Women in Film and The Black List Announce 2020 Feature Lab and Residency Participants

Women in Film, Los Angeles and The Black List announced the participants of the 2020 Feature Lab and Residency on Monday.

The program is an expansion of the organizations’ original writing lab, providing mentorship and career opportunities to seven emerging women screenwriters over the course of a year. This year’s intensive script and professional development sessions will initially take place in online sessions to adhere to social distancing regulations. Participants will have meetings and receive feedback from working feature writers, executives and industry leaders.

“I very much look forward to the year that doing two writing labs with WIF with only women participants makes no rational sense, because women represent at least 50 percent of the working screenwriters in film and at every level of television,” Black List founder Franklin Leonard said in a statement. “We clearly have a long way to go, and so until then are committed to our ongoing work with WIF, this year’s Lab, and the success of all of the women who were selected.”

Here is the complete list of this year’s selections.

“Popcorn” by Katy Berry

Wanting to escape her oppressive home life on Long Island and fit in with “the guys,” 16-year-old Jemma Bauer gets her dream job at the local movie theater only to learn the true price women pay for male approval.

“Sundogs” by Elizabeth Chatelain

When Alex’s father dies and the family farm slips into debilitating debt, she takes her 12-year-old daughter Jenny with her to work on the North Dakota oilfields. But after the oil industry’s decline begins and Alex loses her job, she must decide which is more important: the farm, or her fragile relationship with her daughter.

“Danny Corpse Walker” by Zoe Cooper

In the wake of an apocalyptic event, a Native American woman must walk 300 miles with her sister’s corpse in order to perform a proper burial on their home reservation.

“The Girl” by Laci Dent

After a 13-year-old girl begins to experience peculiar bodily symptoms, she and her mother find themselves at the center of a dark practice tied to their ancestry and the Baptist church in rural Louisiana.

“Year of the Sheep” by Caroline Guo

When a young Chinese woman brings her Asian-American girlfriend to meet her conservative family in the countryside over Chinese New Year, this unexpected guest forces them all to reconsider their relationships, values and the true meaning of home.

“Mad” by Michelle Steffes

When Henry, a charming, off-kilter hatter living in Victorian London, falls in love with Kitty, a brilliant, poetic noblewoman, he must find a way to win her heart and free them both from restrictive social convention while battling the effects of mercury poisoning and an increasingly consuming madness.

“Finding Phoebe” by Krenée Tolson

A teenage girl sets her sights on becoming a spoken word poet in the underground poetry scene in Baltimore, MD in 1997. Her pursuit of her dream turns into a story of survival when her sexual abuser, and mother’s boyfriend, is released from prison.