The Athena Film Festival at Barnard College Virtual Writers Lab is a creative development workshop for emerging women writers. Applicants must submit a screenplay that includes a woman or women characters in a leadership role or position at the center of the story. Scripts must be feature-length narratives (between 80 – 120 pages). Eligible writers have not had a feature-length narrative script produced within the past 10 years.
The Athena Film Festival at Barnard College Virtual Writers Lab provides women storytellers with creative feedback, pitch training, and a robust supportive network. Participants will have multiple one-on-one mentoring sessions with experienced screenwriters and industry experts, as well as participate in peer-to-peer sessions.
The Athena Film Festival at Barnard College Virtual Writers Lab will also include industry events where participants will learn about how to navigate their careers, as well as a keynote conversation from an established filmmaker. Past panels topics have included: “How Representation Works”, “Path to Writing”, and “The Art of Pitching”, and keynotes from Gina Prince-Bythewood, Kat Candler, and Chinonye Chukwu.
Submissions are open June 1, 2021 to July 8, 2021.
The Athena Film Festival at Barnard College Virtual Writers Lab will take place remotely on September 20 – 22, 2021.
Rules & Terms
- Scripts must have a woman (girl) or women character(s) in leadership role(s) or position(s). Projects from all genres are accepted, and stories about women from all racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural groups;
- Writers who are women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming; Projects with more than one writer may be considered
- Writers cannot have had a feature-length narrative script produced within the past 10 years;
- Scripts must be written in English (although films may be produced in a foreign language) and should be 80 to 120 pages long;
- If chosen as a finalist, you will be asked to submit the answers to additional questions;
- If you have been on the Athena List, you can submit a project, but it CANNOT be a script that was on the Athena List;
- If you have previously attended the lab, you cannot reapply for five years, but if you have been a part of the TV lab, you can submit a project to the Screenwriters lab and vice-versa;
- All Notifications will go out by August 24
