The !f& Sundance Scenario Lab participants have been announced from among more than 40 applications from Turkey that were submitted to the prominent indie cinema institution. The !f & Sundance Scenario Lab is organized by the !f Istanbul International Independent Film festival in partnership with İş Bank Maximum Card, and has been jointly overseen by !f Istanbul and the Sundance Institute since 2011. The creators of three projects chosen from among the applicants are entitled to attend a scenario development workshop in Büyükada from May 8-11."Eksik Bir Şey" (Something Missing), written and directed by Burcu Aykar, "Sorgu" (Questioning), co-written and co-directed by Hacı Orman and Sedat Yılmaz, and "Kelebekler" (Butterflies), written and directed by Tolga Karaçelik, have been chosen as the 2015 projects of !f & Sundance Scenario Lab. Moreover, Greek director Emma Doxiadi's "Duft & Bassenauer" and "Membrane," the new project of Yannis Veslemes, will also participate in the lab.The chosen projects will be developed under the supervision of expert advisors during the three-day workshop on Büyükada - the largest of the Princes' Islands in Istanbul. Barış Pirhasan, who wrote the scripts of many classic Turkish films such as "Adı Vasfiye" (Her Name is Vasfiye), "Aaahh Belinda," "Değirmen" (Mill), "Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur?" (How will Asiye Survive?), "Kadının Adı Yok" (Women Don't Have a Name) and "Bekle Dedim Gölgeye" (I Asked the Shadow to Wait for Me), and directed "Küçük Balıklar Üzerine Bir Masal" (A Story About a Small Fish), "Usta Beni Öldürsene" (Kill Me Master), "O da Beni Seviyor" (He Loves Me Too) and "Ademin Trenleri" (Adam's Trains) will be among the workshop's advisors. Furthermore, Pavel Zech, dean of the cinema school of the famous FAMU in Prague, Greece's famous author Penny Panayotopoulou - who is the script writer and director of the films "Hard Goodbyes: My Father" and "September," as well as one of Sundance's international advisors - and Zachary Sklar, who was nominated for an Academy Award for best script writing for Oliver Stone's acclaimed film "JFK," will join the workshop as advisors.Founded by famous actor and director Robert Redford, the Sundance Scenario Lab began operating in 1981 to create an environment where young and talented filmmakers can work and develop original film projects together with prominent writers and directors. The workshop has helped many well-known directors, such as Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky, Steven Soderbergh, Shirin Neshat and Paul Thomas Anderson, initiate touchstone film projects, and has been providing scenarios advising Turkish projects since 2011 in collaboration with !f IstanbulBurcu AykarBorn in 1977 in Istanbul, Burcu Aykar graduated from Boğaziçi University's Department of Psychology and completed her Master of Arts in film theory at Southampton University. She worked at Sinema magazine as an editor, and later became editor-in-chief of Total film - another film-related magazine. She also worked in film distributing with SIR Film, a company she founded. She wrote and co-directed the short films "Doğum" (Birth) and "Ölüm" (Death) with Uygar Şİrin. Additionally, she wrote film critiques for Sinema magazine until Dec. 2013, while contributing content to eksisinema.com and arkapencere.com. "Eksik Bir Şey" is Aykar's first feature-length film project.Hacı OrmanHacı Orman was the chairman of the Foundation of Science, Education, Aesthetics, Culture and Art Research (BEKSAV) as well as the editor-in-chief of the magazines Sanat and Hayat between 1998 and 2010. He was also the founding editorial director of Konuşan Dergi (Speaking magazine), the first culture and arts magazine published for the blind in Turkey. He also took part in the Kurdish production of Harold Pinter's "Mountain Language." He contributed to the books "Ararat ile Sırat Arasında Türkler ve Ermeniler" (The Turks and Armenians Between Mount Ararat and Sırat), "Tehcir Türküleri" (The Turks of Emigration), "Aydın Savunmaları" (The Defense of Aydın) and "Nazım Hikmet'in Bilinmeyen Yazıları" (Nazım Hikmet's Unknown Writings) with Ragıp Zarakolu. He was imprisoned twice for political reasons and subsequently released twice. He served as editor of world literature in various publishing houses and shot his first short film "Homo Politicus" in 2014. He is currently working at the Civil Society Development Center, an affiliate of the EU, as the training specialist for human rights, culture politics and corporate strategy. "Sorgu" is Orman's first feature-length film project.Sedat YılmazAfter studying computer engineering at Middle East Technical University, Sedat Yılmaz enrolled in Marmara University's Faculty of Fine Arts in 1996 to study film and television. Between 1998 and 2004, he worked on documentaries and short films, and also organized workshops at BEKSAV, which he was co-managing with Hacı Orman. He taught fiction at various film workshops, and founded his own production company "Karıncalar Yapım" with his partner in 2004. He has worked on many commercial films, educational films and documentaries. He has organized workshops on fiction at the Diyarbakır Film Festival for three years, and many of his articles on cinema have been published in various magazines. He shot his first feature-length film "Press" in 2010.Tolga KaraçelikFollowing his graduation from Marmara University Faculty of Law, he studied film in New York. So far, he has made five short films that were screened at local and international film festivals. His first feature-length film "Gişe Memuru" (Booking Clerk) became the first Turkish film that was screened for a week at New York's MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), and it was also screened at more than 35 cities in the U.S. and Canada. His second film "Sarmaşık" (Ivy), which he wrote and directed, competed in the Sundance Film Festival's best international film category. "Kelebekler" is Karaçeliks third feature-length film project.Yannis VeslemesBorn in 1979 in Athens, Yannis Veslemes studied film in college. He directed "Norway," which was screened as part of the 2015 !f İstanbul program. In addition to directing short films, commercial films and music videos, he also composes film scores.Emma DoxiadiEmma Doxiadi received her B.A. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College. She has been working in film and theatre from a very young age, most notably under the direction of Terrence Malick. Most recently, she co-wrote, produced and starred in SxSW and Berlinale short film Squirrel (2015) directed by Tomas Vengris. She lives and works in London.