Short scripts are a fantastic way to get your screenwriting feet wet, explore a new genre, hone your craft, and gain recognition within the entertainment industry!
6 winners will be invited to take part in our exclusive Virtual Shorts Lab to help define the next steps in their projects journey – whether that’s self-producing, crowdfunding, or connecting it with producers looking for short content.
Plus, every entry receives one page of feedback from a professional reader!
KEYNOTE MENTORS
Keynote mentors will participate in the Short Script Lab group sessions and select at least one writer for a one-on-one coaching session, tailored to the selected writer.
ANNA BICK ROWE
Executive Producer, SMARTYPANTS
Anna Bick Rowe is an Oscar®-nominated and Emmy award-winning Executive Producer for Smartypants Pictures. She thrives on being "multilingual" within the industry, seamlessly navigating between commercial, nonprofit, and documentary projects. She was an Executive Producer for Stranger at the Gate, Executive Produced by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai and nominated for a 2023 Academy Award®. The film is part of the Emmy- and Peabody-nominated Secret Life of Muslims project (SXSW), a series that has been viewed more than 70 million times. Her other award-winning films include the underdog sports film The Home Team (SXSW), the story of a 11-year old refugee who arrives in New York City Zain’s Summer (National Geographic), the behind-the-scenes film about Annie’s Broadway revival It’s the Hard Knock Life (PBS), and the portrait of an artist obsessed with death The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano (Tribeca Film Festival, New York Times Op-Docs) which won the IDA Documentary Award and became the most viewed Op-Doc of the year. Anna has also produced branded content for clients including adidas, Delta Air Lines, The Lincoln Motor Company, Macy’s, Snapchat, Amazon, Cadillac, Indeed, Cooper Tires, Ford Motor Company, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and Lenovo.
G. MAC BROWN
Producer
G. MAC BROWN has had a long and distinguished career in film production. Based out of New York City, he has worked for nearly 40 years producing some of New York’s finest films like Last Exit to Brooklyn (Uli Edel), Light Sleeper (Paul Schrader), Scent of a Woman (Martin Brest), You’ve Got Mail (Nora Ephron), Unfaithful (Adrian Lyne), The Interpreter (Sydney Pollack), Men in Black 3 (Barry Sonnenfeld), Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), and St. Vincent (Ted Melfi). Along the way, “Mac” has also produced movies with Warren Beatty, Steve Kloves, Beeban Kidron, Susan Seidelman, Sydney Lumet, Lasse Hallström, and Frank Oz. Brown has worked away from New York as well, teaming with some of the best directors of our time. Martin Scorsese’s The Departed in Boston, Baz Luhrmann’s epic, Australia (in Australia), Public Enemies in Chicago with Michael Mann, and Los Angeles for Somewhere with Sofia Coppola. After doing Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, (Nikolaj Arcel), in Cape Town, South Africa, Brown returned to NYC to do The Upside with director, Neil Berger. And most recently he has completed his first into episodic television, producing season 3 of Showtime’s Billions.
INDUSTRY GUESTS
Industry guests will join the Short Script Lab and will participate in either group sessions or one-on-one meetings with our winners.
AJ BRIONES
Writer/Director, THE SMILING MAN
A.J. Briones has over 20 years of film and games experience with an emphasis on visual storytelling, animation and performance capture. He began his career in the videogame industry, where he worked at various roles at Sega of America, Midway Games and High Moon Studios. In 2007, A.J. began working as an animator. Over the years, he has collaborated with directors Matt Reeves, Brad Bird, Peter Berg, Chris Columbus and others, designing iconic shots and sequences for films such as Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Iron Man 2, and the Planet of the Apes franchise. Currently, A.J. is working at Lightstorm Entertainment as a Sequence Supervisor on James Cameron’s Avatar sequels. This year he was recognized with a Visual Effects Society award for Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project for his work on Avatar: The Way of Water. A.J.’s short horror film The Smiling Man has screened internationally in over 60 film festivals, including SXSW, and won numerous awards. The Smiling Man debuted online via Blumhouse and Crypt TV, going viral with over 10 million views, and had its network television premiere on Robert Rodriguez’ El Rey Network Horror Anthology, presented by John Carpenter.
STEFANIE ABEL HOROWITZ
Writer/Director, SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING
Stefanie Abel Horowitz directed theater for a decade before pivoting to film. She is the co-writer of the Sundance 2023 feature film Sometimes, I Think About Dying, starring Daisy Ridley. She is also the director/co-writer of the short film of the same title, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, traveled the world on the Sundance Shorts Tour, garnered Abel Horowitz the Future Filmmaker Award from Palm Spring FF, and was shortlisted for the 92nd Academy Awards. As writer/director she participated in Season 1 of the Disney Launchpad: Shorts Incubator program. Her short Let’s Be Tigers is available on Disney +. She’s also directed narrative podcasts whose cast lists include Rami Malek, Cole Sprouse, Colman Domingo and Emily Hampshire. She is an alum of the New Voices Sundance Lab as well as a member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab. And her essay He’s Your Destiny. Just Be Patient. was published in The New York Times Modern Love column.
KELLY LUI
Acquisitions Lead, OUAT MEDIA
Kelly is the Acquisitions Lead at Ouat Media, a Toronto-based distribution and sales company that specializes in short films. Recognized internationally as one of the world’s primary destinations for work by the industry’s rising stars, Ouat Media boasts an award-winning catalogue of titles featuring 12 Oscar® nominees including 3 Oscar® winners to date. Her experience includes festival programming, community arts facilitation, and multimedia art making. Kelly has worked with Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival and is a co-founder of The Asian Canadian Living Archive (TACLA) collective.
MEGHAN ROSS
Head of Creator Success, SEED & SPARK
Meghan Ross is an Austin-based writer, director, producer, and comedian who was selected for 2022 Women at Sundance Adobe Fellowship, Sundance Episodic Lab 2021-2022, and 2022 NewNarratives grant from NewFilmmakers LA & Warner Bros. Discovery’s OneFifty for her half-hour comedy Here to Make Friends (also her personal tagline). Her shorts made The New Yorker’s Best Shouts of 2020 list, she was nominated for The Webby Awards for If You Ever Hurt My Daughter, I Swear to God I’ll Let Her Navigate Her Own Emotional Growth, featuring narration by Jon Hamm, and her writing has appeared in Reductress, VICE’s Broadly, TV Without Pity, The Toast, and other defunct but beloved sites. She hosted the late night show That Time of the Month for 5 years, the Instagram Live show No One Asked For This for 2 pandemic years, and is currently Head of Creator Success at Seed&Spark. Most importantly, Meghan’s an aspiring stage mom to her rescue pit-lab, Dreidel.
GRAND PRIZE
6 winners will be selected to participate in this game-changing virtual lab. This lab will be PACKED with virtual meetings with industry professionals, workshops, and more so you can learn, network, and gain exposure.
Winners will also receive:
• A copy of Final Draft screenwriting software
• Guidance for drafting query letters, research methods for finding the right representation, and insight for career next steps.
FINALISTS:
Finalists will be invited to a special virtual group mentor session with an industry professional!
Select finalists will have a 1:1 virtual meeting with a member of the WeScreenplay team to discuss you and your work.
Testimonials From Previous Lab Participants
"Speaking with a literary manager was the most beneficial to my career development at this stage. However, pitching myself over and over to executives is a close second."
- AJ Dinsmore
"Talking to other filmmakers who have completed short films and gone on to do amazing things in their career, was a motivational boost. It helped see the bigger picture in their development, and helped me form a clearer picture with mine. The open conversations and the ability to ask any question to all of the participants."
- Marcus Stricklin
"Having the wide variety of people to talk to was very helpful - I felt like I gained just as equal benefit from talking to the independent filmmakers as I did the industry executives. It was really lovely to see how many different ways there were to move forward after writing a short script."
- Katy Erin