EXCLUSIVE: The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) and FilmNation Entertainment have revealed the fellows selected to participate in the third New York Screenwriting Fellowship.
The 2025 fellowship class includes Emily Everhardt, Fedna Jacquet, Aditya Joshi & Sid Gopinath, Alexandra Joyce, Thaddeus McCants, Zuri Rice and Naya James Sonnad.
“We congratulate the gifted writers accepted into this year’s New York Screenwriting Fellowship,” WGAE President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen said in a statement Wednesday. “The Writers Guild of America East is so grateful to have a partner in FilmNation, which — along with all the writing and executive mentors — shares our commitment to lifting up underrepresented voices in film.”
First launched in 2019, the New York Screenwriting Fellowship seeks to help develop early-career screenwriters from underrepresented groups in the New York City area. The fellows will have access to both a screenwriting mentor and an executive mentor, as well as seminars, receptions, and other introductions, as they develop a new feature length screenplay during the fellowship period.
The screenwriting mentors for this year’s fellows include Michael Arndt, Stuart Blumberg, Anna Boden, Scott Frank, James V. Hart, Mary Harron and Thomas McCarthy.
The executive mentors include Rae Baron (Slow Pony), Anne Carey (Pebble Pictures), Meredith Duff (Wayward Films), Caroline Kaplan (Independent Producer), Lizzie Shapiro (Independent Producer), Jayne Sullivan (Cinetic Media) and Rebecca Wyzan (Present Company).
Glen Basner, CEO of FilmNation Entertainment, said in a statement of his own: “We are thrilled to once again partner with WGA East and officially welcome this year’s incredible cohort of fellows. Their creativity and passion are an inspiration for the team here at FilmNation. We’re also deeply grateful to the mentors, whose generosity and guidance play a vital role in nurturing the next generation of storytellers.”
Additionally, fellows will receive Final Draft 13 screenwriting software, courtesy of the company, which is sponsoring the 2025 program.
