Black List announces 2nd Annual Canadian Indie Screenwriting Fellowship
The latest from the Black List:
LOS ANGELES, CA (July 29, 2015) — This morning, producer Martin Katz (Maps to the Stars, Hotel Rwanda), the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Black List announced that submissions were open for the second annual Martin Katz/TIFF Canadian Independent Screenwriting Fellowship, wherein one unrepresented writer with lifetime earnings not exceeding $25,000 (CAD) with a screenplay of indie sensibility will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and mentorship from Katz himself. The inaugural Independent Screenwriting Fellow was York University MFA student Kyle Francis.
Said Katz, Chair of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, “Canada has tremendous literary bench strength. We founded this Fellowship with TIFF and the Black List to help discover new talent writing for the screen.”
Writers with scripts on the Black List website will be able to opt into consideration for the opportunity until August 20. After this deadline, a shortlist of writers will be shared with Katz who will select one writer to make the trip. This year’s Fellow will also participate in the previously announced Black List Screenwriting Mini-Lab at the Toronto International Film Festival, a weekend of one-on-one workshopping and peer mentorship with professional screenwriters.
“Continuing this fellowship with Martin and the Toronto International Film Festival is a tremendous honor for the Black List,” said Black List founder Franklin Leonard. “We are incredibly excited to offer this opportunity to another up and coming Canadian writer.”
“This fellowship represents an exceptional opportunity for emerging Canadian talent,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. “Canadian screenwriters have proven for decades that we have unique, wild stories to share. I look forward to seeing what develops from the 2015 recipient of this fellowship.”
The recipient will also participate in the upcoming screenwriter mini-lab in Toronto. You may read about that mini-lab and others to be held this fall in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles here.
You may read about last year’s Canadian Indie Screenwriting Fellowship winner Kyle Francis here.
Read about all of the Black List screenwriting initiatives here.
The Black List continues to create innovative entry points for writers outside the Hollywood system, further cementing its place as the industry’s most influential screenwriting brand. For this reason and many more, I am honored and proud to be associated with Franklin Leonard and the rest of the Black List team.