The Salt Lake City-based Sundance Institute has announced the selection of six filmmakers as 2005 Annenberg Film Fellows.

The Annenberg Film Fellows Program is unique among Sundance programs and initiatives in that it gives direct financial support to facilitate the making of the participants' projects. Created in April 2004 with a $5 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, the Film Fellows Program is a five-year initiative that provides personal stipends, residencies, and creative support for selected participants in the institute's Feature Film Program. This year's fellows are Hilary Brougher, D.W. Harper, David Kaplan, Stew, Elisabeth Subrin, and Taika Waititi.

Each year, the institute supports up to six emerging filmmakers as they participate in the different aspects of the Feature Film Program. Among other activities, the program offers a series of structured residencies on screenwriting, directing, film scoring, and producing films; mentors drawn from all creative and business areas of filmmaking; personal stipends for living expenses during intensive periods of creation; pre-production grants; and completion grants to overcome obstacles in moving projects successfully through the post-production phase.

"These six filmmakers embody the very spirit of the Sundance Institute; they're original, imaginative, and wonderfully talented," said Ken Brecher, executive director of the Sundance Institute, which was founded by the actor Robert Redford in 1981. "We all know how difficult it is to bring films from the page to the screen, but as recipients of Annenberg Film Fellowships, these filmmakers will find it easier to focus on their filmmaking — which, after all, is exactly what they should be doing."