The Black List and Women In Film (WIF), LA have announced that they are re-teaming for the second annual episodic TV lab for women writers. A press release also revealed that they are also joining forces for the inaugural Film Feature Lab for women screenwriters.
Set to take place on weekday nights over four weeks this October, the Black List/Women In Film Episodic Lab will include six to eight female writers. The lab will emphasize “both craft and professional development, in order to equip participants with the knowledge on how to build and sustain their careers, through programs on script development, pitching, a mock writer’s room, and round tables with established writers and industry executives.”
Six to eight women will also be selected for the Feature Lab, a weeklong residential program scheduled for February 2018. The lab “will consist of one-on-one mentoring with established screenwriters and peer workshopping sessions.” Participants will attend events and screenings that will help give them a taste of “the realities of a life as a professional screenwriter.”
Both labs will take place in LA.
“In the inaugural year of the Black List/WIF Episodic Lab, we learned just how vital programs like these are — for emerging female writers and for those looking for talent. With our expanded program, we are excited to discover a new crop of writers and help guide them to the next stage of their careers,” said Kirsten Schaffer, Executive Director, WIF.
Megan Halpern, the Black List’s Director of Events, added, “The numbers speak for themselves. As of the latest studies, only 29 percent of working TV writers are women and less than 12 percent of top grossing films are written by women. The screenwriting world is a long way from anything remotely resembling real gender inclusion. We’re enormously excited to support a talented, up and coming group of new women writers.”
“All Lab participants will be hosted by the Black List website for free following the Labs and have their final scripts read by a variety of agencies, studios, and networks, to be announced at a later date,” the release notes.
As part of the Verizon go90 Fellowship, lab supporter go90 is launching a new fellowship along with WIF and the Black List to support scripts in the YA genre, granting “5K to two screenwriters — one feature and one episodic pilot — as they work to develop a new young adult project over a six-month period. At the end, each writer will present their work to go90 and address how the grant was used to develop the projects. go90 will then have the opportunity to purchase the project.”
Applications are now open for all three programs. Participants will be selected through script submissions to the Black List, and WIF members can submit applications for the Episodic and Feature Labs through WIF. For more information and submission guidelines, head over to the Black List or WIF’s websites.
WIF lists the following submission deadlines:
The Episodic Lab: August 3
The Feature Lab: September 8
The press release lists the deadline for the Verizon go90 Fellowship as November 26.
