The Black List & Cassian Elwes Will Take One Screenwriter to Sundance 2016
The Black List has announced that its 3rd annual Cassian Elwes Independent Screenwriting Fellowship at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival is now open.
Cassian Elwes (Lee Daniels' The Butler, Ain't Them Bodies Saints) is a fixture in the independent film world. Before he returned to the role of producer, Elwes headed William Morris Independent for fifteen years where he put together the financing for over 280 films.
Matthew Hickman, the first year fellow, was working as a UPS Store employee when Elwes chose him for the fellowship based on his script, An Elegy for Evelyn Francis. Since attending Sundance 2014 as Elwes' guest, Hickman is now represented by WME and Writ Large, and has completed an original feature script for Construction Film along with several paid rewriting gigs. Elwes introduced the second year fellow Mike Harden to Mutressa Movies, who optioned his script, A Good Man.
Feature screenwriters who have made less than $5,000 in aggregate in their film or television writing careers are eligible.
If you are an emerging writer and have a script with an independent sensibility, you can submit your screenplay to The Black List and opt-in for the Cassian Elwes Independent Screenwriting Fellowship until November 30, 2015. The Black List relies on ratings from its readers and industry members to evaluate scripts for this fellowship opportunity. They recommend screenwriters submit their screenplays for evaluation no later than October 30, 2015, so the evaluations will be completed in time for the November 30 deadline.
If you already have a screenplay on The Black List, you can log into the site and opt-in for this fellowship before the November 30 deadline.
To learn more about The Black List's Cassian Elwes Independent Screenwriting Fellowship and how you could win a chance to attend Sundance 2016 as Elwes' personal guest, check out their FAQ, which includes more details about writer requirements.
Will you be submitting to this fellowship? Do you think this represents a good opportunity for emerging screenwriters writing independently-minded scripts? Let us know in the comments.
Source: The Black List
