EXCLUSIVE: Now in its sixth year, the Producers Guild of America‘s Create Lab has announced the producers selected for its 2026 fellowship, which runs Nov. 17-20.
The PGA Create Lab’s scripted cycle has selected nine emerging and mid-career producers from underrepresented backgrounds, representing eight scripted feature projects, including Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (Arc), Annie Huang (Bobbie and Diana), Lea Mende (Cold Blooded), Cristobal Abugaber & Felipe Torres Urso (Keel Over & Die), Selena Leoni (Nine Night), Yuki M. Ledbetter (The Panacea), Claire Brooks (Total Landscaping) and Alison Week (Wanle).
The four-day program will allow the producers in active development, financing or packaging of a feature to work with a one-on-one mentor to hone their pitches, attend master classes led by experienced producers and expand their network of fellow producers.
Developed through PGA’s One Guild inclusive initiative, the One Guild Task Force Chairs Javier Chapa and Shelby Stone said in a statement, “For six years, PGA Create has provided steadfast support to up-and-coming producers with a range of personal backgrounds, work experience and innovative storytelling that are invaluable to the future of our industry and profession. We could not be more proud of the Guild’s investment in this program, the colleagues who generously share their time as speakers and mentors, and the fellows who have shared their work with us.”
Read on about the projects and producers selected for the 2026 PGA Create Lab.
Arc
Prod. Jason Fitzroy Jeffers
Miami, 1999: A paranoid young hustler who believes his mother was abducted by aliens finds solace in a mysterious woman whose cult promises extraterrestrial salvation, drawing the attention of a washed-up former government agent who’s desperate for a case.
Bobbie and Diana
Prod. Annie Huang
After her cheating husband’s sudden death in the summer of ’92, a Princess Diana-obsessed Southern grandmother is thrust into independence and a late-in-life sexual awakening that challenges everything she believed about love, herself and her own desires.
Cold Blooded
Prod. Lea Mende
After a desperate 911 call leads a deputy to a snow-covered lake house, she reconstructs a deadly crime scene alongside a local officer she knew as a child — but as the storm closes in, mounting evidence forces her to question both what happened that night and the man beside her.
Keel Over & Die
Prod. Cristobal Abugaber and Felipe Torres Urso
Wanting to give the love of his life a “happily ever after,” Gustavo, an out-of-work sailboat designer, puts everything on the line when he discovers what could be $100 million worth of gold inside an old boat.
Nine Night
Prod. Selena Leoni
When Dale Lewis’ grandmother Durene dies and her family gathers to host a traditional Jamaican wake, she is given nine nights to fulfill Durene’s secret dying wish – but at the risk of tearing her family apart.
The Panacea
Prod. Yuki M. Ledbetter
A man living in a society that treats toxic masculinity as a clinical disease must undergo a psychedelic treatment or face permanent exile from civilization.
Total Landscaping
Prod. Claire Brooks
On the outskirts of Philadelphia, a well-meaning but spectacularly unlucky everyman rents out his company’s parking lot for what he believes is a film shoot, only to find himself at the center of a national media circus.
Wanle
Prod. Alison Week
As violent threats mount against a second-generation Hawaiian-Chinese-Filipino cockfighter aiming to avenge her father’s wrongful death, her pacifist lover issues an ultimatum: him or her beloved birds.
