Film Independent Sets 2023 Screenwriting Lab Participants
EXCLUSIVE: Film Independent on Wednesday named the eight screenwriters set for the 25th edition of their Screenwriting Lab. The latest cohort of the intensive program, designed to provide individualized story and career development for screenwriters with fiction feature screenplays, includes Bri Brooks, Karina Dandashi, Thais Drassinower, Chloé Hung, Adam Meeks, Nat Moonhill, Veronica Moonhill and Richard Van.
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Film Independent also today named Dandashi as the recipient of their latest MPAC Hollywood Bureau Writing Fellowship Grant, who will receive $10,000 in recognition of her script, Out of Water.
Over the course of the Lab, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Andrew Ahn, Javier Fuentes-León, Jeff Stockwell and Robin Swicord. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Angela Cheng Caplan, KD Dávila, Greta Fuentes, Jordan Hart, Eliza Hittman, Ana Leocha, Ilyse McKimmie, Lauren Mann, Kiva Reardon, Pamela Ribon and Ellen Shanman.
“In our 30th year of championing independent storytellers in our Artist Development Programs we are thrilled to support this exceptional group of filmmakers, who bring compassion, authenticity, and curiosity to their work exploring unique communities and characters,” said Film Independent’s Associate Director of Fiction Programs, Dea Vazquez. “We’re so fortunate to be able to give filmmakers the space to focus on not just their current projects but their overall careers in the program.”
Notable past projects emerging from Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab include Oscar winner Chloé Zhao’s feature debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me; Andrew Ahn’s Spirit Award-winning debut Spa Night; Hikari’s 37 Seconds, which won the Panorama Audience Award and CICAE Art Cinema Jury Prize at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival; Ani Simon-Kennedy’s The Short History of the Long Road, which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and received a Special Jury Mention for Best Screenplay; and Kate Marks’ The Cow of Queens, which was a 2020 recipient of the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship.
Film Independent also supports filmmakers through Artist Development programs like Project Involve, Directing, Documentary, Episodic and Producing Labs, the Fast Track finance market and Fiscal Sponsorship, as well as through grants and awards that provide over $1M annually.
More information on the 2023 Screenwriting Lab participants and their projects can be found below.
Gem & Shaz
Writer/Director: Chloé Hung
Logline: In this coming-of-age story, two Asian-Canadian best friends struggle with their strict households to find their independence as one begins an unlikely romance and the other discovers a new artistic passion. As their paths diverge, their friendship will be put to the test.
Kiki Goes Baby Crazy!
Writer/Director: Nat Moonhill
Writer/Director: Veronica Moonhill
Logline: In this absurdist rom com a queer woman’s Uterus becomes sentient and starts hounding her to get pregnant against the wishes of her trans partner.
Out of Water
Writer/Director: Karina Dandashi
Logline: A young woman raised by a Syrian Muslim immigrant father and an American mother navigates the dual nature of her upbringing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Girl of the Shining Snow
Writer: Bri Brooks
Writer/Director: Thais Drassinower
Logline: When her disillusioned father refuses to participate in the annual religious pilgrimage of their people, an indigenous eight-year-old girl embarks on the perilous journey alone to retrieve the sacred ice from a remote mountain glacier — the last remaining hope for her dying mother.
Uncle Hiep’s Casino
Writer/Director: Richard Van
Logline: Somewhere between his mother’s house and his uncle’s illegal casino, a prisoner finds a new
life.
Union County
Writer/Director: Adam Meeks
Logline: Mandated to a drug court recovery program, a young man in rural Ohio tests the boundaries of his sobriety.
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