- WINNER -
Beyond the Tunnel
Written by Anthony Alvas
Anthony Alves is a self-taught writer from Brazil.
All his narratives are character-driven stories with a little touch of genre-bending. He loves to write dramas with sprinkles of thriller, horror, and comedy in-between, often revolving around taboo subjects.
Along with being a Film Pipeline Finalist, his most recent recognitions include: Screenwriting Pipeline Screenwriting Finalist (2022), TSL Quarterfinalist (2021 and 2024) and Semifinalist (2022), and ScreenCraft Feature Competition Quarterfinalist (2023).
His main goal is to mix high-concept ideas with an emotional core pushing the story forward.
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- FINALISTS -
Alternate
Written by Makani Lani
Makana Lani is a queer filmmaker based in New York. Her work with Moonshot Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing equity for women in film and television, fuels her passion for championing representation both behind and in front of the camera.
Her grounded queer horror feature script, Contingent, is part of the Black List’s 2022 Latinx List, and through this initiative, she received a blind script deal with Netflix.
Makana’s work explores the intersections of identity, love, and loss through character-driven narratives. She crafts stories that delve into universal struggles while centering queer and marginalized voices.
Noise
Written by Ruth Jiang
Ruth is an LA-based writer from Minnesota. She spent her college years struggling to stay awake in class while moonlighting as a freelance writer and publicist in the music industry. Her bylines include BANDCAMP, PITCHFORK and THE FADER and she has worked with artists from Universal Music Group and Dutch music label bitbird. After spending several years helping tell the stories of other creatives, Ruth finally took the leap to start telling her own. As a writer, Ruth writes high-concept genre stories where survival, success, and morality collide. She is the 2023 winner of the Stowe Story Labs x Studio SKYFIRE fellowship.
Her writing has been recognized by Black List/Women in Film, Slamdance, and Screencraft. Her short films have screened at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival and Boston Women’s MFA, among others.
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Repairs
Written by Nat Rovit
Nat Rovit is a multi-disciplinary artist and award-winning filmmaker. His screenplays have been recognized by the Austin Film Festival and the Academy Nicholl Fellowship and his films have played at festivals all over the world including Cannes, IndieLisboa, and San Sebastian. Nat’s 1970’s period accurate, 16mm grindhouse throwback Honeymoon at Cold Hollow premiered in competition at the 2023 Seattle International Film Festival and went on to win the award for Best Short at the Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
Nat holds a BFA in Film Production from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife and son where, in addition to writing and directing, he has worked at several of the industry’s premiere film studios including Searchlight Pictures and Paramount Pictures. As an executive, Nat produces creative advertising for major features. Credits include Gladiator 2, and Academy Award winners The Shape of Water, The Favourite, Jojo Rabbit, and Nomadland.
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The Scream of the Butterfly
Written by Anjini Taneja Azhar & Ariya Akhavan
Anjini Taneja Azhar is a director, screenwriter, and producer based in Los Angeles. She began her journey as an actor in 2011 in network TV & feature films such as JJ Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, where she was permitted to shadow producer Jeffrey Chernov and observe Mr. Abrams’ direction. Surrounded by visionary directing and a labyrinth of light, Anjini immediately realized her childhood, filled with writing idle stories, had a greater purpose in the form of cinema. Since then she has written multiple award-winning shorts, associate-produced for companies such as the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and artists like Olivia Rodrigo.
Anjini’s work has been featured in Forbes Entertainment, Women Cinemakers, and Ladygunn Magazine. Her 2023 narrative short, ‘EVERYWHERE YOU GO,’ screened at the Oscar-qualifying LA Short’s Int’l Film Festival and Newport Beach Film Festival. Anjini won the Grand Jury Prize from Shore Scripts Film Fund for her narrative short, ‘Who Are You, Nanu?’ which was filmed in May 2024 along the Ganges River in India on 35mm film, partnered with British Airways. She is a WritersxWriters Finalist, Golden Script Finalist, and PAGE Awards Semi Finalist. She has a deep reverence for cinema, for years beginning her mornings every day by watching a film.
The Scream of the Butterfly marks her and Ariya Akhavan’s first collaboration.
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Ariya Akhavan is an Iranian director, screenwriter, and photographer based in Los Angeles. Six months after he was born in America, he and his family moved back to Iran until he was five years old. When Iranian government officials threatened his family for their activism during Iran’s first revolution of 1979, Ariya and his family were forced to migrate back to the USA.
The Scream of the Butterfly is a film deeply personal to Ariya and serves as an ode to his family and the powerful women and men of Iran. His complex relationship with the home he left behind has largely shaped him as a filmmaker and made him the artist he is today. He received an MA in Dramatic Arts from the world-renowned Central Saint Martins.
Upon graduating, he was pulled into photography where he perfected art direction, storytelling within a frame, and painting with light. His work featuring actors such as Brenda Song, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Avan Jogia has made the covers of various magazines. Alongside his music video directorial work, his 2023 narrative short ‘Echoes of Silence’ received an honorable mention from AGBO’s ‘No Sleep ‘Til Film Fest’ Competition. He is a Filmmatic Script Awards Finalist and Screencraft semifinalist.