NEON, the Oscar-winning studio behind “Parasite” and “Anora,” and UFO, a nonprofit organization that supports filmmakers, enter their second year as partners on a residency program to help artists making their sophomore features. This year’s recipient is Diana Peralta. Diana is a Dominican-American writer, director, and creative producer from New York City. She is a 2024 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab fellow and was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”.
Diana’s debut feature film, DE LO MIO, had its world premiere as the closing night film of BAMcinemaFest in 2019 and was initially distributed by HBO. The film was awarded “Best Narrative Feature” at IndieMemphis Film Festival.
Diana is in development on her second feature, NO LOVE LOST, which has been supported by the Sundance Feature Film Labs, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund.
In the thick of summer on a secluded flower farm, the Youngblood sisters’ lives are upended when their estranged youngest sister, Daisy, returns home with her new husband, Leo. Her arrival breathes life and chaos back into the house, reigniting sibling bonds and old rivalries. Soon, strange and violent events begin to plague the farm, and the sisters fear someone—or something—is out to drive them from their land. As their paranoia escalates, loyalties fracture, and long-buried family secrets come to light. NO LOVE LOST is a psychological thriller about sisterhood, the thin line between love and control, and how far we’ll go to protect our own. The film team includes producer Alexandra Byer (Familiar Touch) and casting director Kim Coleman (BlacKkKlansman, Lovecraft Country).
NEON and UFO are aligned in supporting filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds struggling to build and maintain momentum to make sustainable careers as independent filmmakers. With this intervention, we hope to prevent attrition of important voices and incubate exciting new work from diverse filmmakers in the genre space. The filmmaker completes the residency experience with a script ready for the next stage of development and financing.
The UFO x NEON residency is designed for a filmmaker in development on their second narrative feature film project. The program aims to target filmmakers who have not yet directed a second feature in two or more years since the release of a promising independent feature debut. The in-person residency experience provides dedicated time and space in the Catskills region for a writer/director to further develop a script and other project elements, followed by several days in New York City to engage with execs, producers, and other potential HOD collaborators, in addition to meetings with NEON execs.
