Women screenwriters only wrote 11% of the top 250 films last year and are outnumbered nearly 3 to 1 as writers and creators on television.
To spotlight deserving scripts by women featuring strong female characters, the group We For She has launched the WriteHer List, a parallel to the Black List that showcases screenplays for the small screen available for development.
This year’s 15 winners include an untitled comedy from “Bridesmaids” co-writer Annie Mumolo, Kat Likkel and John Hoberg; a drama about a trio of young instructors called “Teach” from Lauren McBrayer Miller and Abigail Spencer, and Rosie Perkins’ portrait of a Vietnamese family in crisis when the women who run a nail salon are faced with the death of their patriarch.
Here are the winners and the honorable mentions of the WriteHer List 2015. All descriptions courtesy of We for She.
The WriteHer List 2015
WeForShe evaluated material based on several criteria, including number of nominations, uniqueness of the roles given to female characters, competency of writing, diversity of the entire cast, break-out potential of the writer, and if the script passed the Bechdel Test. Scripts are listed in alphabetical order.
AMERICAN BEAUTIES *
Writer: Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain
Genre: One Hour
Representation: WME
Two newly paroled women use their powers of grifting to help them in a career of door to door cosmetics sales.
*Rights with Warner Bros.
BLOOD, MONTANA
Writer: Jessica Mecklenburg
Genre: One hour
Representation: CAA
A murder-mystery set in a small Montana town with an odd, well-connected family at the core.
B.F.E.
Writer: Julie Sherman Wolfe
Genre: Half hour
Representation: Paradigm
A progressive LA mom is transplanted with her family to Valencia and has to learn to navigate the new mom-style of the suburbs.
THE BRASS
Writer: Jenny Lynn
Genre: One hour
Representation: Attorney, David Fox — contact: dfox@mymangreenspan.com
A police procedural centering around LA’s new female chief of police.
GIRLS CHASING MEN
Writer: Kerry Ehrin
Genre: One hour
Representation: Rothman Brecher
Drama centered around two friends stuck in minimum wage jobs that discover their trailer park upbringing uniquely qualifies them to become bounty hunters.
HATERS
Writer: Amelie Gillette
Genre: Half hour
Representation: CAA
A NYC magazine writer spends her days hatching plans with her gal pals to carry out operation evict her ex and trying not to be on the reality show filming in her office.
MANIC
Writer: Janet Tamaro
Genre: One hour drama
Representation: CAA
A profoundly driven and successful lawyer uses her work to ignore her family’s and her own intense dysfunction.
MODEL WOMAN *
Writer: Scarlett Lacey
Genre: One hour
Representation: Verve
A drama inspired by the Ford modeling agency in the 80s focusing on a smart secretive girl as she enters the high stakes world of modeling.
*Rights with Sony TV
THE RECOVERY
Writer: Angela Berliner
Genre: One hour
Representation: Unrepped — contact: maeberliner@gmail.com
A family drama centering around a tormented blue collar father who’s daughter was kidnapped 11 years ago.
SHANGRI-LA
Writer: Bridget Bedard
Genre: One hour
Representation: UTA
A small-town drama centering on a fish-out-of-water female Homeland Security agent and a scrappy 11-year old girl she befriends.
SPINSTER
Writer: Dana Schmalenberg
Genre: One hour
Representation: Gersh
Four female friends in their 40s navigating life in LA as “older” women.
TEACH
Writer: Lauren McBrayer Miller & Abigail Spencer
Genre: One hour
Representation: ICM
A trio of new Teach US teachers test their mettle in a rough New Orleans high school.
UNTITLED MUMOLO, LIKKEL, HOBERG PROJECT
Writer: Annie Mumolo, Kat Likkel & John Hoberg
Genre: Half hour
Representation: UTA
Three women decide not to let life be the boring let down it has become and instead start breaking the rules and following their dusted off dreams.
WANTED
Writer: Justine Gillmer
Genre: One hour
Representation: WME
A classic western focusing on the very different lives of three women in the 1800s and how they manage to thrive in a man’s world.
WOMEN AND GIRLS
Writer: Kristen Newman
Genre: Half hour
Representation: UTA
A savvy business woman, who parties a little too hard on the side, has to learn to reorder her life when her half sister — who is neither smart, nor tough — comes to work with her.
2015 Honorable Mention List
Although there was not room for them on the list’s 15 for 2015, the following unique voices and stories are presented for additional consideration.
GOLDENLAND
Writer: Catherine Grieve & Dylan Slocum
Genre: One hour
Representation: Unrepped — contact: catherinegrieve@me.com
A small-town mystery centering on the disappearance of a local boy and the female FBI agent pulled into the investigation.
HOLLYWOOD BABYLON
Writer: Kathleen Robertson
Genre: One hour
Representation: Paradigm
Based on the book of the same name, this story explores the underbelly of the 1927 movie business as viewed from a couple of Ohio transplants — an aspiring actress and a cop.
LET’S STOP BEING LOSERS
Writer: Annie Girard & Becky Thyre
Genre: Half hour
Representation: The Coppage Company
Frustrated 30-something LA roommates find 1980s self-help tapes with 100 tips to make their dreams come true and start following them with questionable success.
QUEER PRESSURE
Writer: Anna Lotto & Juliet Walker
Genre: Half hour
Representation: Ambition Talent
Two closeted teens, playing the part of the golden power couple ruling their high school, must hold onto their secret until graduation.
*Producers attached
TRU BEAUTY
Writer: Roxie Perkins
Genre: One hour
Representation: Gersh
A drama about the Vietnamese women that run a small nail salon, and the mess they are left with when the patriarch dies.
