One of many buzziest screenwriters of 2024 is now giving again to the indie filmmaking group. IndieWire can announce that “Challengers” and “Queer” scribe Justin Kuritzkes is among the many mentors for the coveted annual HamptonsFilm Screenwriters Lab.
The acclaimed incubator program is hosted by the group that runs the Hamptons Worldwide Movie Pageant. It’s the twenty fifth anniversary of the Screenwriters Lab, which is able to happen April 4 to six.
Kuritzkes, who was identified for his stage performs previous to collaborating on two movies with Luca Guadagnino, can also be rumored to be reuniting with the auteur for DC comedian adaptation “Sgt. Rock”; he’s additionally growing a Mike Nichols-inspired movie with Jude Legislation.
For the Screenwriters Lab, Kuritzkes is joined by Academy Award-winning producer and Head of Movie at Ventureland Dan Janvey, whose previous work contains “Nomadland” and “Janet Planet,” plus Emmy-winning “9 Good Strangers” Season 2 showrunner Rachel Shukert. Beforehand, Shukert was an government producer on “The Handmaid’s Story” and was the showrunner and creator of Netflix’s “The Child-Sitters Membership”; she is at present adapting Judy Blume’s novel “Summer time Sisters” for Jenna Bush Hager at UCP/Peacock.
The Screenwriters Lab pairs mentors with rising screenwriters. The chosen trio of screenplays for the 2025 Lab are “Lullaby” by Aliza Brugger, “Halloween 1999” by Keaton Ventura, and “The Mirex” by Pepi Ginsberg. The respective undertaking descriptions are beneath.
“After reviewing this yr’s submissions, we have been impressed by how these three tasks stood aside with their originality and contemporary storytelling,” HamptonsFilm Inventive Director David Nugent mentioned. “We’re additionally happy to have three esteemed inventive voices to help in fostering and mentoring the subsequent era of inventive expertise.”
Previous Screenwriters Lab options embody Anu Valia’s “We Strangers,” Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” Ben Nabors’ “The Sound of Silence,” and Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Brief Time period 12.”
HamptonsFilm will even current Pepi Ginsberg’s “The Mirex” with the 2025 Melissa Mathison Award. The award was established in 2016 and named for the late, beloved Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and strives to foster the continued improvement of feminine writers within the business. Earlier recipients embody Sarah Mokh’s “Diary of a Muslim Cynic,” Shehrezad Maher’s “Idea of Colours,” Farida Zahran’s “The Leftover Women,” Lana Wilson’s “Again Seat,” Kelly O’Sullivan’s “Mouse,” Kirsten Tan’s “Larger,” Aemilia Scott’s “The Birthday Go well with,” Annabelle Attanasio’s “Mickey And The Bear,” and Cathy Yan’s “Useless Pigs.” The 2024 Melissa Mathison Award recipient will likely be introduced at an upcoming date and can obtain entry to a casting director and a staged studying of their undertaking in New York Metropolis.
Try the 2025 Screenwriters Lab tasks beneath.
“Lullaby” by Aliza Brugger
Logline: Freshly launched from jail after serving to her oldest daughter get hold of an unlawful abortion, Frankie returns to her rural hometown the place her non secular relations are searching for custody of her youngest little one. In a conservative group full of worry, hate and anger, Frankie should discover allies keen to publicly defend her maternal capabilities in court docket and confront the group’s threatening hostility.
“Halloween 1999” by Keaton Ventura
Logline: Within the days main as much as the Halloween of 1999–the ultimate witching season of the 20 th century–Sally Dressing, a younger, working class mom in upstate New York, finds her world upended by an premature loss of life. Religion, household, and the whole lot in between comes into query as she will get caught within the supernatural veil of the season.
“The Mirex” by Pepi Ginsberg
Logline: A suburban teenager performs a privileged noble in The Mirex, an immersive position play recreation set in a distant, Eleventh-century-style village within the woods, the place she struggles to untangle herself from her crew’s more and more violent feud with a rival clan as the road between fantasy and actuality turns into dangerously blurred.