Private Project

Auto High

In order to raise money to attend her dream college, a Latina teenage girl with a knack for mechanics risks everything by entering the underworld of New York street racing.

  • Nina Kentsis
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Genres:
    Drama, Teen
  • Number of Pages:
    92
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Spanish
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Athena Film Festival Screenwriting Lab
    Los Angeles, CA
    June 3, 2019
    N/A
  • 2020 Athena List
    New York, NY
    February 26, 2020
    Placement on Athena List
Writer Biography - Nina Kentsis

Nina Kentsis lives in New York City. Sometimes, she feels like she’s leading a double life—by day, she’s an ordinary market researcher for a major bank; by night, she writes screenplays!—but most of the time, she’s just trying to balance working full-time; being a mother to two young children; being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend; and finding time for her artistic pursuits. Also, she watches a lot of TV and reads a lot of books.

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Writer Statement

The idea for AUTO HIGH came to me a few years ago when I was in McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with some friends. I saw the large Automotive High School building on the edge of the park and was intrigued—I did not know there was such a school in NYC. I did some research on the school and learned that the students are almost all boys. It got me thinking of a story I could tell about a girl who loves cars, who finds herself in this overwhelmingly male environment. From there, the story evolved beyond the world of the high school to include the world of underground street racing.