Neon, UFO Select ‘De Lo Mio’ Director Diana Peralta for Second Feature Development Residency (EXCLUSIVE)

Neon, the studio behind best picture Oscar winner “Anora,” and UFO, a nonprofit organization that supports filmmakers, have selected Diana Peralta as the next participant in their residency program that supports artists making their sophomore features.

The UFO x Neon residency is designed for filmmakers developing their second narrative feature, specifically targeting those who, in two or more years since the release of a promising independent feature debut, have not yet directed a second feature. The filmmaker completes the in-person residency with a script ready for the next stage of development and financing.

Channing Godfrey Peoples, who garnered widespread acclaim for her 2020 debut, “Miss Juneteenth,” was the first filmmaker selected for the residency.

Peralta’s debut feature film, “De Lo Mio,” made its world premiere at BAMcinemaFest in 2019 and won the best narrative feature prize at IndieMemphis Film Festival. The film was distributed by HBO.

Peralta, a Dominican-American writer, director and creative producer from New York City, is currently in development on her second feature, “No Love Lost,” which is described as a psychological thriller “about sisterhood, the thin line between love and control, and how far we’ll go to protect our own.”

An early synopsis of the film reads: “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” has been supported by the Sundance Feature Film Labs (Peralta is a 2024 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab fellow), the Gotham Film & Media Institute and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund. The film team includes producer Alexandra Byer (“Familiar Touch”) and casting director Kim Coleman (“BlacKkKlansman,” “Lovecraft Country”).