Los Angeles, CA – The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program today announced that Jonathan Wysocki, with his project, ALL FALL DOWN, will receive the 2008 Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship. Created in 2005 in memory of a long-time Sundance Institute staff member, the annual fellowship provides support to an emerging screenwriter through ongoing development of his or her screenplay. Recipients are selected from artists who have attended one of the Institute’s renowned screenwriters labs.

Wysocki developed ALL FALL DOWN in June at Sundance Institute's 2008 Screenwriters Lab. As an Auerbach Fellow, Wysocki will receive a cash stipend of $2500, a screenplay reading produced as part of the Institute’s Screenplay Reading Series of Works in Progress, and the support of two Screenwriter Advisors to serve as mentors throughout the Fellowship year.

"This Fellowship is our way of honoring and embracing the passion and commitment Lynn Auerbach brought to nurturing new talent," said Michelle Satter, Director of the Feature Film Program. "Jonathan's unique voice represents the kind of filmmaker Lynn was so adept at discovering. The support the Fellowship offers in her name will provide Jonathan with crucial resources to move his project forward."

Tom Perrotta (LITTLE CHILDREN) and Susannah Grant (THE SOLOIST, ERIN BROCKOVICH) will serve as Wysocki's advisors throughout the Fellowship year. ALL FALL DOWN will also be part of the Sundance Institute Screenplay Reading Series in 2009, where an ensemble of professional actors either in New York or Los Angeles will offer fresh perspective on script development.

ALL FALL DOWN offers a pointed, satirical look at how fear seized the nation’s judgment in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. When a nine-year-old suburban boy makes the ill-fated decision to dress up as Osama Bin Laden on Halloween 2001, the fragile underpinnings of his dysfunctional family are exposed. The ensuing chaos is both ruefully funny and a stark reminder of the consequences of an emerging culture of fear.

Southern California native Jonathan Wysocki grew up in the theatre, his experiences spanning from Europe to Africa. He went on to obtain an MFA in Film Production at UCLA, where he wrote, directed and edited four short narratives, including the award-winning films THE WAY STATION and THE VESSEL PITCHES. Wysocki was a Project:Involve Honoree at Film Independent and worked for director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. Currently, he teaches Film Studies at Chapman University and is a feature programmer for the Los Angeles Film Festival.

The Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship
The Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship celebrates and honors the contributions and memory of Auerbach’s 15-year career at Sundance Institute. In that time she worked directly with hundreds of screenwriters and directors through the different aspects of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program and made a profound difference to those artists who came to know her. Her humanity, love of storytelling, and extraordinary efforts to find the most unique voices are all part of Auerbach's legacy. The annual Fellowship was created to support a screenwriter who has participated in one of Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters Labs and whose script is still in ongoing development. The Fellowship provides a cash award, a produced Screenplay Reading in New York or Los Angeles, and year-round support from two designated Creative Advisors.

Sundance Institute Feature Film Program
Since 1981, the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program (FFP) has supported more than 450 independent filmmakers whose distinctive, singular work has engaged audiences worldwide. Program staff fully embrace the unique vision of each filmmaker, encouraging a rigorous creative process with a focus on original and deeply personal storytelling. Each year, up to 25 emerging filmmakers from the U.S. and around the world participate in a year-round continuum of support which can include the Screenwriters and Directors Labs, Composers Lab, Independent Producers Conference, ongoing creative and strategic advice, significant production and post-production resources, a rough-cut screening initiative, a Screenplay Reading Series, and direct financial support through project-specific grants and artist fellowships. In many cases, the Institute has helped the Program’s fellows attach producers and talent, secure financing, and assemble other significant resources to move their projects toward production and presentation. In 2008, the FFP launched the Creative Producing Initiative, a year-long Fellowship program for emerging independent producers, which will include a Creative Producing Lab, industry mentorship, and financial support.

Sundance Institute
Dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work. Since its inception, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Sundance Film Festival and artistic development programs which provide a range of concentrated creative and financial support for directors, screenwriters, documentary filmmakers, composers, playwrights and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk-taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with US artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world.