Screenwriters could not hope for a better Christmas present than having their projects picked by Sundance Screenwriters Lab for next months intense work with pros and industry folks. What kind of projects did they go for?

Here are the annoited 12

2009 January Screenwriters Lab Fellows and Projects:

Benh Zeitlin (co-writer/director) and Lucy Alibar (co-writer) "Beasts of the Southern Wild": In this epic comedy set on the crumbling grounds of the Louisiana delta, a 10-year-old girl desperately tries to hold on to whatever love is left for her despite the imminent death of her father and in defiance of the impending Apocalypse.

Kirill Mikahnovsky (writer/director) "Fuga Mortis" (U.S.A./Russia): In modern-day Havana, a city where everything is for sale, an adolescent hustler is willing to beg, steal, or do just about anything else to get his sister off the streets.

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (co-writers/co-directors) "Howl" (U.S.A.): A hybrid feature about the creation of the ground-breaking poem by Allen Ginsberg and the resulting 1957 obscenity trial--an opening volley in the coming "culture wars."

Mishna Wolff (writer) "I'm Down" (U.S.A.): Adapted from Wolff's memoir, I'M DOWN tells the story of a white girl living in a black community who strives to be cool enough to hang with her white but very "down" father.

Sally El Hosaini (writer/director) "My Brother Is The Devil" (U.K./Egypt): Two brothers must face their prejudices head on if they are to survive the perils of being young, Arab, British, and Muslim on the streets of gangland, post-9/11 London.

Alejandro Landes (writer/director) "Porfirio" (Brazil/Ecuador): After years of futile waiting for his pension, a Colombian man confined to a wheelchair hijacks a place with his unwitting teenage son in an effort to draw the attention of the President to his plight.

Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (writer/director) "On The Ice" (U.S.A.): In the remote arctic village of Barrow, Alaska, a young Iniut man tries to help his best friend get away with a murder.

Carlos Contreras (writer/director) "On Speaking Terms" (Mexico): The existence of a rare indigenous language is threatened with extinction when the last two practitioners have a fight and refuse to speak to one another.

Todd Rohal (writer/director) "Scoutmasters" (U.S.A.): When a well-meaning but immature Scouting Leader kidnaps his adopted Sudanese nephew to indoctrinate him into the joys of scouting, his good intentions are quickly thwarted as he leads his troop down a darkly comic road of chaos, death, and destruction.

Ritesh Batra (writer/director) "The Story of Ram" (U.S.A./India): A chance encounter over the radio waves leads to an extraordinary friendship between the Prime Minister of India and an ordinary tea vendor.

Elgin James (writer) "Untitled Elgin James Project" (U.S.A.): A homeless teenager on the streets of Boston gathers a crew of throw-away kids to battle drug dealers and inner city gangs with a pact to help the less fortunate.

Avi Zev Weider (writer/director) "Zeroes and Ones" (U.S.A): In creating an intelligent machine out of discarded computer parts, a young woman completes her grandmother's fractured story of survival at Auschwitz and emerges from her own secluded life.

 via Indiewire