FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Seanna Hore, Ginsberg/Libby
seanna.hore@ginsberglibby.com

Gladys Santos, Ginsberg/Libby
gladys.santos@ginsberglibby.com
 

LOS ANGELES (March 18, 2022) – Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced the six screenwriters selected for its 24th annual Screenwriting Lab. Sari Arambulo, Rob Connolly, Elise H. Greven, Sanford Jenkins, Phumi Morare and Lanre Olabisi were chosen for this intensive program, designed to provide individualized story and career development for emerging screenwriters with fiction feature screenplays. One hundred percent of this year’s participants are from communities underrepresented in film and half the participants are women.

Film Independent is also excited to announce the inaugural Hyde Park Entertainment & Warner Music Group Screenwriting Fellowship. The Fellowship is being awarded to Sari Arambulo, who will receive $12,500 to support the development of her script, Family Style (fka Foodie), through the Screenwriting Lab. Hyde Park will produce the project and provide industry mentorship.

Over the course of the Screenwriting Lab, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Pamela Ribon, Ellen Shanman, Robin Swicord and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors include Ruth Atkinson, Alex Camilleri, Angela Cheng Caplan, KD Davila, Matthew Dy, Greta Fuentes, Sam Intili, Amanda Marshall, Alex Moratto, Sheila Hanahan Taylor and Elliott Whitton.

“The writers selected for the 2022 Screenwriting Lab bring a beautiful authenticity and compassion to the characters and world they explore” said Angela C. Lee, Associate Director of Artist Development. “We are so thrilled to support such original voices in this year’s program.”

Past Screenwriting Lab projects include Chloé Zhao’s Academy Award-winning feature debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me; Andrew Ahn’s Spirit Award-winning debut Spa Night; 37 Seconds by HIKARI, which won the Panorama Audience Award and CICAE Art Cinema Jury Prize at the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival; Ani Simon Kennedy’s A 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 Nichols Fellowship.

Film Independent Artist Development programs promote unique, independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work through Project Involve, Filmmaker Labs (Directing, Documentary, Episodic, Producing and Screenwriting), the Fast Track finance market and Fiscal Sponsorship, as well as through Grants and Awards that provide over one million dollars annually to visual storytellers.

The Film Independent Screenwriting Lab is supported by Hyde Park Entertainment & Warner Music Group, Writers Guild of America West, Final Draft, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information on any of the Labs or the projects that have been developed in them, please contact Angela C. Lee, Associate Director of Artist Development, at alee@filmindependent.org.

Additional information and an application form can be found at filmindependent.org.
 

The 2022 Screenwriting Lab participants and their projects are:

 
A Storybook Ending
Writer/Director: Lanre Olabisi
Logline: When a black man accidentally kills a white cop, the cover-up sets off a chain reaction that brings together seven disparate characters who all become embroiled in a game of theft, mistaken identity, blackmail, and murder.

Family Style (fka Foodie)
Writer: Sari Arambulo
Logline: When a food-obsessed Filipina transracial adoptee forms an unlikely friendship with a picky eater who begins working at the same Filipino restaurant, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find her true birth mom.

Joy and Pain
Writer/Director: Sanford Jenkins
Logline: An exploration of two families, through a young couple burying a parent and bearing their first child.

Lavender Country
Writer/Director: Rob Connolly
Logline: Lavender Country is the true story of Patrick Haggerty and his band of radical Gay Liberationists as they create the world’s first overtly-queer country album in 1973, chronicling their fight for survival, freedom, and true intimacy amid the sexual revolution.

Silent Spring
Writer: Elise H. Greven
Logline: Biologist Rachel Carson takes on the government and powerful chemical industries as she struggles to write “Silent Spring,” the book that sparks the creation of the American environmental movement.

There Is Salt in the Water
Writer/Director: Phumi Morare
Logline: A Senegalese surfer and immigrant to South Africa struggles to start a surf school for Black children from the slums. His efforts are thwarted further when his daughter falls ill and develops an obsession with water.
 

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.

In addition to producing the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the organization supports creative professionals with Artist Development programs, grants and labs. Signature mentorship program Project Involve fosters the careers of talented filmmakers from underrepresented communities. Weekly Education events and workshops equip filmmakers of all ages and experience levels with tools and resources. Global Media Makers, a cultural exchange program produced in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, provides career-building opportunities for international film professionals. And year-round screening series Film Independent Presents delivers monthly, unique cinematic experiences to Members in Los Angeles and beyond.

For more information or to become a Member, visit filmindependent.org.