HamptonsFilm’s 2022 Writers’ Lab will feature, clockwise from top left, writers Jamil McGinnis and Pat Heywood, Farida Zahran and Jimmy Goldblum, and mentors Alice Wu, Peter Hedges and Molly Asher.
HamptonsFilm has announced the fellows, screenwriters and mentors selected for the 22nd edition of its annual Screenwriters Lab, which runs April 8-10. Pairing up-and-coming screenwriters with established screenwriters, directors and producers, the lab will be held in person for the first time since 2019.
The scenarios selected are “Marilou Is Everywhere” by Jimmy Goldblum; “The Leftover Ladies” by Farida Zahran and “In Search of Time” by Jamil McGinnis and Pat Heywood. Ms Zahran and her project also won the 2022 Melissa Mathison Fund, established in 2016 and named in honor of the late screenwriter, which promotes the development of female writers in the industry.
This year’s mentors are Mollye Asher, producer of the Oscar-winning film ‘Nomadland’, Peter Hedges, novelist and screenwriter whose credits include ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ and Oscar-nominated ‘About a Boy’, and Alice Wu, whose most recent film, “The Half of It,” won the Founders Award at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival.
Mr. Goldblum’s “Marilou Is Everywhere” is the story of a 14-year-old girl who flees her abusive family and slips into another, replacing a girl whose sudden disappearance haunts a rural town. His interactive documentary “Live Hope Love” won an Emmy Award for New Approaches to Documentary.
Ms. Zahran’s short ‘Youth’ premiered at SXSW and has been seen at festivals around the world. In “The Leftover Ladies”, a woman in her sixties attempts to leave her polygamous husband after he shows renewed interest in her.
Mr. McGinnis and Mr. Heywood have been making films together since 2016. Their work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center and the British Film Institute. “In Search of Time” follows a boy who travels through Brooklyn to return his friend’s notebook before the end of the day.
The Lab takes place every spring in the East End. Over the weekend, industry veterans advise participating Fellows on their feature film projects in a series of individual and group development sessions.