Screenwriter Sessions 2025
Screenwriter Sessions returns in its 5th installment! This year’s sessions will take place February 4 - February 25 (each Tuesday, 6:30 PM - 9 PM EST) and will include featured guest screenwriters from the industry. Their impressive body of works include breakthrough debut films such as Thoroughbreds, Winter’s Bone, and Little Woods, to inventive indie dramas Jeff, Who Lives at Home and Leave No Trace, to big budget genre films such as Candyman and anthology television like Room 104.
Explore our lineup of writers below and stay tuned for more to be announced soon.
This program is generously supported by
Learn more about this year’s guest speakers below.
Mark Duplass
Mark Duplass (Writer / Director / Producer / Actor) is an award-winning actor, filmmaker and producer. As an actor, Mark has appeared in a wide range of film and television projects including the Apple+ series THE MORNING SHOW for which he received a 2020 Emmy nomination and a 2022 Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Mark was also one of the stars of the acclaimed HBO show TOGETHERNESS, a series he co-created with his brother Jay. Mark’s many on-screen feature film credits include: THE PUFFY CHAIR, which he also co-wrote and co-directed, the indie-sensation HUMPDAY, the Gotham award-winning YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, the Oscar-winning ZERO DARK THIRTY, the contemporary classic sci-fi films THE ONE I LOVE and SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.
Under their banner Duplass Brothers Productions (DBP), Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass and Mel Eslyn create original projects for film, television, and digital media. DBP is under a first-look deal with HBO which has yielded the hit series ROOM 104, TOGETHERNESS, SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, and the HBO animated series ANIMALS. Some of their recent film productions include the award-winning romantic comedy 7 DAYS, Natalie Morale's directorial debut LANGUAGE LESSONS (in which Mark also starred) and Sean Baker’s landmark film TANGERINE. DBP is also active in the documentary feature and docuseries space, best known for producing Netflix’s WILD WILD COUNTRY, winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series in 2018. Recent credits include HBO's Independent-Spirit nominated THE LADY AND THE DALE, Hulu's SASQUATCH, plus the features TONY HAWK: UNTIL THE WHEELS FALL OFF, JASON ISBELL: RUNNING WITH OUR EYES CLOSED and NOT GOING QUIETLY about activist Ady Barkan.
Nia DaCosta
Nia DaCosta (Writer / Director / Producer)
Cory Finley
Cory Finley (Writer / Director / Playwright) is a St. Louis-born, New York-based director and playwright. Cory’s inaugural feature film was an adaptation of his play THOROUGHBREDS which he wrote and directed. The film, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Olivia Cooke and Anton Yelchin, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews en route to being acquired by Focus Features for a wide release. Cory’s follow-up feature, BAD EDUCATION, premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by HBO in a competitive situation. The film starred Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie at the 72nd Emmy Awards following its release on April 25th, 2020.
Cory's latest feature LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND was released August 18th, 2023. It is based on the book of the same name by Matthew Tobin Anderson. MGM financed the film which stars Tiffany Haddish and was produced by Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna.
Debra Granik
Debra Granik (Writer / Director / Producer) is the director and co-writer of WINTER'S BONE, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2010 and premiered in Europe at the Berlinale. The film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini were also Oscar nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her first film, DOWN TO THE BONE won Granik the Best Director prize at the 2004 Sundance. In 2015, Granik completed STRAY DOG, a feature documentary, which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and aired on PBS Independent Lens. Her 2018 film, LEAVE NO TRACE, premiered at Sundance and was included in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes that year, followed by an international release. She has just completed a five-part immersive nonfiction film, CONBODY VS EVERYBODY, shot over the past eight years, which chronicles the experiences of people reentering New York City after incarceration. Her next project is an adaptation of the non-fiction book, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
