25 Screenwriters to Watch Austin Film Festival and MovieMaker Magazine are thrilled to present the third annual Screenwriters to Watch list. We’re proud to feature 25 writers whose work is furthering the art and craft of storytelling. screenwriter extraordinaire Jasmuel Andri Jasmuel Andri is a young scriptwriter. A multidisciplinary artist, he practices in fields such as music, theater, musical comedy, slam, radio, stand up comedy and cinema. Today, a graduate of the National School of Humor in Quebec, Jasmuel is a founding member of the film production company Muska Films with Bruno Mourral and Gilbert Mirabeau Jr. He works as a copywriter at Muska Group. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Cylin Busby Cylin Busby is a former book editor and a best-selling, award-winning author of books for young readers. Her first screenplay, Rebecca and Quinn Get Scared, written with Nanci Katz, was a comedy finalist at the Austin Film Festival in 2017. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Scooter Corkle Scooter Corkle is a writer/director based in Vancouver whose feature film Hollow In The Land starring Dianna Agron (Glee, Novitiate) released theatrically in 2017 across Canada, the USA, and internationally. Scooter is represented by CAA and Grandview Management respectively, and it is his real name. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Darren Curtis Darren Curtis was born in Montreal Canada where he currently lives and works. He studied Liberal Arts and Communications in CEGEP and university. During this time he founded the comedy collective 'Kidnapper Films' with a group of childhood friends. They wrote, acted and directed short comedy films inspired by Canadian comedy legends The Kids in the Hall. In 2015, he shot his directorial solo debut Boost, which has played numerous festivals, including Austin, and has been nominated for five 2018 Canadian Screen Awards Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Joey Grossfield Joey Grossfield is Co-Executive Producer of the acclaimed A&E crime show, The First 48. Joey Grossfield and Andrew Reuland are long time friends and collaborators based in New York City. Their award winning short Western, Lightning In The Hand (directed by Grossfield, written by Grossfield & Reuland) played in competition at the 2014 Austin Film Festival and went on to screen at over 40 festivals, winning 11 awards. Their feature Western script Apacheria (written by Reuland, story by Grossfield & Reuland) won the Enderby Entertainment Award at the 2017 Austin Film Festival, and participated in the No Borders (U.S. Features) section of IFP Film Week 2017. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Laura Hainke Laura Hainke began her film industry career in Visual Effects working on films such as Hellboy and The Ring. She then joined the characters department at Pixar Animation Studios and worked on films such as Ratatouille, Up, and Coco. Screenwriting became a passion of hers while taking after-work writing classes at Pixar. Her dark comedy feature Suicide Boy won the Austin Film Festival Enderby Entertainment Award in 2014. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Josh Hallman Josh Hallman is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin which is also where he attended school. He moved to Los Angeles without much of a plan except to “make movies.” He jumped around from jobs and eventually began making short films and online content. When he felt like he found his groove with screenwriting, he never stopped. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Caroline Hopkins Caroline Hopkins graduated from Michigan State University in 2007 with a B.A. in English. She is a high school English and creative writing teacher in Sacramento, CA., and a 2017 Austin Film Festival Drama Screenplay Winner. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Nanci Katz After graduating from the American Film Institute, Nancy Katz was hired to write an ABC TV Movie, and re-write a feature comedy for Lions Gate along with other, smaller projects. Having children caused a major disruption in the writing process which resulted in a nearly decade long break. But when her youngest was in kindergarten, close friend, Cylin Busby, approached her about writing together. She jumped at the chance- it's so much more fun to work with Cylin than to toil away by myself! We wrote the comedy/horror, Rebecca and Quinn get scared, which was a finalist in the comedy category at AFF, it now has a director attached and is being packaged by UTA. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Jardine Libaire Jardine Libaire got her MFA in Writing from the University of Michigan where she was a Colby Fellow. Her most recent novel White Fur (Hogarth) was published in May 2017, and she's adapting it now as a TV series with FilmNation and director Drake Doremus. Her first novel Here Kitty Kitty (Little, Brown & Co. 2004) will be re-published by Hogarth in 2018. Her creative nonfiction book (with photographer Phyllis B. Dooney) Gravity Is Stronger Here (Kehrer Verlag) about a meth-affected, dynamic, survivor family in Mississippi came out in April 2017. She’s been a recipient of the Hopwood Award, the Glascock Poetry Prize, and Honorable Mention for the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize in Documentary. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Richard Lowe Richard Lowe is an AFF 2014 pilot semifinalist with Education, Secondary; AFF 2016 pilot finalist with Growing Up Dictator; writer on Dr. Ken and Walk The Prank; editor on The Good Fight. Host and producer of the podcast Pulling Your Hair Out: Conversations About The Writing Process. Currently a writer in the Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Britta Lundin Britta Lundin is a TV writer, novelist, and comic book writer, currently writing for Riverdale on the CW. Her young adult novel Ship It, about a teenage fanfiction writer who yearns for more from her favorite TV show, will be published May 2018. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she has an MFA from UT Austin, and now lives with her wife and their lime tree in Los Angeles. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Pat Mills Pat Mills’s first feature film, the dark comedy Guidance, which he wrote, directed and starred in, had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Picked up by Strand Releasing in the US and Search Engine Films in Canada, Guidance was hailed as a “Grade A” comedy by the Los Angeles Times and was a New York Times Critics' Pick. His performance as "David" was nominated for an Actra Award for Outstanding Male Performance. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Gilbert Mirambeau Gilbert Mirambeau Jr. is a writer and producer known for Kafou (2017) and Kidnapping Inc. (2018). Born in Port-au-Prince, Gilbert is based in Haiti and Montreal. For three years, he was the head writer and a produce for Muska Production, a leading audiovisual production company. After co-founding Muska Films in 2016 with Jasmuel Andri and Bruno Mourral, Gilbert focused on writing and producing heartfelt films. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Corey Moore Corey Moore is a docu-series television writer and award-winning broadcast journalist. Prior to his transition into creative television, Corey was a reporter and producer for such media outlets as NPR, The Tavis Smiley Show, KPCC (Southern California Public Radio) and BET News. In 2017, Corey placed in the top screenwriting finals of Austin Film Festival and Screencraft for his supernatural drama TV script Curse and Judgment. In 2016, he was awarded Quarterfinalist in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship Screenwriting Competition for his feature drama Blu’s Country. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Bruno Mourral Bruno Mourral is a director, writer, and producer. While studying film in Paris, he started directing commercials for Blue Mango an advertising agency in Haiti. In 2007, he returned to Haiti where he founded Muska Group with Jasmuel Andri and Gilbert Mirabeau, Jr. Muska Group is one of the leading company in audiovisual production. Bruno's talent led him to direct more than 50 commercials in the Caribbean and Africa. He won several awards for best commercials in international festivals. Today, Bruno focuses on writing, directing and producing heartfelt movies, he will be directing Kidnapping Inc. in 2018, co-produced by Muska Films, Promenades Films and Canal Plus Antilles. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Andrew Reuland Joey Grossfield and Andrew Reuland are long time friends and collaborators based in New York City. Their award winning short Western, Lightning In The Hand (directed by Grossfield, written by Grossfield & Reuland) played in competition at the 2014 Austin Film Festival and went on to screen at over 40 festivals, winning 11 awards. Their feature Western script Apacheria (written by Reuland, story by Grossfield & Reuland) won the Enderby Entertainment Award at the 2017 Austin Film Festival, and participated in the No Borders (U.S. Features) section of IFP Film Week 2017. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Robert Rue Robert Rue is a New York City-based screenwriter, fiction writer, teacher and basketball coach. His script DETROIT won the Drama category at the 2015 Austin Film Festival, and the same screenplay was at one point the number one script on the BlackList.com. DETROIT—now called Roar—is in active development, and Rue is currently negotiating an option deal on his high school basketball script KNOWING JACK. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Monica Santis A director writing her first feature script inspired by the award-winning short film, Hacia el Sol (Towards the Sun), that she directed & co-wrote. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Caitlin Schneiderhan Lifelong company town-er, trading DC for LA. Caitlin Schneiderhan's work has placed in the Page Awards, the Cinequest Teleplay Competition, the Screencraft Pilot Competition, and on the Bitch List. She has personally given up learning three separate instruments, works as the showrunners' assistant on Netflix's Stranger Things, and loves your dog. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Hanneke Schutte Hanneke is a multi-award winning South African writer and director. Her second feature film Meerkat Moonship had its North American premiere at the Austin Film Festival and has been selected to screen at over 12 international film festivals. Her short film, Saving Norman, starring Willem Dafoe was produced by Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Gabrielle Shepard Gabrielle Shepard is a Writer, Director and Producer based in Los Angeles, California. She earned an Masters of Fine Arts in Film and Television Producing at Chapman University where she also studied Screenwriting and Directing. Her projects have been programmed in various film festivals including: Austin Film Festival, Cannes Short Film Corner, Long Beach Comic Con, Cleveland International Film Festival and Pan African Film Festival. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Lauren Shippen Lauren Shippen is the writer and creator of the popular fiction podcast The Bright Sessions, which she uses to combine her love of scifi, queer stuff, and talking about feelings. When she’s not podcasting, Lauren voice acts, reads and writes YA fiction, and does a lot of karaoke. She's originally from New York and now resides in Los Angeles. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Caleb Slain Writer. Director. VR Prospector. Creator of Flowstate. Difficult to locate. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Michael Soll Michael Soll was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley and graduated from UCLA with a degree in International Relations. At 17, he wrote his first screenplay, a teenage coming-of-age story, because what else is a teenager going to write about? Michael is a 2016 AFF Finalist and his screenplay, CATALYST, is currently in pre-production. In addition to features, he also enjoys writing books. His novel, Scorched, was an Amazon Bestseller. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Tess Sweet &
Dan Gambelin Tess Sweet is a writer, director, lover of dark comedy, and recovering drug addict. She hates writing bios, prefers Jazzercise, and often fantasizes about the security of a 9-5 job. She currently lives in Santa Cruz, where she enjoys working with At-Risk youth in recovery and directing meaningful stories.

Wading knee deep in real-life drama and trauma for 25 years as a paramedic firefighter has made Dan’s mind an interesting place. Most people he meets are having a really bad day. His knack for dark comedy comes from a natural ability to find humor in things that aren’t funny at all. Requires frequent breaks from the computer to bend, cut and weld. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Jenny Turner Hall Jenny Turner Hall is a Peabody Award recipient and an irrepressible storyteller with a DIY spirit. She writes, produces, and performs stories in almost every genre. She is executive producer, writer, and director of The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, deemed "the Serial of children's podcasts." Mars Patel won the Peabody in 2017. Paramount has optioned the project for television. It will also be a serialized novel. Jenny recently started a punk band, and is writing fiction for young adults. Her characters are underdogs, misfits, and interplanetary travelers. Continue Reading screenwriter extraordinaire Greg Wayne Greg Wayne was born and raised in the mostly-frigid climate of Toronto, Canada. After graduating from the prestigious Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson University, he wrote for some of the lowest-budget shows in the history of Canadian television. Greg went on to become the Head Writer of a Toronto advertising agency, and after writing one-too-many toothpaste commercials, left the agency to write his way across Europe with nothing more than a backpack and a laptop. An invitation to join the American Film Institute Conservatory as a Screenwriting Fellow prompted Greg’s return to North American soil, and his time at AFI deepened his love for all things cinema. When Greg isn’t meditating or dabbling in witchcraft, he writes… A lot. Continue Reading