Between Heaven & Here (Feature)

By Jon Lazar

When Joel's father disappears in the middle of the night in what seems to be a spell of Alzheimers confusion, Joel searches for the truth down a rabbit hole of paranoia and finds secrets about his mother and father that he wasn’t ready for.

An excerpt from this project will be performed as part of Screenwriting Night on Friday, April 23 at 7:00pm ET

Jon Lazar is a Los Angeles-based writer/director from New York. He graduated Columbia University where he obtained an MFA in Screenwriting/TV Writing. Jon's work tends to focus on character-driven drama & genre pieces.

Prior to Columbia, Jon worked as a Zamboni driver which he used as source material for his short film, Zamboni, which premiered at Tokyo International Film Festival. He currently works in post-production for David Fincher's Reset Content.

"Not Our People" (TV Hour)

By Jon Lazar

A young Mexican-American Border Patrol agent is forced to confront the rift between his heritage and nationality when his girlfriend's illegal immigrant father is forced to cross the border in order to return to the United States.

An excerpt from this project will be performed as part of Screenwriting Night on Friday, April 23 at 7:00pm ET

Jon Lazar is a Los Angeles-based writer/director from New York. He graduated Columbia University where he obtained an MFA in Screenwriting/TV Writing. Jon's work tends to focus on character-driven drama & genre pieces.

Prior to Columbia, Jon worked as a Zamboni driver which he used as source material for his short film, Zamboni, which premiered at Tokyo International Film Festival. He currently works in post-production for David Fincher's Reset Content.

La Canícula (Feature)

By Rodney Llaverias

An aging hermit frees herself from the caretaking of her ailing mother and crazed aunt when a long lost relative and a strange and wounded dog appear in her home, demanding all of her attention.

Sweetheart (Feature)

By King Lu

After a bad breakup, Rosie Wong searches for Mr. Right. When her sister gets involved and sets her up with an actor, she starts recalibrating her assumptions about love.

Dr. Anandibai (Feature)

By Nina Mahesh

In the late nineteenth century, a Hindu teenager defeats all odds when she travels to America to become India’s first female western-trained doctor, but her education ends up costing her more than she could have ever imagined.

B-School (TV Half-Hour)

By Nina Mahesh

B-School follows an awkward yet motivated Indian-American girl and five fellow misguided students as they attempt to survive the disillusioning, chaotic, and comedic world of an Ivy League Business School.

Marcia Marcela (Feature)

By Constanza Majluf

The rains make the Chilean desert, the driest in the world, bloom once a year. In the middle of this lonely place, Beto discovers there is a chance to be reborn.

Lacuna (Feature)

By Selman Nacar

After migrating to the US from Turkey, Ali finds himself under the iron-tight grip of his destiny - stuck between two vastly different worlds.

Selman Nacar is a filmmaker, with an MFA Film in Directing from Columbia University in New York City. He gave lectures on fictional filmmaking at the same university. He graduated from İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law in 2015, and from Faculty of Film in 2016. He is an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent 2019, and the First Films First 2020.

Selman is the founder of Kuyu Film, a production company that produced the films The Pillar of Salt (2018) and Belonging (2019), both of which have premiered at the Berlin Film Festival Forum Section.

He directed his debut Between Two Dawns in 2021 and is currently working on his new feature films Hesitation Wound and Lacuna.

Rewilder (Feature)

By Cameron Nelson

An amnesiac shepherd is confined to an invisible biosphere on his family's land in the high desert of Texas. When his long-lost wife miraculously reappears, they discover that, through shared memory and experience, they may hold the key to unlocking their true whereabouts and the mysteries of their former homestead.

Raps (TV Hour)

By Cameron Nelson

Based on the screenwriter's true-life experience in "tough love" rehabilitation programs in the late 90s, RAPS follows Daniel Henderson's kidnapping and indoctrination into the CEDU School system while simultaneously exploring the rise of a notorious self-help cult in 1970s Los Angeles.

Heaven Forbid (TV Half-Hour)

By Lia Nies

When a narcissistic billionaire unexpectedly dies, he talks himself out of Hell and into Purgatory, where he must complete Earthly missions answering trivial prayers deemed “God’s spam mail” as punishment.

An excerpt from this project will be performed as part of Screenwriting Night on Friday, April 23 at 7:00pm ET

Lia Nies is a writer whose passion for storytelling is rooted embracing the unconventional. After receiving her BA in Psychology from University of South Florida, she realized she would rather write satirical comedies about the human condition than attempt to understand it. Her work focuses on off-beat characters whose perceived differences ultimately help them create meaningful connections with others. In addition to comedy, Lia enjoys writing psychological thrillers that aim to fight the stigma around mental illness.

While attending Columbia University’s MFA Film program, Lia was among the few selected to pitch an original pilot to executives at HBO’s Pitch Workshop. Her pilot High Priests was a quarterfinalist in the 2017 BlueCat Screenplay Competition, reached the Second Round of the 2020 Austin Film Festival, and received Faculty Honors in the 2020 Columbia University Film Festival. Her pilot Heaven Forbid reached the Second Round of the 2016 Austin Film Festival and recently received Faculty Selects in the 2021 Columbia University Film Festival.

Massacre (TV Hour)

By Lyle Parsons

In 1850s America, a group of fanatical Mormons in Utah Territory trigger the War of Armageddon with the United States and end up committing one of the most violent atrocities in American history: The Mountain Meadows Massacre. A true crime thriller that plays as a dark satire on America's current political climate.

A 2021 MFA graduate of Columbia University’s television writing program. A husband and a father to a four-year-old daughter. And a former Mormon. Before film school, I graduated from Brigham Young University in Political Philosophy and International Relations, during which time I also served a two-year mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After my undergraduate studies, I worked for a few years as a legal assistant in a litigation law firm.

Her Tender Eyes (Feature)

By Chloe Sarbib

Georgia both loves and envies her best friend Nina, who is more successful in love and in music. Then Georgia gets a chance to take Nina's place.

Luna Glen (TV Hour)

By Chloe Sarbib

Smart, nerdy GEMMA (17) suddenly starts having mysterious, terrifying fits, and her therapist mother is the last person she wants to talk to about it. As she tries to understand their cause, she discovers a dark mystery in her family’s past.

The Rotting of Casey Culpepper (Feature)

By Daniel Slottje

The Rotting of Casey Culpepper is a story about the fear, loneliness, and pain that accompanies an illness. A young girl battling cancer begins to experience paranormal visions of a TUMOR-COVERED MONSTER. She and her single-father must work together to survive her treatment, and confront the demon that haunts them.

Boy on Fire (Feature)

By Alies Sluiter

BARB (40’s), is a drifter who takes a teaching position at the juvenile state prison, where she’s tasked with rehabilitating CAIN, a 17-year-old who murdered a female classmate when he was twelve. An unlikely bond develops that causes both of them to question how they came to be who they are and seek redemption for their actions.

An excerpt from this project will be performed as part of Screenwriting Night on Friday, April 23 at 7:00pm ET

Alies grew up in Australia on a farm with no electricity and enjoyed an international career as a violinist and AACTA nominated composer before becoming a filmmaker. She’s a Berlinale Talent Campus alumna, a 2020 BAFTA Newcomer, a John Monash Scholar and graduate of the MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University, where she was awarded a Screenwriting Fellowship.

Her short Ayaan, has been nominated for over 20 awards and won 15, including Best Student Director from the Australian Directors Guild, Adelaide Film Festival Audience Award, National Board of Review Motion Pictures Award, Grand Jury Prize at the South Australian Screen Awards, IFP Audience Award and the Adrienne Shelly Best Female Director Award.

Her screenplay Boy on Fire won the 2020 Arthur J. Harris Memorial Prize. 

Sunday Money (TV Hour)

By Cole Smith

After ending her marriage to a top ranked NASCAR driver, Melissa must rebuild her career as a driver manager with a reckless newcomer.

An excerpt from this project will be performed as part of Screenwriting Night on Friday, April 23 at 7:00pm ET

Cole Smith is a filmmaker from Charlotte, NC. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as an Air Force officer from 2012 to 2017. During that time, he worked as a nuclear weapons operator — working nearly 300 shifts in underground missile silos across Wyoming and Nebraska where he oversaw the targeting, maintenance, and security of up to 50 nuclear weapons.

Cole is the recipient of the 2021 Sloan Screenplay award for his feature script “Damascus,” which tells the true story of a 1980 Titan Nuclear Missile explosion.

Cole is the lead Virtual Reality director at the Emmy nominated VR production company Moth+Flame. He also works closely with Arts in the Armed Forces, a non-profit founded by Actor Adam Driver that brings world class story telling to military audiences.

Gilded Terrors (TV Hour)

By Jackie Todd

Two young sisters must experiment with dangerous rift energy to search for their father as monsters begin to emerge in 1896 New York City.

Lila (Feature)

By Constance Tsang

A young Chinese American woman unable to shake her mother's influence tries to forge her own path when she meets a charismatic German aristocrat and his twin sister. Soon sinister motives reveal themselves and what begins as a fairy tale turns into a psychological nightmare.

Renovation (Feature)

By Gabriele Urbonaite

Ilona and Matas, a couple in their late twenties, move into a seemingly perfect apartment, but the building’s renovation shatters the illusion of perfection. Navigating whimsical situations, domestic issues, and her new crush on one of the construction workers, Ilona rediscovers herself.