Screenwriters to Watch 2019 - Austin Film Festival

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25 Screenwriters to Watch

We're proud to present our fourth annual 25 Screenwriters to Watch list, featuring writers whose work has already done what we at AFF are all about: furthering the art and craft of storytelling.

screenwriters extraordinaire

Revati Dhomse & Hector Lowe

Listed as one of Variety’s 110 Students to Watch in their 2015 educational impact report, Revati Dhomse is a writer and director who lives in Los Angeles. Hector Lowe is a British-American screenwriter, originally from London. Together they have collaborated on a number of projects, winning acclaim from the A-List, Austin Film Festival, The Barry Josephson Fellowship and American Film Institute.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Davia Carter

Molded by her small, Missouri hometown and all the excitement that it offered — none — Davia’s passion for writing spawned from a desire to entertain — herself, first and foremost. This led her to the entertainment capital of the central southwest: Austin, Texas. After accumulating a diverse and extensive body of work at The University of Texas, Davia headed to Los Angeles, where she is currently staffed on USA’s show Queen of the South.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Rochée Jeffrey

Rochée Jeffrey is a writer/director who hails originally from Jamaica. While attending Howard University, she won the Paul Robeson Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Music Video Direction. She went on to direct the first scripted one-hour drama in Belize, Noh Matta Wat.

screenwriters extraordinaire

Shruti Swaminathan & Ronak Shah

Shruti was raised in the bursting-at-the-seams cultural explosion that is Mumbai and has been fascinated with stories from the first time her grandmother told her a bedtime story. After discovering her love for storytelling while working in New York, Ronak proceeded to get her MFA in Writing/Directing at UCLA. She met Shruti during her time there and they collaborated to write 'Love Goes Through Your Mind’, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival in 2018. With this film, the aim is to challenge the stigma toward mental illnesses in the Asian American

screenwriter extraordinaire

Sara Zandieh

Sara is an award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker whose first short film, The Pool Party, won a Jury prize at the Tribeca Film Festival and screened at festivals worldwide. Her next short, Reza Hassani Goes to the Mall, starring Maz Jobrani, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and won the Focus Features Best Film Award at the Columbia University Film Festival

screenwriters extraordinaire

Jean Lee

Jean Lee is a writer/director who loves world cinema and has worked on films in eleven countries spanning five continents. Currently residing in Los Angeles, she now focuses on creating genre film/TV for a global audience. She and her work have been recognized by Women In Film, the Blacklist, AFI Directing Workshop for Women, Fox Filmmakers Lab, Film Independent, Sundance, Berlinale, Austin Film Festival, ScreenCraft, Ryan Murphy’s HALF, and NALIP.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Tate Elizabeth Hanyok

Tate Hanyok is a California native transplant, by way of colonial Virginia. Her upbringing in the land of historical reenactments and federal government careers led her liberal, budding artist soul to flee westward. As a writer and film maker her perspective is steeped in themes of the endless and unpredictable reality of the underdog, and the strength and magic of community.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Joshua Toro

Joshua Toro is a director, writer, and producer based in New York City. Last May he graduated with honors from Yale College’s Theater Studies Program, where he explored everything from filmmaking with Student Academy Awardee Jon Andrews to playwriting with Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Sam Frederich

Sam Frederich is an LA-based writer and animator. Born in Panama, graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in film. Winner of the Best Scripted Digital Series award at AFF 2018 for his animated pilot "Song in the Sky."

screenwriter extraordinaire

Greg Sisco

Greg Sisco is a writer and director in the horror, thriller, and dark comedy genres. His feature spec script The Patience of Vultures won the Horror Award at the Austin Film Festival in 2018 and placed in the Top 50 in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Published in both English and German, he is also the author of five novels. He is managed by Energy Entertainment.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Jason Noto

Noto is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, The Berlin International Film Festival’s top-notch talent development program. His short films have screened and been nominated at numerous festivals, including Sitges International Film Festival (for the film Butcher’s Hill) and Fantasia International Film Festival (for the film La Ricetta). Noto also won two Best Short Film awards and the Audience Award at the Philadelphia Film Festival. He has written several original screenplays, including The Nail (2007), The North Star (2015), Addiction: A 60s Love Story (2016), and Beyond the Night (2019). He is a member of the Writers Guild Association, East, and has recently completed his directorial debut title, Beyond the Night.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Ann Lupo

Ann Lupo is an award winning writer, director, producer, and actor, a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the arts, editor of many commercials, and a romantic through and through. Her debut feature film, IN REALITY, which she wrote, directed, produced, edited and starred in screened at thirteen film festivals domestically and internationally in 2018 winning nine awards including the Jury and Audience Award at Austin Film Festival and the Special Jury Mention at Los Angeles Film Festival.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Bradley Slabe

Bradley Slabe is an Annie Award nominated writer and director. His latest short film LOST & FOUND was shortlisted for the 91st Academy Awards® and received an Australian Academy Award. He has been honored by the Australian Writers’ Guild, having won Best Animation as well as the Major Award. His work has also won awards at Sydney and Austin Film Festival and has screened at acclaimed festivals such as the Berlinale. He currently writes animation for the international screen. Bradley is represented by Verve Talent and Literary Agency in LA.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Sam Suksiri

Sam Suksiri is a freelance comedy writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. After not quite finishing the UCB sketch writing program in Hollywood, he went on to contribute to comedy writing to places like McSweeney’s, Points in Case, and Slackjaw. His main job lately has been writing audio dramas.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Stuti Malhotra

Stuti Malhotra was born in Bhopal, India and immigrated to America at the age of five. She attended the NYU Stern School of Business and graduated with a double major in Finance and International Business. Before she left it all to pursue her dream of screenwriting, she was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a venture capitalist, and a hedge fund investor. Her script Worth won the 2018 Austin Film Festival best Drama Teleplay Pilot Award and was a finalist in the 2018 Page Awards.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Simon Lord

Simon’s debut feature Jellyfish had its World Premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, going on to win Best Performance at Edinburgh, then Best Screenplay, Best Performance, the Critics’ Award and the Grand Jury Prize at Dinard. Star Liv Hill was BIFA and London Critics’ Circle nominated for the film. Jellyfish was released theatrically in the UK and is available on Amazon Prime in the US.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Jon Jones

Jon Jones is a writer and director working primarily in the UK. Recently he completed Last Summer, his first feature film, which is due for release in North America & the UK in May 2019. Previously he has directed numerous dramas for British Television including the award winning 'When I'm 64' (Prix Europa - Best TV FIlm),' The Diary of Anne Frank', 'The Alan Clark Diaries' (DGGB Best Director), 'A Very Social Secretary' (Broadcast Press Award - Best Film), 'Northanger Abbey', 'American Odyssey' and most recently the TV adaptation of 'Hanna' for Amazon Prime.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Wenonah Wilms

Wenonah has been screenwriting since 2001 and has written over twenty feature-length screenplays. She's had six short films produced. She has won competitions and placed highly in many others as well as participating in screenwriting workshops, programs and panels. Wenonah is the showrunner and head writer for FEM 101, a web series that will be available Fall of 2018. She was also the Resident Screenwriter at the Augsburg University Summer MFA program in July 2018.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Tripper Clancy

After working in the Fox Writers Studio in 2011, Tripper has gone on to write comedies and dramas of all shapes and sizes for Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Amazon, Netflix, MGM, Fox Animation, Paramount Animation, Hasbro and even studios abroad. His original spec script, STUBER, produced by Fox, starring Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista, hits theaters July 12, 2019. He recently adapted the New York Times’ bestselling novel, THE ART OF FIELDING, and is currently a writer on season one of I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS, a half-hour show for Netflix.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Sam Baron

Sam Baron wrote and directed short film "The Orgy" which premiered at the Austin Film Festival. He is developing it as a series with Clerkenwell Films. His shorts have six million hits online. Sam won the Academy's Nicholl Fellowship for his screenplay "The Science Of Love". He is developing it with the BFI to direct as his first feature. He has also co-written an original feature "Blue" for Blueprint Pictures and a feature adaptation of "The Girl With A Clock For A Heart" for Unanimous Entertainment. He is represented by UTA, Curtis Brown and 3 Arts.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Akash Sherman

Akash Sherman is an award-winning Canadian writer and director with a strong background in visual effects. He was named one of Playback Magazine's 5 Filmmakers 2 Watch 2017 at just 22 years of age, carrying out quite the prolific career with two feature narrative films under his belt, a feature documentary, two award-winning short films, and an array of commercial and VR content. His most recent feature film Clara (2018), starring Patrick J. Adams (Suits) and Troian Bellisario (Pretty Little Liars), premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. It won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature Film at the Austin Film Festival, and has since found U.S. distribution with Screen Media.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Sean Collins-Smith

Sean Collins-Smith is a biracial, award-winning journalist from Richmond, Virginia. After winning a national award for in-depth reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Sean graduated with a Master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. He went on to work at a local news station, covering crime during the midnight shift. It was in this dark, violent world he discovered the inspiration for his first television pilot, "END OF LIFE," which was a finalist in the Austin Film Festival in 2017 and won him the Fast-Track Fellowship from the International Screenwriters Association.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Paul Vance

After graduating from Auburn University with an English degree, Paul moved to Austin and now works as a script supervisor. He directs his own stuff when he can.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Paul Bae

Paul is the co-creator and creator of the hit fictional podcasts "The Black Tapes" and "The Big Loop," respectively. The Black Tapes is in development with NBC with Paul as executive producer. Paul has another cable network development deal in place which he is excited to talk about later in 2019. Based in Vancouver, BC, Paul continues to produce hit fictional podcasts to be developed as IP for film and television.

screenwriter extraordinaire

Paul Harrill

Paul Harrill is writer-director based in Knoxville, Tennessee. His latest film, LIGHT FROM LIGHT premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. His first feature, SOMETHING, ANYTHING was a New York Times Critic's Pick. His short films include "Quick Feet, Soft Hands" (starring Greta Gerwig) and the Sundance Jury award-winner, "Gina, An Actress, Age 29."

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