The Sundance Institute has selected Toronto-based producer Ryan Bobkin as one of 11 fellows for its 2025 Producers Lab.

Bobkin (pictured) will attend the Lab’s Feature Film Program at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming from July 14 to 19 with the Canadian feature People You Follow.

People You Follow is based on Winnipeg-born singer-songwriter Hayley Gene Penner’s memoir of the same name published in 2020. The film accompanies a songwriter from Winnipeg as she navigates the L.A. music scene, where she is forced to confront herself for survival. People You Follow is co-written by Penner and Lizzie Rose, who is also slated to direct, Bobkin told Playback Daily.

Bobkin’s past producing credits include Infinity Pool, Thirteen Minutes and The Quickening. He is currently in post-production on Sophy Romvari’s Locarno-bound Blue Heron.

The other fellows for the Feature Film Program are April S. Chang and Vicki Syal (Dying is Fine), Karen Madar (Little Phnom Penh), Steven Snyder (Tell Me a Secret) and Daniel Tantalean with the project Birthright, categorized by the release as a Canada/U.S. feature.

Birthright follows a pregnant Métis woman who is abandoned at her sister-in-law’s Alberta home where she uncovers a sinister plot for her child.

The Producers Lab, the focal point of the Sundance Institute’s Producers Program, is the start of a yearlong fellowship where the participants network and engage in professional development opportunities while working on their project.

In the Lab, the cohort is offered tailored project support and meetings with established producers and industry advisors. They will also develop strategies for pitching, securing funding, managing production, marketplace navigation and sustainability. Following the lab, fellows receive a yearlong mentorship from a dedicated advisor, further networking opportunities and meetings with their cohort as well as participation in ELEVATE, the Sundance Institute’s professional development track.

The fellows are split into the Feature Film Program and the Documentary Film Program. The fellows for the doc program are Loi Ameera Almeron (Becoming Us), Wendy P. Espinal (Anna Borges do Sacramento), Crystal Isaac (Basketball Heaven), Elijah Stevens (Untitled Science Project) and Nicole Tsien (Spirited).

The advisors for the 2025 Feature Film Program are Anne Carey (Nightbitch), MPRM Communications SVP Sylvia Desrochers, Poppy Hanks (One of Them Days), Kimberly Parker Zox (The Last Black Man in San Francisco), Josh Peters (Dìdi) and 3B Law partner Eugene Pikulin. The advisors for the Documentary Film Program are Jamie Gonçalves (Caballerango), Rémi Grellety (Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat), Lance Kramer (Holding Liat), Andrea Meditch (Fathom) and Diane Quon (Minding the Gap).

Image courtesy of the Sundance Institute