I’m right here as a result of I by no means gave up on telling my very own tales in my very own distinctive voice.

ELAINE DEL VALLE

Co-writer and producer of the Sundance 2026 characteristic TheyDream

When did you make your first movie? 2013

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker?NFMLA was a pivotal catalyst in my profession. My brief movie “All Is Nicely” screened on the competition, giving the work significant business visibility. As a direct results of that screening, I used to be employed to direct my first characteristic movie — a Tubi Authentic — reworking a short-form calling card into a serious directing alternative.

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had? This was my third time on the Sundance Movie Competition, however my first time premiering a characteristic. Being chosen at this degree looks like coming into the inside circle of unbiased movie and provides my title and work an instantaneous measure of credibility and success to the surface world. It indicators belief, momentum, and that the tales I inform actually belong on a worldwide stage.

What’s subsequent? After years of constructing my voice throughout movie and tv, I’m now creating and in search of assist for my episodic comedy pilot Crushin’ It, which I wrote and stay up for directing subsequent.

DANIEL CROIX

Producer of the Sundance 2026 brief “Don’t Inform Mama”

When did you make your first movie? 2009

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker? NFMLA introduced me right into a neighborhood that helps bridging my work as an actor with my work as a filmmaker. They’ve programmed my shorts “Huli” and “Oasis,” which sharpened my voice as a author/director, and the Q&As confirmed me the producer’s position in championing modern tales. NFMLA confirmed me I can construct a profession throughout a number of disciplines — appearing, directing, and producing — with out compromise.

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had? My first Sundance! … I really like how Sundance supported Ryan Coogler, Chloé Zhao, Ava DuVernay, Shaka King, Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley as they rose, and I see a transparent lineage of movies that encourage me. It’s shifted how I strategy selecting roles and creating tales, encouraging me to work with higher specificity, depth, authenticity.

What’s Subsequent? I’m collaborating with movie and TV artists on bringing nuanced roles to life and ending my subsequent brief as author/director. I’m appearing in daring work, producing what I consider in, directing tales that encourage empathy.

ALEXANDRA KERN

Director and producer of the Sundance 2026 brief “Some Sort of Refuge”

When did you make your first movie? 2022

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker? NFMLA was certainly one of my first true encounters with the movie competition world. It gave me a stage for my work whereas I used to be nonetheless discovering my method within the business and constructing my confidence, which I’ll eternally be thankful for. It additionally positioned me immediately amongst business professionals in a setting that felt intimate. I’m nonetheless involved with just a few of the filmmakers who had been aside of my block and business professionals to at the present time, years later! 

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had? Sure, and getting in felt surreal and deeply affirming. The movies in our block had been each inspiring and intimidating, pushing me to achieve for a deeper honesty and a degree of craft that challenges my very own limits inside my work. Coming from work rooted in intimate and native locations, it was nice to see the movie resonate with audiences far and vast, giving the undertaking a attain I by no means anticipated.

What’s subsequent? I’m at the moment creating a sequence rooted in my household historical past and private connection to Mardi Gras — exploring its position in American historical past as an area of collective pleasure, ritual, and generational traditions. 

GABRIELA ORTEGA

Author and director of the Sundance 2026 brief “Marga en el DF”

When did you make your first movie? 2020

How has NFMLA helped you in your journey as a filmmaker? By NFMLA I met a mentor who gave me my first studio writing task within the business. I used to be additionally in a position to begin creating my characteristic Huella with the New Narratives grant. Their assist of my profession has been invaluable.

Was this your first Sundance? How did you are feeling about getting in, and what impression has it had? This was my second time at Sundance with a brief movie as a director. I used to be additionally at Sundance with a movie in 2022, which was a digital Sundance.

What’s subsequent? I’m at the moment engaged on my first narrative characteristic, and its’ the buildup of arduous work and having the ability to construct neighborhood by festivals like NFMLA that helped me construct sturdy business connections.