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The projects for the Sundance Institute's 2016 Directors Lab have been picked, work from eight filmmakers who will workshop their scripts in the mountains of Robert Redford's Sundance resort, May 30 to June 23.

The Directors Lab, the Sundance Institute's bedrock program, gives new filmmakers a place to experiment with their scripts, using real actors and crews to shoot and edit scenes — with a faculty of creative advisers offering feedback and mentorship.

Past movies that have come through the Directors Lab include Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs," Benh Zeitlin's "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Marielle Heller's "The Diary of a Teenage Girl," Dee Rees' "Pariah" and Cary Fukunaga's "Sin Nombre."

This year's creative advisors include Redford, actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Richard Jenkins, directors David Gordon Green, Catherine Hardwick, Kasi Lemmons, Ira Sachs and many others. Overseeing it all is Michelle Satter, founding director of Sundance's Feature Film Program.

Here are the eight filmmakers and projects chosen for this year's Directors Lab, with synopses provided by the Sundance Institute:

• Frances Bodomo, "Afronauts" (Zambia/U.S.A.) • "Just after Zambian Independence in 1964, an ingenious group of villagers build a homemade rocket in a wild bid to join the Space Race. 17-year-old astronaut Matha Mwambwa must decide if blasting off in the precarious rocket vindicates her past or just makes her a glorified human sacrifice. Inspired by true events." Bodomo, born in Ghana, directed the short films "Boneshaker" and "Afronauts," both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She is a Sundance Institute | Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

• Annie Silverstein, "Bull" (U.S.A.) • "In a near-abandoned subdivision west of Houston, a wayward teen runs headlong into her equally willful and unforgiving neighbor — an aging bullfighter who's seen his best days in the arena. It's a collision that will change them both." Silverstein, based in Austin, Texas, most recently wrote and directed "Skunk," which won the jury award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival–Cinéfondation.

• César Cervantes, "Hot Clip" (U.S.A.) • "In the aftermath of their best friend's fatal confrontation with a cop, three Southeast Los Angeles skaters spend 24 hours chasing dreams, making trouble and trying to survive in a community on the verge of exploding." Cervantes is a first-generation Chicano filmmaker from Maywood, Calif., whose accomplishments include creating an after-school film program for inter-city youth and touring as lead videographer for the band La Santa Cecilia. He is the first recipient of the Feature Film Program Latino Fellowship.

• Kibwe Tavares, "The Kitchen" (U.K.) • "Raised in London's first favela housed in an abandoned Council high-rise, known as the Kitchen, Es commits smash-and-grab thefts as a way of redistributing the wealth to the community who took him in. When the inhabitants are threatened with eviction by the police, Es is tasked with a high-stakes heist that pits him against the Kitchen's leader and irrevocably alters his definition of family." Tavares' thesis film at Bartlett School of Architecture, the short "Robots of Brixton," won the Special Jury Award for Animation at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

• Eva Vives, "Nina" (U.S.A.) • "Just as Nina Geld's brilliant and angry stand up kicks her career into high gear, her romantic life gets complicated, forcing her to reckon with what it means to be creative, authentic and a woman in today's culture." Vives wrote and directed the short "Join the Club," which premiered at Sundance this year.

• Sandhya Suri, "Santosh" (India/U.K.) • "In the corrupt hinterlands of Northern India, a young widow, Santosh, inherits her husband's job as police constable. When a girl's body is found in a well, she is forced to confront the brutality around her and the violence within." Suri, based in London, premiered her documentary "I for India" at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. She also participated in the 2015 Drishyam | Sundance Screenwriters Lab.

• Pippa Bianco, "Share" (U.S.A.) • "In this cyber thriller, a disturbing video — leaked from a local high school — throws a Long Island community into chaos and the national spotlight as they try to unravel the story behind it." Bianco's script is an expansion of her short "Share," which won a jury prize at SXSW 2015. She shares story credit on "Bleed for This," a true-life boxing drama starring Miles Teller slated to open later this year.

• Boots Riley, "Sorry to Bother You" (U.S.A.) • "A black telemarketer with self-esteem issues discovers a magical key to business success, propelling him to the upper echelons of the hierarchy just as his activist comrades are rising up against unjust labor practices. When he uncovers the macabre secret of his corporate overlords, he must decide whether to stand up or sell out." Riley is a poet, rapper, songwriter, and leader of the hip-hop band The Coup. He claims to be the only known musical artist whose surveillance by intelligence agents was exposed by Wikileaks.