As Director of Talent Development at Film Independent, Josh Welsh oversees the Filmmaker Labs, Project:Involve, Fast Track, and works with the filmmakers who receive cash grants at the Spirit Awards. Since 2000, Welsh has been responsible for Film Independent’s Filmmaker Labs. Committed to cultivating writers, directors, and producers with strong, original voices, the Labs provide filmmakers with the opportunity to develop their new work in a nurturing yet challenging creative environment.  Films developed in the Labs include Scott Prendergast’s Kabluey, So Yong Kim’s In Between Days, Beth Schacter’s Normal Adolescent Behavior as well as the Spirit Award nominated American Gun and Robbing Peter. The Labs have been taught by such filmmakers as Allison Anders, Effie T. Brown, Anne Clements, Eric d’Arbeloff, Tony Drazan, Rodrigo García, Keith Gordon, Matthew Greenfield, Vondie Curtis Hall, Nicole Holofcener, Gina Kwon, Jeremy Podeswa, Jeff Stockwell, Barbara Turner, Andrew Wagner, and Lee David Zlotoff.

For the last five years, Welsh has also overseen the Fast Track program. Taking place during the Los Angeles Film Festival, Fast Track is designed to help selected filmmakers develop their current film projects by providing access to industry professionals and to sources of financing.   Projects that have gone through the program include Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River, Sterlin Harjo’s Four Sheets to the Wind, Billy Luther’s Miss Navajo, Jessica Sanders’ After Innocence, and Jennifer Westfeldt’s Ira and Abby.

Prior to working on the Filmmaker Labs, Welsh worked with the nominating committees for the Spirit Awards for four years, as well as the special committees that give out the cash grants at the Spirit Awards.  He was also in Film Independent’s Programming Department where he helped select films for the Festival Buzz, under the Documentary Buzz, and New Visions screening series.  He has been a judge in UCLA’s Screenwriting Showcase, the Outfest Screenwriters Competition, a juror for the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and spoken on numerous panels and at film schools.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Welsh earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University.  He is also in the band Meatyard, whose album Toot Toot, Boom Boom, was released on iTunes in 2008.