The 2019 Award-winning Screenwriters

“Our producing partner’s uncle was accused of being a KGB agent, and died under suspicious circumstances when he tried to extricate himself to protect his family. We used that as the inspiration and chose another time in history that was filled with espionage–the Cold War world behind the Berlin Wall. As we researched the idea of a mother who’s forced to become a spy to save her son, we discovered the real cause of the fall of the Berlin Wall–a communication error. We wove real stories of East Berliners’ struggles to free themselves from their oppressive regime into historic events and imagined how these events could have unfolded, through the eyes of single mother trying to keep her children safe behind the Iron Curtain.”

“I started this script in my 20s, when I was grappling with questions of identity and self worth. I was working to grow out of a mindset that relied heavily on internalizing my interpretations of others’ impressions on me in order to inform my own identity and actions. The characters in this film are all working to grow out of some limiting sense of who they are and how others perceive them. And as I started writing this, I became very interested in the idea of choice and autonomy. Most of the characters in this film, Margo especially, have had their choice and sense of autonomy taken from them. And through the journey of this story, they work to reclaim that sense of agency. I also sort of naturally created a protagonist who happens to be queer, and nobody in the film makes a big deal of it, which I love.”

“I have two kids and I wanted to make the kind of film that I want my daughter to relate to when she becomes a teenager. And one for my son to watch and understand that men come in all shapes and sizes. We are trying to subvert the stereotypes of gender and genre. Then, my wife and I went through crisis, came out as addicts and through deep therapy realized how much of our adult selves is based on the trauma and experiences we had as teenagers. This is a love letter and warning shot to our teenage selves.” —Matthew Sadowski

“Cherry fits into the sub-genre of small-town, supernatural mysteries kickstarted in the Amblin era of the 80s, and is enjoying a resurgence today in shows like Stranger Things. In many ways, Cherry‘s a perfect pastiche of all my favourite entertainment and influences growing up – John Hughes films about teenage identity, adventure movies like E.T., plus the female-led adventures of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer – but all in the context of the modern world, where the “monsters” we seem to be most afraid of are the seemingly ordinary men living next door to us.”

“Into the Trees is rooted in the trauma my wife and I experienced during the late-term pregnancy loss of our son. After reading about real-life missing persons cases, it got me thinking that one of the difficulties with mourning is the sudden void where a person should have been; there is no closure. One of the things I wanted to show with this story, is that loss is not something you have to hide and let fester inside; this is me finally sharing mine, too. “

“In the past few years, we’ve seen the homeless population grow more and more in LA. Tents are lining streets that were previously empty. Highway on-ramps have been converted to impromptu residential streets. It is a problem spreading right under our nose, and yet it feels as if it is happening in a parallel world. How can we be so disconnected from these people in our own backyard?”

After a sci-fi and a road movie feature, we talked about a follow up TV project. When we brainstormed new genres to explore, we were drawn to the realm of the mysterious. We watched other shows and movies (Twin Peaks, Fargo, In the Heat of the Night, Wind River) and read up on mystery and crime and found ourselves really inspired by the genre’s richness in tone and setting. We then decided to frame our story against a historical backdrop and found that the late 70’s fit our theme with their sense of overall uncertainty and skepticism. We used the cultural heartbeat of the hour – the TV shows, the music, the pop style – and the landscape of rural Montana to create the storyworld of Bitterroot.

“American Infamy was inspired by my family’s experience with Japanese internment during World War II. Many elements of the script are based on true stories I learned by interviewing relatives who experienced these events firsthand. I wrote this script to celebrate their heroism and perseverance in the face of great adversity, and also to shine a light on this dark chapter in our country’s history. Now more than ever, it is vitally important for us to remember the mistakes of the past to ensure they are never repeated.”

“I read an article about inmate firefighters and thought, ‘How cool is that!'”

“I began writing a story about a gravedigger (Gerry) struggling with self-worth, and over the course of a couple drafts I found characters I really loved. As I developed the character of Gerry I stumbled across a CBS Sunday Morning profile from a few years ago about a passionate gravedigger thats devoted his life to what he considers his god-given talent. I was honestly shocked to discover someone so similar to this character I’d had in my head. His pride in the craftsmanship of the job and the choice to dig graves by hand inspired the final form that this character took.

Self-worth and the work people choose to do to in this life are often wrapped up in each other. I was drawn to write about a gravedigger; blue collar work surrounded by deep, emotional situations. I wanted to dig into the emotional life of that person in the background or more often unseen. What work are they doing to feel pride in what they do? Through methods like meditation, notes-to-self, people put effort into maintaining their sense of vitality. That struggle is the universal theme that I followed from the beginning. And of course from there it twisted its way into the absurd dark comedy I am happy to present today.”

“I like to say that Dunked isn’t a true story but that there’s a lot of truth in it. I’m gay, I was raised homeschooled and conservative, and I did get “dunked” (baptized by full immersion) when I was 16. I didn’t realize I was gay till several years later, but when I was writing about that time period I realized the two subjects went together quite well and made for a really good crisis for the character. As strange as it sounds, there is now such a thing as a “traditional” coming out. I didn’t have that, and it’s really important to me to portray similar diverse experiences of queer people in my work. The coming out experience represented in media is so homogenous, and I hope this will speak to people who feel like they haven’t seen themselves before.”

“I wanted to define the Latinx narrative from a perspective of origin point. Puerto Ricans have a lot of lost history, which needs to be reclaimed and explored. I felt it was vital to tell the story of our very inception since it’s rarely discussed or explored. The enslavement practices of the colonized using Hawk Bells was an obscure oddity that I felt could be explored.”