CINEPHILIA LAB 2022
A FILM & TELEVISION WRITERS COHORT
This program is open to Cinephilia fellows and by invite only.
Cinephilia Advanced Lab is a 3-month program focused on the development of early career feature Film & TV writers to advance their professional careers and package their feature and episodic projects.
The lab is divided into three sections:
1. Group sessions: Screenplays are discussed collectively and each participant goes through a pitching process.
2. One-on-one sessions: Participants meet with the lab mentor and the script consultant
3. Masterclasses with industry professionals.
Eligibility guidelines:
. Filmmakers must be a Cinephilia Fellow and must have completed one of Cinephilia programs. This program is by invite only.
. Must be developing a narrative feature film screenplay or an episodic Television Series. (Project can either be in treatment stage or a screenplay draft).
. Must have at least written and/or directed oat least two short films.
. Screenplay or treatment must not have been optioned. Filmmaker must retain all the rights to their material. If this is an IP based project, filmmakers must have all rights clear to engage in the development of their project during the lab.
. Applicants must fully commit to the lab sessions.
2022 PROJECTS OFFICIAL SELECTION
Feature Films:
La Belle Afrique by Abisola Aboaba (Nigeria)
Ya’eesh by Diana Abousaleh (USA)
An Endless Night by Moh'd Kassaby (Egypt)
Algorithm by Josh Seven (India)
Zocheret/Sankofa by Nakita Joseph (USA)
Television Series:
The Re-Collect by Joel Farran (USA)
The Ground Screams to Whisper by Nyambura M. Waruingi (Kenya)
Khalifa by Noora Alawadi (UAE)
MENTORS AND GUEST SPEAKERS:
EKWA MSANGI (Writer/Director)
Ekwa’s award-winning and critically acclaimed feature film Farewell Amor premiered in competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, garnering 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film won the Sundance Amazon Producer’s Award, and NYWIFT Directing Award amongst other distinctions, and was bought for distribution by IFC Films for North America, MUBI and Netflix for Worldwide. Previous to that, Ekwa has written & directed several shorts, including award-winning comedy Soko Sonko (The Market King), and Farewell Meu Amor starring Tony Award nominee Sahr Ngauja, and Nana Mensah. For Farewell Amor Ekwa was awarded the NYWIFT Director’s Award, the 2020 Durban International Film Festival award from Best Screenplay, and the 2021 Indie Spirit “Someone To Watch” Award. Recent awards include 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow, 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough, 2022 USA Artist Fellow, and 2022-2024 ReFrame Rise Director. One of Ekwa’s key goals as an artist is to transform our society’s images and relationships with African cultures, and to empower African filmmakers in telling their stories.
SAHAR JAHANI (Writer)
Sahar Jahani is a first generation Iranian-American screenwriter raised in Los Angeles. She earned a BA in Film & Media Studies and Literary Journalism from UC Irvine and an MFA in Screenwriting from Stephens College. Sahar worked in scripted development at YouTube Originals before transitioning to the writers room on the Peabody winning Hulu series RAMY, where she wrote her first episode of television. Since then, Sahar has written on several shows including MTV'S UNDRESSED,13 REASONS WHY, THE BOLD TYPE and most recently the mystery limited series, ECHOES (premiering on Netflix this August). On the film side, Sahar adapted the novel AYESHA AT LAST for Columbia Pictures / Amy Pascal and is currently adapting the YOU'VE GOT MAIL inspired feature, HANA KHAN CARRIES ON, for Amazon Studios and Executive Producer Mindy Kaling. She is also in development on her own series of shows at HBO Max and Netflix.
SHRUTI GANGULY (Producer)
Shruti Ganguly is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Oslo and New York City. Shruti was a member of Obama’s ECCO committee of 30 leaders and creators in entertainment, chairing its Asian Caucus, and is on the Creative Council for Emily's List. She has produced several films (including Spirit-winner H., and the Nora Ephron Prize-winner INITIALS SG) that have premiered Sundance, Venice, Tribeca and Berlin. Shruti has directed videos for Google, Unilever, Nike, Conde Nast, Chanel, and crafted the #MySentence series on prison reform for the Obama Administration.
In late 2017, Shruti started honto88, a production company that works in a variety of formats - from narrative and doc features to series, and branded content. She launched it with a narrative feature, GREEN DOLPHIN, by director Chris Kenneally and EP Keanu Reeves. Shruti worked for several years with James Franco on films, and produced an experimental art performance with him and Marina Abramovic, called BIRD SHIT, which premiered at the MoMA. Previously, Shruti worked at NYLON, MTV, and Conde Nast, producing the CLIO-winning 73 Questions series. Shruti is currently writing a genre film for Sony, and writing a multi-generational drama for Netflix. She is developing a series on the Harlem Renaissance with Killer Films and MGM.
Shruti is a co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective born out of the Women's March that brings together artists and activists to use music and joy as an act of resistance. Shruti is a published writer (Nevertheless They Persisted, Penguin) and a contributing writer for The Juggernaut. Shruti received her Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, and went to NYU's dual MFA/MBA program at Tisch and Stern. She hails from India, by way of Oman, and believes that international stories deserve the specificity and truth, and strategic marketing and distribution plan to travel the world and change the way we exist.
DARINE HOTAIT (Writer/Director, Lab Mentor & Script Consultant)
Named on Disney’s Launchpad 2022 list of Directors on the Rise, Darine Hotait’s short films can be seen on Sundance Channel, The New Yorker, AMC Networks, BBC, Forbes, and at Oscar-qualifying international film festivals. She is the recipient of the New York Council on the Arts Artist Award, the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Fellowship, the Jerome Hill Award, and the 40 under 40 Arab America Foundation Award. Darine is currently developing a feature film with Condé Nast Entertainment/The New Yorker Studios and a musical science fiction TV Series with BricTV. She is the founder of New York-based Cinephilia Productions, a film incubator championing the next generation of Arab and African filmmakers. Darine has worked as a script consultant with hundreds of filmmakers and as a mentor, advisor, and consultant for film institutions and organizations such as The Sundance Institute, the New York Foundation for The Arts IAP, Films Femmes Francophones Méditerranée, Students For Justice, and Women of Color Filmmakers.
BRAD SAUNDERS (Script Consultant)
Bradd Saunders is a screenwriter, screenwriting teacher, film director, playwright, published novelist, short story writer, and freelance journalist with an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His movie, The Lounge People, played in theaters internationally and on Comedy Central, and the Starz Network, and he currently has screenplays optioned and in development on two continents. His play, Detective Nicky Carruthers is Dead, garnered a national playwriting award from the University of Arkansas and was produced at the Powerhouse Theater, in Los Angeles. The Dorchester County Sheriff Department’s Annual Ball, was a semi-finalist at the Inner City Cultural Center’s theater competition in Los Angeles, and was produced at the Missing Children Theater, starring Adrienne Shelly, in New York. He developed and taught screenwriting classes at both the graduate and undergraduate level, at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California for twenty-three years. Currently he works online for Film Connection’s mentor program and as a screenwriting teacher at Pasadena City College.
2022 SELECTED PROJECTS
La Belle Afrique by Abisola Aboaba
Feature Film . Nigeria
Logline:
An ambitious female sergeant seeking promotion in a male-dominated department struggles to solve a determining case laden with morbidity in order to prove her merit.
Filmmaker Biography:
Abisola Aboaba is a writer and film producer interested in transformative and inspiring African stories. He is a 2021 recipient of the New York Film Academy scholarship award and the best graduating and top-performing student of the Multichoice Talent Factory West Africa Academy Class of 2020. Also a producer of the multiple award-winning short film project titled “Bride Untangled,” showing now on Showmax that won the best student short film at the 2021 Africa International Film Festival and Inside Nollywood International Film festival and was a nominee in the best student short film category of the 2022 Africa Magic Viewership Choice Awards. He is working as a producer on a Showmax original feature film titled Tejiri in the post-production stage and as a producer-writer and director on a 2D Animated Micro documentary short film project titled Road Alert. He has successfully produced films for companies like Multichoice group, New York Film Academy, and the United Nations.
Ya’eesh by Diana Abousaleh
Feature Film . USA
Logline:
Ya’eesh is a dramedy road trip movie about a dance team of eclectic college students set off to perform in the first ever National Dabke Competition. The film follows the captain of the team, Dania Awad, an uptight college senior as she copes with the pressure, expectations and fear of uncertainty that comes with post-graduation life. With the help of her teammates, she must learn how to let go and live in the moment.
Filmmaker Biography:
Diana Abousaleh is Syrian-Venezuelan independent writer/filmmaker, mental health advocate, and educator based in Texas. She insists that writing is a journey, and not a destination. That being said, she likes to encourage fellow creatives to aim for progress, not perfection. She is passionate about amplifying unique SWANA voices and experiences through her monthly newsletter titled Screenwriting &. Diana loves writing grounded sci-fi drama as well as stories that highlight themes of multiculturalism. She has provided script consulting experience to several festivals and production companies including Eclectic Pictures, Televisa USA, BlueCat Competition, International Screenwriters Association and most recently, the Emmy-nominated indie web series, “WASHED”. Her work has been selected to participate in New York's Cinephilia Productions and in Stowe Story Labs. This summer she participated in the Mosalsalat Screenwriters Lab of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan. One of her favorite things about storytelling is the ability to make interior life visible, and also show that exterior life can be worth a second look. She has a Bachelor's in Radio/TV/ and Film and a Master's in Entertainment Business.
An Endless Night by Moh'd Kassaby
Feature Film . Egypt
Logline:
In the near-future Cairo, a 40 years old journalist goes on a desperate one-way epic night road to the countryside in search for Zaabalawi, an ageless holy man who might be able to cure his incurable and terminal illness.
Filmmaker Biography:
Moh'd Kassaby is an Egyptian film director, screenwriter and producer. His filmography includes his early 2017 short drama THE LAST BREATH, his 2019 short road movie INHABITANTS OF THE NILE, and EPILOGUE, a short documentary which he created through the Self-reference Cinema Workshop in 2020. He won the Best Short Film prize for his 2019 semi-autobiographical film, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED, at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival, which was later screened at over 30 International Film Festivals. He recently wrapped up production on his fifth short film project as a director/producer, FLYING SALAMA, a coming-of-age short film about the enduring magic of friendship. His debut feature film project, AN ENDLESS NIGHT, a neo-noir film set in near future dystopian Cairo, is currently in development phase as it had its kick-off at the 6th edition of Lebanon's prestigious Beirut Cinema Platform.
The Re-Collect by Joel Farran
Episodic TV Series . USA
Logline:
When a hacker compromises a patented memory restoration product, competing personal, financial and political interests clash on a global scale as the product’s inventor, Speero, races to salvage his one chance to discover what happened to his missing family.
Filmmaker Biography:
Joel Farran is a Chicago-based Palestinian-American writer who uses his imagination to complete and unify fragmented, diasporic experiences. Through the power of storytelling, Farran seeks to exalt exiled and occupied Palestinian experiences and positive representations to celebrate and advance just pursuits of Palestinian self-determination.
The Ground Screams to Whisper by Nyambura M. Waruingi
Episodic TV Series . Kenya
Logline:
Seeking solitude, a writer, Riziki, rents a cottage to complete her long-awaited novel, only to find out that her new home is a spiritual portal and she must free the ancestral spirits still bound to the house before the next retrograde or be trapped in limbo with them forever.
Filmmaker Biography:
Nyambura directs, curates, and produces, across artistic expressions, through immersive storytelling and producing extended reality experiences. Nyambura has been awarded various Canadian screenwriting grants and has penned 10 episodes of RUSH, nominated for Best New Series at The Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards 2015. A cultural activist and producer with a 20-year filmmaking career, Nyambura M. Waruingi is the Founder and Creative Director of Akoia & Company, a creative enterprise based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has worked with award-winning production companies, public cultural institutions, and film and visual arts collectives in Canada, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, USA, India, UK, Uganda, and Nigeria. Her latest creative venture, The Ground Screams To Whisper, which has being invited to festivals like DoK Leipzig and NewImages Festival, is being developed into a TV series and produced as a trans-media immersive and interactive experience.
Zocheret/Sankofa by Nakita Joseph
Feature Film . USA
Logline:
In the days leading up to the anniversaries of the passing of Zayde and Grandma, Maya, a Black, multicultural, queer, Jewish woman starts to believe her grief is delving into insanity.
Filmmaker Biography:
Although Nakita is from a Black(Haitian-American) Jewish family she has been struggling to make sense of G-D and the world as is. This continues to be a powerful, yet poignant journey. This process has renewed Nakita’s passion and dedication to writing. As a social worker and a non film school graduate, Nakita is proud to have completed a family drama pilot, a holiday feature, a horror short/feature, an experimental short (that she directed!) and other series and features that are in various stages. She enjoys storytelling through a queer Black feminist lens that centers Black Jewish people. Although Black Jews are always main characters in her stories their experiences are universal to everyone. Nakita writes about joy, love, family, community, non-linear healing, trauma, grief, loss, and mental illness. Nakita humbly welcomes every new opportunity to collaborate, learn and improve.
Algorithm by Josh Seven
Feature Film . India
Logline:
When young immigrant, Jaikishan “Jack” Varma moves from Mumbai to Los Angeles for university and work, he expects the journey to be full of success ahead. As he learns to deal with the vagaries and eccentrics of life, culture shock, and, office politics, he begins to realize that it’s going to take more than effort, hard work and perseverance to achieve the American dream. However, with each choice he makes, he become embroiled further and further in a difficult spot as he gets cornered at work. Compounding his problems even more is the government tightening different pathways on immigration and entry. Increasingly claustrophobic, he makes tough sacrifices to maintain his head above water. However, his parents are also desperately after him to find someone, preferably Indian, to spend his life with. With every possible door seemingly closing in on him, Jack begins to act increasing erratically leading to disastrous consequences for everyone.
Filmmaker Biography:
Josh Seven is an award winning independent filmmaker from Mumbai, India. Starting in post-production, he transitioned into film producing, most recently working on features. He has written, directed, produced and edited his own projects. These include It’s Not A Game, shot in Los Angeles, and, Blindspot, shot in Mumbai. It’s Not A Game screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner in Cannes Film Festival in 2014. Blindspot won Best Screenplay at AAB International Film Festival and Pink City International Film Festival in 2017 amongst others. He is currently working on various projects, including commercials, music videos, and, features.
Khalifa by Noora Alawadi
Episodic TV Series . UAE
Logline:
Dealing with the threat of losing the only home he has ever known, the orphanage he grew up in, Khalifa, has to take the jump from orphan to superhero to save his home from businessman who plans to turn it into a corporate office.