FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Seanna Hore, Ginsberg/Libby
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Gladys Santos, Ginsberg/Libby
gladys.santos@ginsberglibby.com
 

LOS ANGELES (March 28, 2025) — Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced the seven screenwriters selected for its twenty-seventh annual Screenwriting Lab. Daniel Barosa, Aron Kantor, Satinder Kaur, Nina Ljeti, Quintessence McGee, Natália Sellani and Honora Talbott were chosen for this intensive program, which is designed to provide individualized story and career development for screenwriters with fiction feature screenplays.

“The writers selected for the 2025 Screenwriting Lab approach their work with such curiosity, boldness and authenticity while exploring a wide variety of genres, characters and worlds,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs. “We feel lucky to be able to give them a space to further develop their exciting screenplays and careers in the program.”

Over the course of the program, kicking off March 31, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Ellen Shanman and Jeff Stockwell. Additional guest speakers and advisors include Ruth Atkinson, Tyler Boehm, Amanda Marshall, Alexandria Martin, Laura Moss, Kiva Reardon, Lauren Shelton, Amelia Shugrue, Shuchi Talati, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Ti West and Alex Williams.

The inaugural Climate Entertainment Development Grant, in partnership with Plot Shift Media, has been awarded to Quintessence McGee, who will receive a $25,000 grant for their climate-focused fiction feature Over and Over. At Plot Shift Media, storytelling and narrative change are tools for climate justice. Plot Shift Media designs and develops transmedia projects that have the potential to reach broad audiences with entertaining and inspiring stories about the pathways to a just and equitable climate future. Plot Shift Media collaborates with artists developing entertainment or impact-driven climate stories and advocacy organizations working towards just climate solutions for all.

Past Screenwriting Lab projects include Jing Ai Ng’s Forge, which had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival; Billy Luther’s Frybread Face and Me, winner of the Best Narrative Feature at the 2023 Urbanworld Film Festival, nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film and currently on Netflix; Academy Award-winner Chloé Zhao’s feature debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me; Andrew Ahn’s Film Independent 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 and is now on Netflix; 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); Fast Track Finance Market; Imaginar Producers Residency, Imaginar TV Incubator for Fearless Latinx Creators, Amplifier Fellowship and Fiscal Sponsorship, as well as through Grants and Awards, which provide over one million dollars annually to visual storytellers.

The Film Independent Screenwriting Lab is supported by Plot Shift Media. Additional support provided by Final Draft.

For more information on any of the Labs or the projects that have been developed in them, please contact artistdevelopment@filmindependent.org. Additional information and an application form can be found at filmindependent.org.
 

The 2025 Screenwriting Lab participants and their projects are:

 
Bad at Sex
Writer/Director: Honora Talbott
Logline: A millennial filmmaker spirals after her boyfriend admits she’s not his best sex, so she makes a doc interviewing every man she’s ever slept with to prove she can’t be that bad at sex.

Drown
Writer/Director: Nina Ljeti
Logline: A struggling band embarks on a cross-country tour when its frontwoman becomes haunted by a terrifying presence that follows the band wherever they go.

Over and Over – The Climate Entertainment Development Grant Awardee
Writer: Quintessence McGee
Logline: In an age of climate anxiety, a young historian begins to suspect that their recurring nightmares and startling hallucinations may hold the key to humanity’s future.

Searching for Arlo
Writer/Director: Satinder Kaur
Logline: A battle-scarred veteran’s world unravels when her perfect boyfriend vanishes without a trace—erased from existence. As she digs for answers, she uncovers a chilling conspiracy that forces her to question reality, her past and the truth about the man she risked everything for.

Stud
Writer/Director: Aron Kantor
Logline: After adopting a hyper-masculine persona for the sake of a job, a genderfluid farmhand’s desperate pursuit of online validation unwittingly attracts the carnal fixations of his psychopathic employers, whom he must escape before they sadistically transform him into the embodiment of their monstrous fantasies.

The Shell Covered Ox / Boi De Conchas
Writer/Director: Daniel Barosa
Writer: Natália Sellani
Logline: While mourning her missing sister, Rayane practices for a music festival – provided she doesn’t become an ox first, a misfortune assailing local teenagers.
 

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

For 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 in all its forms and foster a culture of inclusion, in support of a global community of artists and audiences who embody diversity, innovation, curiosity 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. International programs provide cultural exchanges and career-building opportunities for film professionals around the world. And year-round screening series Film Independent Presents offers a robust program of unique cinematic experiences, including screenings, conversations, Live Reads and Bring the Noise musical events.

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