Today, the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 2025 fellows for its highly selective, invitation-only Directors Lab. Diffan Sina Norman, the director of FANGORIA Studios' first feature film, Sitora, will join a small cohort of filmmakers for an intensive, two-week workshop at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado (known to horror fans as the inspiration behind the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining).
“We're beyond excited to welcome this remarkable group of filmmakers — especially in the 45th year of our Directors Lab,” said Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Artist Programs at the Sundance Institute. “Our labs are a powerful space where bold, original voices are nurtured in a creative, supportive environment. Artists work closely with world-class advisors to sharpen their writing and directing skills and deepen their vision.”
Scheduled for June 2025, the Directors Lab stands as one of the film industry's most career-defining opportunities for emerging filmmakers. Previous Sundance Institute lab fellows whose early-career work has been fostered at the labs include award-winning filmmakers Paul Thomas Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Miranda July, Boots Riley, Quentin Tarantino, and Taika Waititi.
Diffan Sina Norman has a strong history of collaboration with the Sundance Institute. Three of his short films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival—”Kekasih” (2014), “Benevolent Ba” (2020), and “Pasture Prime (2024)—and in January, Norman participated in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, where he also received the Sundance Horror Fellowship. Most recently, he participated in Sundance's Catalyst Forum, a highly competitive film financing program. Notably, Sitora is the first project to be selected for all three programs within a single year.
“Diffan is such a remarkable talent with a truly unique vision and storytelling approach,” says Tara Ansley, Co-Owner of FANGORIA. “This selection at Sundance's Directors Lab further validates what the horror community has long recognized – that genre filmmaking can push cinematic boundaries in profound ways, and audiences are increasingly seeking global stories that explore universal themes.”
Armen Aghaeian, Senior Vice President of FANGORIA Studios adds, “The FANGORIA family celebrates Norman's selection for the prestigious Sundance Directors Lab as genre filmmaking continues its remarkable rise in critical recognition. As horror continues to dominate both creatively and commercially, Norman's unique perspective represents exactly the kind of visionary talent our community champions.”
Below, you can learn more about Diffan Sina Norman, Sitora, and the other 2025 Sundance Directors Lab fellows:
Leo Aguirre (Writer-director) with Verano (U.S.A.): An unruly teenager's summer plans are upended when his parents decide to foster an adolescent from Central America who is seeking asylum in the United States. As the two teens realize they must share more than just a bedroom, they are forced to confront their differences amid their harsh realities.
Leo Aguirre is a first-generation Mexican American filmmaker and visual artist. His work has received international recognition through film and photography projects spanning the advertising, music video, and narrative landscapes. Verano is his feature film debut.
Chheangkea (Writer-director) with Little Phnom Penh (Cambodia, U.S.A.): Spanning two ever-changing decades, from post–Khmer Rouge Phnom Penh to early 2000s California, a Cambodian woman grapples with her deep personal desires, untimely love, and shifting family roles amid profound cultural and historical upheavals.
Chheangkea is a Cambodian-born filmmaker based in Brooklyn. He earned an MFA in Filmmaking from the NYU Graduate Film program. His short film Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites won the Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. His previous short film, Skin Can Breathe, streams on Max.
Andrea Ellsworth (Co-writer-director) and Kasey Elise Walker (Co-writer-director) with The Dispute (U.S.A., U.K.): Down on their luck and desperate for more, two best friends from South Central take a chance encounter as an invitation to trade their dead-end lives in Los Angeles for something new. When chaos ensues during their seemingly lucrative adventure, they realize the true cost of their actions.
Andrea Ellsworth is a Black and Filipino actress and filmmaker from Los Angeles. She's currently in development on her debut feature film, The Dispute, and can be seen starring as Deja in The Vince Staples Show on Netflix.
Kasey Elise Walker is a writer-director-actress best known for co-writing and starring in The Dispute, a short film that is now in development to become a feature. Her directorial debut, Hoop Dreams, premiered at Tribeca Festival after winning the Soho Script Lab.
Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (Writer-director) with High Steel (Canada, U.S.A.): A Mohawk man splits his time between his reservation with his family and Manhattan, where he ironworks 60 stories above the ground. When he falls in love with a white photographer in the city, his identity is challenged and he must keep his double life a secret or risk losing everything.
Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs is an award-winning actor and filmmaker known for their work in the groundbreaking series Reservation Dogs. Jacobs produced her first feature, Backspot, which premiered at TIFF and SXSW to critical acclaim. Jacobs is currently writing her debut feature film, High Steel.
Diffan Sina Norman (Writer-director) with Sitora (Malaysia, U.S.A.): A young doctor arrives in a Malay village to establish its first health clinic, jeopardizing the community's allegiance to a racketeering shaman and his unlikely accomplice: an elusive half-man, half-tiger.
Diffan Sina Norman is a Malaysian Iranian filmmaker based in Northeast Texas. His short films Kekasih (2014), Benevolent Ba (2020), and Pasture Prime (2024) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He is an alumnus of the 2025 January Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and a recipient of Sundance Institute's Horror Fellowship.
Alexandra Qin (Writer-director) with Thirstygirl (U.S.A.): When Charlie is forced to drive her estranged younger sister cross-country to rehab, her own secret addiction comes to the surface in the most devastating and hilarious ways.
Alexandra Qin is a French Filipino Chinese writer-director with a background in software engineering and prison reform activism. Her first short film, Thirstygirl, was an official selection of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival among 50 other festivals worldwide. She is one of Vimeo's 10 Breakout Creators of 2024.
Chloe Sarbib (Writer-director) with Trou Normand (France, U.S.A.): As her family prepares to leave their Normandy home, an aging actress becomes convinced that a lost Vichy-era heirloom is the magical solution to all her problems — but the search may dig up more than she bargained for.
Chloe Sarbib is an American and French Algerian filmmaker drawn to characters who get in their own way. Her shorts have been supported by Tribeca, the DGA Student Film Awards, and major festivals. An alum of Yale and Columbia's film MFA, she recently directed on The CW/Netflix's In the Dark.
Lana Wilson (Writer-director) with Back Seat (U.S.A.): When a Romanian immigrant is arrested for leaving her son in a car, she struggles to hold on to fragile daily routines while navigating an unforgiving system. As she fights for custody, encounters with strangers, family, and her children force her to confront the judgment she fears most — her own.
Lana Wilson is an Emmy-winning director and writer. Her films include After Tiller (2013 Sundance Film Festival, Emmy winner), Miss Americana (2020 Sundance Film Festival, Netflix), Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (2023 Sundance Film Festival, Hulu), and Look Into My Eyes (2024 Sundance Film Festival, A24). She is working on her feature narrative debut.
