Moonshot Initiative selected 8 fellows for its 2024 Pilot Accelerator, and those fellows will pitch to HBO, Netflix, Starz, and more.
Moonshot Initiative (formerly Women’s Weekend Film Challenge) has announced the eight fellows chosen for the 2024 Moonshot Pilot Accelerator. These eight emerging writers were selected out of 515 applicants — putting them in the top 2% of all submissions.
This July, the fellows will have the opportunity to pitch to studios and production companies including HBO, Netflix, Starz, Amazon Studios/Prime Video, Berlanti, Broadway Video, Fifth Season, Element Pictures, Gersh, Irish Cowboy, Level Forward, BFD, Fusion Studios, Freevee, and more.
The 2024 fellows and their pilots are Ama Anane (“Drop Dead Funny”), Kris Crenwelge (“Choctaw Law”), Alex Friedman (“‘Til Death”), Dani Milton (“Solus”), Batoul Mourad (“Ajnabiyeh”), Lex Powell (“Procreation, Inc.”), Justine Rivero (“Anamnesia”), and Andrea Shawcross (“Vanishing Point”).
“Our 2024 fellows — whose pilot scripts range from a period comedy to a sci-fi/fantasy rooted in mythology — really impressed the judges and our team with their creativity, compelling characters and strong writing,” Moonshot Initiative co-founder and co-executive director Katrina Medoff said. “These are writers who are ready to be staffed and to take their careers to the next level. We’re proud to be able to provide the training and connections that they need to break into this industry.”
Before pitching, fellows will receive three weeks of intensive training, during which they’ll learn directly from industry insiders, including Elle Johnson, co-showrunner of “Self Made”; Jasmine Russ, vice president of production and development, Fabel Entertainment; agent Rukayat Giwa of Creative Artists Agency (CAA); Kathleen Jordan, creator and executive producer of “Teenage Bounty Hunters”; Samara Bay, speech coach and author of “Permission to Speak”; and entertainment lawyer Rebecca Neipris of First Gen Law. The program will culminate with a week of pitching to studios and production companies that are looking for new material and/or new writers.
The eight selected fellows were vetted by Moonshot’s panel of prestigious industry judges — showrunners, TV series creators, high-level producers, and working TV writers.
“We have found that everyone involved benefits from this program: Studios and production companies are looking for untapped talent, and our fellows get an incredible opportunity to hone their pitches and meet people who can catapult their careers to the next level,” Moonshot Initiative co-founder and co-executive director Tracy Sayre said. “Ultimately, it’s viewers who benefit the most from more diverse storytelling on screen.”
Moonshot Initiative was founded by Medoff and Sayre in 2017 to promote gender equity behind the camera and on screen. The nonprofit organization, which previously operated as Women’s Weekend Film Challenge, is best known for its signature film challenge that has produced 36 short films with 900 professional female and non-binary filmmakers. Moonshot Initiative also hosts networking events; a popular virtual workshop series featuring Hollywood powerhouses; and in-depth virtual courses including “Write a Pilot in 30 Days” and “How to Pitch Your Project.”
The Moonshot Pilot Accelerator, launched in 2021, is designed both to help emerging writers advance their careers and to increase the representation of women and non-binary people in television. The program, geared toward writers with strong, completed pilot scripts, provides fellows with direct access to decision-makers in the industry.
“This program prepares you not only for an impressive week of pitches, but for the rest of your writing career,” said 2023 fellow Brooke Solomon. “The Moonshot Pilot Accelerator is an excellent way to show your writing to the studios, streamers and producers that matter, and also gain an incredible writing community in the process.”
Past participants have seen great success; fellows have been staffed, gotten representation, become mentees to executive producers, and been hired in support staff positions. One 2023 fellow is now developing a feature with a producer she met during last year’s Pitch Week.
Chen Gu, a 2023 fellow, found that the feedback from industry insiders in the Moonshot Pilot Accelerator was particularly helpful in moving her career forward.
“This program offers real insight into not only crafting a pitch so you can articulate your story vision, but also the logistics of representation, staffing, and what development executives look for in a project,” Gu said. “It's the kindest bootcamp to become a well-rounded creative.”
Russ, VP of production and development at Fabel Entertainment and a Moonshot Initiative board member, is one of the experts who prepares fellows for Pitch Week each year.
“It was a real pleasure not only to meet these talented women, but also to hear their exceptionally polished pitches,” she said. “The level of detail, passion and intention these fellows were able to deliver in a 10-minute pitch is usually reserved for meetings double or triple the length. It’s a testament to the mentorship and feedback they've received through Moonshot Initiative and a delight to experience the spoils of."
Sponsors for the 2024 Moonshot Pilot Accelerator include SanDisk, Western Digital, Final Draft, and Coverfly. For more information, visit Moonshot’s website.
ABOUT THE MOONSHOT PILOT ACCELERATOR FELLOWS:
Ama Anane (“Drop Dead Funny”):
Ama Anane writes scripts, standup, poetry, and to-do lists. She’s writing two television pilots about Black women navigating motherhood and inconvenient love. Her scripts are shaped by Ama’s experience running classrooms in prisons and public schools; running a nonprofit; and running after her kids. She lives and loves in LA with her wife. A graduate of Emerson College and Columbia University, Ama’s creative and community work reflect her desire to understand and share human experiences.
Kris Crenwelge (“Choctaw Law”):
Kris Crenwelge has lived in eight different countries, worked with 20+ sports teams, and a coworker once put a curse on her because she wanted her job. A fellow in the 2022 Disney Writing Program and the 2023 Native American Showrunner Program, Kris was a staff writer on TRUE LIES (CBS) and SPIRIT RANGERS (Netflix), nominated for seven Children’s & Family Emmys. These days, Kris lives curse-free in L.A. with her husband and rescue pup.
Alex Friedman (“‘Til Death”):
Alex Friedman is an LA-based comedy writer who grew up in Cobb County, Georgia, where the school district once put "evolution is a theory, not a fact" stickers in the biology textbooks. She writes female-driven half-hours about anxious Jewish women and 1600s Italian murderesses – so, autobiographical. She's worked for CNN, ABC News, and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and has developed an original project with Broadway Video. She is repped by AGI Entertainment Media & Management.
Dani Milton (“Solus”):
Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Dani Milton loves writing about Black women in impossible situations. While juggling a corporate accounting career, Dani has written scripts that have been honored by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships, the Athena Film Festival Writers Lab and other competitions. Dani was a 2022 Hedgebrook Writer in Residence and in 2023, Dani produced and directed The First Martian, based on her reproductive rights sci-fi short script. It is currently in post-production.
Batoul Mourad (“Ajnabiyeh”):
Batoul Mourad is a screenwriter from Queens, New York City, and studied history education at NYU. She was supposed to be a teacher, but chose to disappoint her parents instead by turning her heritage into a joke — literally — she wrote a sitcom about it. Batoul is interested in the ways that the venn diagram of comedy and history intersect and she looks to build a cinematic universe of TV and film within that overlapping space.
Lex Powell (“Procreation, Inc.”):
Lex Powell (they/them) is a Queer multi-hyphenate Overachiever — the Writer-Performer-Director-Comedian-Musician type — based in NY. They are the creator and host of the In Character series, and the award-winning director of the Hearsay & Hyperbole performance ensemble. Their work has been performed globally from beer-soaked basement stages to acclaimed museums. Raised by television, they are excited to finally find a use for their under-appreciated ability to predict TV plots by writing their own.
Justine Rivero (“Anamnesia”):
Philippines-born and California-bred, Justine Grace Ceniza Rivero writes sci-fi/fantasy about strong women of color breaking free from societal expectations to discover their (often fantastical or futuristic) powers. Previously, Justine was an investigative journalist and technologist. Now, she hopes to be the first Filipina-American showrunner. She’s a 2024 Fellow for ISA Fast Track and Stowe Story Labs, and placed in the Emerging Screenwriters Competition, Big Apple Film Festival, and Netflix Screenwriters’ Fellowship.
Andrea Shawcross (“Vanishing Point”):
With an arsenal of produced MOWs and contest-winning pilots under her belt, Andrea Shawcross is a woman obsessed with writing thrillers about obsessed women. Haunted by a dark past in ice cold Winnipeg, Canada, Shawcross left it all for the blazing sun of Venice, CA, where she churns out nail-biting scripts by day, and devours mystery novels by night.
See the full lists of finalists, semi-finalists, and quarter-finalists for this year's program.
ABOUT MOONSHOT INITIATIVE
Moonshot Initiative (formerly known as Women’s Weekend Film Challenge) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that promotes gender equity by creating opportunities for women and non-binary people to bring their leadership, talents, and stories to the forefront of the film and television industry. Moonshot empowers and supports underrepresented voices while promoting a more inclusive media landscape.
Moonshot helps professional women and non-binary filmmakers in every role of production build their networks, grow their skills, and tell their stories on screen. While film school graduates are about 50% women, the industry becomes more and more male-dominated at the higher levels, so women, non-binary, and underrepresented filmmakers need direct, targeted help in order to rise up the ranks.
Through Moonshot’s signature film challenge, participants write, shoot, and edit a short film in one weekend, and Moonshot assembles vetted crews and provides cinema-quality equipment, insurance, permits, and a sold-out premiere screening. The Moonshot Pilot Accelerator trains talented emerging TV writers and jump-starts their careers by setting them up with pitch meetings with the biggest companies in the industry. Year-round, Moonshot Initiative provides career and network development through virtual education and mixers.
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