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FILM INDEPENDENT ANNOUNCES 2026 FICTION AND
NONFICTION PRODUCING LAB FELLOWS

$30,000 Alfred P. Sloan Producers Grant Awarded to Justin Nguyen;
$10,000 Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship Awarded to Drew Dickler

LOS ANGELES, CA (September 29, 2026) — Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization behind the Film Independent Spirit Awards, has announced the filmmakers selected for two of its 2026 Artist Development Labs: seven producers for the Fiction Producing Lab and six producers for the Documentary Producing Lab.

The 26th annual Fiction Producing Lab, taking place September 28 – October 9, and the third annual Documentary Producing Lab, which concluded September 18, are intensive programs designed to strengthen the craft and careers of independent producers. Fellows in both labs work closely with industry professionals and advisors to refine their projects and gain practical insights into the art and business of producing. Lab participants receive mentorship, resources and strategic guidance, while joining Film Independent’s year-round community of Fellows with access to grants, awards and ongoing support.

The 2026 Fiction Producing Lab Fellows are Brian Grigsby, Oscar Hernandez, Megan Leonard, Justin Nguyen, Steven Snyder, Po Wei Su and Carolina Tamez. The 2026 Documentary Producing Lab Fellows are Beatriz Browne, Drew Dickler, Sruti Lodha, Zak Piper, Jyoti Sarda, and Rachel Elizabeth Seed.

“Making a documentary is rarely a straight line, and producers are the people who keep moving the project forward when the path gets complicated”, said Daniel Cardone, Senior Manager of Nonfiction Programs “We’re excited to bring together this year’s cohort to tackle those challenges head-on, share what they’ve learned, and build a community that extends well beyond the Lab.”

“We’re proud to support this incredible group of producers and the visionary projects they’re bringing to life. Fellows will leave the Lab with greater clarity, confidence and meaningful relationships to help move both their projects and careers forward,” added Ashley Flores, Manager of Fiction Programs.

Film Independent will present the Alfred P. Sloan Producers Grant to Justin Nguyen for Stem. The Sloan Producers Grant recognizes an outstanding project that incorporates science or technology themes into a dramatic narrative. The grant is part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s nationwide initiative to advance public understanding of science and technology through film.

The Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship is a $10,000 grant awarded to a Jewish filmmaker selected for a Film Independent Artist Development Program. The unrestricted cash grant is awarded to 2026 Documentary Producing Lab Fellow Drew Dickler, participating in the program with her project The Grass Ceiling.

With support from The Harnisch Foundation, all Producing Lab Fellows will receive professional coaching from Renee Freedman & Company, enhancing their professional growth and positioning them for long-term success.

Producing Lab Fellows will also receive support from Film Independent’s recently launched Artist Sustainability Fund, providing sustainability grants in recognition of the time and talent of the participating filmmakers, alongside essential program support.

Advisors and Guest Speakers for the Fiction Producing Lab include Juliet Berman, Erika Canchola, Neal Champagne, Pierre M. Coleman, Kyle Greenberg, Sarah Kim, Kaylee Madrid, Lauren Mann, Amanda Marshall, Anne-Elisa Schaffer, Tony Yang and Jim Young. Fellows will also receive complimentary access to Rightscenter, a premier database and concierge research service for film and television literary rights as well as an educational workshop lead by Anne-Elisa Schaffer, a partner with Rightscenter.

Lead Producing Advisors and Guest Speakers for the Documentary Producing Lab included Sarba Das, Orly Ravid, Ben Proudfoot, Smriti Mundhra, Alysa Nahmias, Senain Kheshgi, Diane Becker, Lauren Cioffi, Trevite Willis, Megan Gilbride, Dale Cohen and Loralee Sundra.

The 2026 Fiction Producing Lab Fellows and their projects are:

Call Cutters
Producer: Megan Leonard
At a gamified call center where pay is dictated by performance and competition is fierce, a new threat forces a motley crew of night shift employees to band together and decide what winning really means in a system built for them to lose.

Lucius Luz
Producers: Oscar Hernandez and Carolina Tamez
When teenager Lucius is sent from Mexico to work with his estranged father in California, he becomes drawn to Angel, who is believed to possess divine healing powers and is the son of the local pastor. As their bond deepens, Lucius begins to uncover dark secrets that upend his life and threaten to tear the town apart.

Stem*
Producer: Justin Hung Nguyen
Inspired by a true scandal, a devoted female researcher risks everything to earn the approval of a world-renowned stem cell scientist, only to uncover the dark secrets behind his miracle cure that promises to end human disability.
* 2026 Film Independent Alfred P. Sloan Producers Grant Recipient

Tell Me a Secret
Producer: Steven Snyder
When eighteen-year-old Azi Rahimi meets Elizabeth Kessler, it unlocks hidden desires and leads to an unexpected game that affects Azi and those around her.

The Death of Youngjoo
Producer: Po Wei Su
In the conservative 1980s Midwest, a fiery Asian American student investigates the suspicious suicide of her fellow best friend, a pastor’s son, inside an elite white fraternity. She uncovers a tragic, forbidden romance involving the fraternity president, a governor’s son, ultimately forcing her to choose between vengeful justice and systemic reform.

The Last Cowboy
Producer: Brian Grigsby
Saddled by crippling mob debt, a suave ex-con conspires with an unassuming bartender for a series of heists that’ll provide them with the freedom they’ve long desired, but they soon realize this union is more than what they bargained for as the struggle for power could cost them their lives.

The 2026 Documentary Producing Lab Fellows and their projects are:

Bad Girl Marcia Tucker
Producer: Rachel Elizabeth Seed
After being fired from NYC’s Whitney Museum for her radical exhibitions, feminist curator Marcia Tucker founded the New Museum in 1977 to champion marginalized artists. Through rare archive and insight from today’s artworld rebels, Bad Girl Marcia Tucker traces Marcia’s defiant legacy – offering a blueprint for resistance in the face of contemporary threats to art, artists and art institutions.

The Cost of Care
Producer: Jyoti Sarda
In post-Dobbs America, state abortion bans are hollowing out the healthcare workforce — a crisis that goes far beyond bodily autonomy. The Cost of Care follows medical students, residents and frontline doctors across two neighboring states, one banned and one protected, as they navigate legal risk, training gaps and impossible ethical choices to reveal who really pays the price when politics dictates medicine.

The Grass Ceiling*
Producer: Drew Dickler
Filmmaker Sarah Strauss revisits her abandoned dream of playing professional baseball by following four girls fighting for a place in the sport, as a historic women’s league prepares to launch.
* 2026 Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship Grant Recipient

In Search of Missing Clouds
Producer: Sruti Lodha
When the monsoons fail and harvests collapse, eight-year-old burn survivor Aaru refuses to give up on her home in Vidarbha’s dry, saline land, which her family can no longer afford to stay on. In Aaru’s search for answers, a filmmaker returns to the questions that once led his own family to migrate from the same land.

My First Phone
Producer: Zak Piper
My First Phone is a documentary following four kids in the city of Chicago before, during and after they receive their first smartphones from their families. The film explores how the transition into digital life impacts their social experience, family dynamic and understanding of themselves, using groundbreaking technology to provide a never-before-seen look inside what has become the ultimate rite of passage for young people today.

Southern Quest
Producer: Beatriz Browne
In search of an extraordinary adventure, a group of ordinary people set sail on an old fishing boat from London to Antarctica. Surviving plane crashes, shipwrecks and each other, they became the last independent expedition to the South Pole. Four decades later, they finally reckon with the hidden cost and political impact of their ambition.

The Fiction Producing Lab is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Harnisch Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Documentary Producing Lab is also supported by the Harnisch Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Film Independent Producing Labs have supported acclaimed films including In the Summers (Sundance Grand Jury Prize), The Inspection (TIFF, NYFF, released by A24), Joyland (Cannes Un Certain Regard, Spirit Award winner), All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Spirit Award nominee), and Songs My Brothers Taught Me (Spirit Award nominee). Film Independent’s Documentary Labs have supported many high-profile documentaries including Natchez (Tribeca Best Documentary), Ascension (Academy Award nominee), Minding the Gap (Academy Award nominee, Spirit Award winner) and United Skates (Emmy Award nominee).

Film Independent Artist Development programs promote unique, independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work through Project Involve, Filmmaker Labs (Episodic Directing, Documentary Story, Documentary Producing, Episodic, Fiction and Nonfiction Producing and Screenwriting), Fast Track, Fiscal Sponsorship, Amplifier Fellowship and the Imaginar Producers Residency, as well as through Grants and Awards that provide over one million dollars annually to visual storytellers.

For more information on any of the Labs, or the projects that have been developed in them, please contact [email protected]. Additional information can be found at filmindependent.org.

ABOUT THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants for research in science, technology and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science. Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports Books, Radio & Podcasts, Film, Television, Theater, YouTube & TikTok, and New Media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience and to bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities.

Sloan’s Film Program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past two decades, Sloan has partnered with a dozen leading film schools and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production. The Foundation also supports screenplay development programs with the Sundance Institute, SFFILM, Film Independent, The Black List, the Athena Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. The Sloan Film Program has supported over 850 film projects and has helped develop over 30 feature films, including Tesla, Radium Girls, Adventures of a Mathematician, One Man Dies a Million Times, The Sound of Silence, To Dust, Operator, The Imitation Game and The Man Who Knew Infinity. The Foundation has supported feature documentaries such as Werner Herzog’s Theater of Thought, David France’s How to Survive a Pandemic, Picture a Scientist, Coded Bias, In Silico, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, The Bit Player, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Particle Fever and Jacques Perrin’s Oceans. It has also given early award recognition to standout films such as Frankenstein, Twisters, Oppenheimer, Don’t Look Up, After Yang, Linoleum, Son of Monarchs, Ammonite, The Aeronauts, Searching, The Martian, First Man and Hidden Figures.

The Foundation’s book program includes early support for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, the best-selling book that became the highest grossing Oscar®-nominated film of 2017, and Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning American Prometheus, adapted for the screen in Christopher Nolan’s hit film Oppenheimer.

For more information visit sloan.org or follow @SloanPublic on X, Instagram or Facebook.

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling in all its forms and foster a culture of inclusion, in support of a global community of artists and audiences who embody diversity, innovation, curiosity and uniqueness of vision.

In addition to producing the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the organization supports creative professionals with Artist Development programs, grants and labs. Signature mentorship program Project Involve fosters the careers of talented filmmakers from underrepresented communities. Weekly Education events and workshops equip filmmakers of all ages and experience levels with tools and resources. International programs provide cultural exchanges and career-building opportunities for film professionals around the world. And year-round screening series Film Independent Presents offers a robust program of unique cinematic experiences, including screenings, conversations, Live Reads and Bring the Noise musical events.

For more information or to become a Member, visit filmindependent.org.