EXCLUSIVE: WIF (Women In Film Los Angeles) and the Black List revealed the six aspiring screenwriters set to participate in the 2021 Feature Residency. The program, a joint effort between both organizations, provides mentorship and career opportunities to six rising women and non-binary screenwriters over the course of a year.
The Residency, which commences today, includes intensive script and professional development sessions. Participants will have meetings and receive feedback from working feature writers, executives, and industry leaders. Past mentors include Jac Schaeffer (Black Widow), Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick), Stephany Folsom (Toy Story 4), David Rabinowitz (Blackkklansman), Mattson Tomlin (Project Power), Haifaa Al-Mansour (WADJDA), Andrea Berloff (The Kitchen), Aline Brosh McKenna (Cray Ex-Girlfriend), Scott Myers (Go Into the Story), Liz Hannah (Long Shot), Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith (Legally Blonde) and more.
“Said it before, will say it again: I very much look forward to the year that doing two writing labs with WIF with only women and non-binary participants makes no rational sense, because they represent at least fifty percent of the working screenwriters in film and at every level of television,”said Black List founder Franklin Leonard. “We are, sadly, very far from that date. Until then, we look forward to our ongoing work with WIF, this year’s lab, and the success of all of the writers who were selected.”
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Read more about the 2021 Feature Residency participants below:
Myra Aquino
Script: LAMB
Logline: Set in the island of Guam in 1996, a young CHamoru boy tries to save his grandfather from dying of a broken heart.
Bio: Myra Aquino is a Los Angeles-based writer-director who grew up in Guam and the Philippines, and graduated with an MFA in Directing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. She is passionate about writing stories that explore the impacts of multiculturalism and globalization on Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, and other underrepresented communities.
Liann Kaye
Script: ELECTABLE
Logline: When Quinn Chin becomes the mastermind behind her crush’s high school presidential campaign, she stumbles upon someone much better for the job – Herself.
Bio: Liann Kaye is a Chinese American writer/director. She is a grant recipient of The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre, a 2020 Athena Lab winner, and a Top 9 Semi-Finalist for SeriesFest’s Women Directing Mentorship in partnership with Shondaland. Her short film The Blessing won “Best Comedy” at the New York Short Film Festival and is now becoming an episodic series.
Diana Ly
Script: MISEKAKERU
Logline: A Japanese rental wife, along with her best friend, searches for true connection after her long-time fake husband “breaks up” with her.
Bio: A Vietnamese-American screenwriter and playwright born in Oklahoma and raised in the Philippines, Diana’s been a Project Involve Fellow at Film Independent and is currently a member of The Sống Collective’s Inaugural Việt Writers Lab. Coming into her creativity after a career in tech, she writes stories about dysfunctional families, immigrants, nerds, and women who defy stereotypes.
Emily-Anne Mikos
Script: MISS DICKPUNCHER
Log line: After a failed attempt to lose her virginity, a sixteen-year-old girl is sent to an all-girls etiquette camp where she solicits the help of her delinquent CIT to lose her V-Card before the summer of ’84 ends.
Bio: Emily-Anne Mikos is an MFA Screenwriting student at the University of Texas and a self-proclaimed cool Canadian. As the queer feminist daughter of a strip-club owner, Emily-Anne writes funny, female-driven young adult narratives that challenge the perceived norm and characters that seek to find understanding in friendship and community.
Huriyyah Muhammad
Script: GOD HELP THE GAYES
Log line: As the world awaits a new ruling from the Supreme Court that could effectively overturn gay marriage, a lesbian celebrity couple, Pam and Rosa Gaye and thrust into the spotlight and hands of a publicity seeking marriage guru, when Rosa insists she wants a divorce.
Bio: Huriyyah is an award-winning writer, director, and producer whose projects have been invited to the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Institute, AFI Fest, Austin Film Festival, New Voices in Black Cinema, and many others. She is a recipient of the 2020 Sundance Creative Producing Award for the critically acclaimed film, Farewell Amor and her directing credits include the cult-favorite sci-fi series, Keloid, which screened extensively throughout the U.S. and won Best Web Series at multiple film festivals including the American Black Film Festival. Her award-winning children’s short, Outgrown, continues to screen at festivals and has won awards including Best Short Film.
Yael Schick
Script: BLESSING
Logline: When her religious girl band breaks up, a young Jewish woman starts drumming for a decidedly un-Orthodox rock group. But nothing in Bracha’s sheltered upbringing prepared her for the rock and roll life, and she must find her own rhythm between these two worlds that march to very different drums.
Bio: Yael Schick is a writer and educator from New York City. An alumnus of Yeshiva University, she serves as the Director of Programs at the national literacy nonprofit Writopia Lab, and is currently a Saul Zaentz fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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