Our fifth annual Writers Lab Retreat will take place October 2-6, 2019 at the Guest House Retreat Center in Chester, CT. We are working on this year’s agenda and recruiting the 2019 Mentors.  Stay tuned as we add Mentors to our 2019 roster.

The Writers Lab is a four-day writer’s workshop that gives women screenwriters over the age of 40 the opportunity to work intensively on their feature film scripts with the support of established film professionals. Through one-on-one meetings, panel discussions, peer workshops, and group meals, Mentors and Writers engage in a rigorous process to support intensive script development.

The retreat takes place October 2-6, 2019, at the Guest House Retreat Center in Chester, CT.

Supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, The Writers Lab 2019 is produced by New York Women In Film & Television in collaboration with the Writers Guild of America, East, with support from The Black List, Film Fatales, Roadmap Writers, Final Draft, Relativity Media, Stony Brook Southampton+Manhattan & Tribeca Film Institute.

Questions? Email ​contact@thewriterslab.nyc​ ​or go to our​ ​FAQs.

Register your script with the Writers Guild, if it is not already registered. Registration is quick and easy and the Writers Guild East has generously offered the discounted price of $17 to Lab applicants who are not members of the Guild. Registration will protect you and The Lab staff and volunteers. Choose the Student and NYWIFT/The Writers Lab option.

We are accepting international English-language scripts. Applicants must be female and at least 40 years old, that is, born on or before August 1st, 1979. Submissions must be feature-length narrative scripts in English. (No script fragments, treatments, synopses, TV scripts, shorts, stage plays, book excerpts, or documentaries.) Scripts by more than one writer will be considered, but all writers must be female and over 40, and only one writer can attend The Lab. Applicants may submit up to three (3) scripts, with a separate application for each script submitted. The Lab seeks a broad selection of screenplays across all genres of fiction (drama, comedy, horror, action, thriller, science fiction, animation, musical, etc.). Scripts may be about any topic and do not specifically need to be about women. The Lab seeks submissions from all racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural groups.

NOTE: SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT A LOGLINE WILL NOT BE READ. Please make sure your name is removed from all pages of your script, including the cover page.

Backed by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, our fifth annual Writers Lab Retreat will take place October 2-6, 2019 at the Guest House Retreat Center in Chester, CT.  We are working on this year’s agenda and recruiting the 2019 Mentors.  Stay tuned as we add Mentors to our 2019 roster. Past mentors have included:

• Pat Verducci - Pat has written screenplays for Touchstone Pictures, Witt-Thomas Productions, and Disney’s animation division. She has also worked as a story consultant for Disney/Pixar as part of their Brain Trust.
• Susan Cartsonis - The Hollywood Reporter named Susan Cartsonis one of the top five grossing producers of the year for What Women Want—the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time at the time of its release and number two to this day, and Where the Heart Is. She produced the teen hits, The Duff, Beastly, Aquamarine and executive-produced Middle School, Invisible Sister, and No Reservations. 
• Amy Fox - Amy Fox is an acclaimed screenwriter, playwright and educator, and a passionate advocate for elevating women’s voices in the arts and the workplace. Most recently she wrote the screenplay for Equity, the female-driven Wall Street film which premiered at Sundance 2016 and was released by Sony Pictures Classics.
• Mary Jane Skalski - Mary Jane Skalski began her career at Good Machine, where she worked on the early films of Ang Lee, Ed Burns and Nicole Holofcener. As a producer, her credits include four films with director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win and The Cobbler); Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin which premiered at the 2004 Venice Film Festival, Todd Louiso’s Hello I Must Be Going which opened the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Adam Salky’s Dare, Peter Callahan’s Against the Current, Julien Goldberger’s The Hawk Is Dying, Jem Cohen’s Chain and Naomi Foner’s Very Good Girls.
• And many, many more wonderful mentors...