Best creative writing masters programs

EXCLUSIVE : Venice Film Festival, Netflix and The Gotham Film & Media Institute are teaming up on a program of movies at iconic New York venue, the Paris Theater. Scroll down for program lineup in full. Titled Venice Film Festival Presents: Next Generation , the four day event (April 20-23) will showcase films from the first ten years of La Biennale di Venezia’s Biennale College Cinema. Screenings will be accompanied by in-depth discussions pairing new filmmakers with established directors, producers, and writers. The opening night will feature a screening of mystery-thriller Our Father, The Devil with remarks from Venice Director Alberto Barbera and Head of Programme Savina Neirotti. Indie Spirit winner Nikyatu Jusu, whose Sundance film Nanny was picked up by Amazon and Blumhouse, will serve as moderator for the opening night discussion with director Ellie Foumbi. Biennale College Cinema is an incubator program for low-budget films by emerging … [Read more...] about Venice Film Festival, Netflix & The Gotham Institute Team Up For ‘Next Generation’ Program At New York’s Paris Theater

EXCLUSIVE: The WGA made no major gains in its new film and TV contract regarding diversity, which the guild has been pushing for years. “There was a proposal related to diversity on the table,” an industry source said, “but the guild did not get it.” The union did, however, receive additional funding for its training program for episodic TV writers, which is geared toward improving the lot of women and minority writers. Under the new deal, CBS, ABC and NBC will now be kicking in a total of $250,000 a year for the program in each of the three years of the contract – up from $200,000 a year under the previous contract. The new 69-page memorandum of agreement can be seen here , in full, for the first time. Membership ratification of the new pact began today and will conclude May 24. In its 2016 report, the WGA West found that women made up only 29% of the TV writers; that female film writers earned only 68 cents for every dollar earned by their white male … [Read more...] about Studios Snubbed WGA’s Contract Proposal To Boost Women & Minority Writers

Universal Television is developing a series adaptation of Diane Marie Brown’s debut novel Black Candle Women with Jenna Bush Hager , who has a first-look deal with Universal Studio Group, under her production banner Thousand Voices. Hager is teaming with Bel-Air showrunner Carla Banks Waddles and Good Girls creator Jenna Bans , both of whom have overall deals with UTV, for the project. Waddles is set to write and executive produce the adaptation. Bans will executive produce through her production banner Minnesota Logging Company, along with the company’s Head of Television Casey Kyber. Hager will also executive produce with President of Thousand Voices, Ben Spector. Black Candle Women introduces four generations of Montrose women—Augusta, Victoria, Willow—who have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond … [Read more...] about Universal TV & Jenna Bush Hager To Adapt ‘Black Candle Women’ Series With Carla Banks Waddles

Hundreds of WGA East members who work for Hearst Magazines Media are planning to stage a walkout Thursday to demand a fair contract. The half-day action is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET and will last the remainder of the day. “ WGA East members at Hearst have been bargaining a first contract for over two years and their last scheduled day of negotiations is March 28,” the guild said. “With only one bargaining session left, the Hearst Union is taking collective action with a unit-wide walkout in their fight for a fair first contract.” Rallies in support of the walkout will be held at four locations: outside the Hearst Tower in Manhattan; at the Hearst offices in Easton, PA; at the Hearst offices in Ann Arbor, MI; and the Hearst offices in Birmingham, AL. The guild represents some 500 of the publishing giant’s editorial, video, design and photo staff at more than 25 brands including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, … [Read more...] about WGA East Sets Walkout At Hearst Magazines For Thursday; Hundreds Sign Petition

Smash is finally heading to Broadway . In an announcement long awaited by fans of the 2012 NBC series, a stage musical adaptation is planned to arrive on Broadway during the 2024-25 season, with a lead producing team of Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg . A top flight creative team is attached, including director Susan Stroman, composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman , book writers Rick Elice and Bob Martin, and the TV series’ choreographer Joshua Bergasse. Spielberg, whose original idea led to the NBC series, said in a statement, “ Smash is near and dear to my heart, and it was always my hope that a musical inspired by the show would eventually come to the stage. We now have an incredible creative team, and I’m looking forward to completing the Smash journey which began with my producing partners over ten years ago.” In addition to new music, the stage version will include many of the Shaiman-Wittman songs from the TV series, including the … [Read more...] about ‘Smash’ Musical Heading To Broadway With Steven Spielberg, Neil Meron & Robert Greenblatt Producing

EXCLUSIVE: Hillman Grad the new class for the 2023 Mentorship Lab. Organized by three distinct tracks, this year’s emerging creatives include AJ Dinsmore, Dralla Aierken, Dylan Correa, Jair Majid Kornegay, MenuEtte Silver, Naki Franklin, and Omar Nava for the writing track; Elle Yun, Janis Peebles Valdez, Jason Armani Martinez, Josca Moore, Mark Antony Howard, Priscilla Walker, Shawn Roundtree Jr., and Simran Jehani for the acting track; and Christine Murrain, Jason Young, Reese Dizon, Sharon Xiang, and Victoria Garabedian for the executive track. Mentorship Lab instructors Carolyn Michelle Smith (co-Director of Acting Track), Behzad Dabu (co-Director of Acting Track), and Michael Svoboda (Director of Writing Track) said, “The Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab is different because we believe that community comes first. Yes, we strive to help our mentees hone their craft and expose them to people in the industry, but at the end of the day it’s the people standing next to them that will … [Read more...] about Hillman Grad Reveals Mentorship Lab’s Class Of 2023

TMZ may collect a share of sales or other compensation from links on this page. The Rosetta Stone language learning app is the "next best thing to living in a foreign country," per the Wall Street Journal ... and now, it can be yours for a steal! The benefits of learning a 2nd or 3rd language are well-known and well-documented. There are so many advantages when you use Rosetta Stone to speak, read, and write a new language, including: improving decision-making skills, sharpening focus, and amplifying creativity. Start by matching words with images, then move on to interactive lessons guided by speech recognition tech to help improve your accent with instant feedback. Learn up to 24 languages with Rosetta Stone's award-winning interactive software that will teach you basic conversational skills for shopping, ordering food at a restaurant, taking a taxi and other public transportation , introducing yourself to people, and more. Once you master the basics, you'll … [Read more...] about Save On A Lifetime Subscription To Rosetta Stone With 24 Languages

Issues faced by TV writers again are the sticking point in the WGA negotiations with the studios. In 2007, when the impasse led to a writers strike, it was residuals from series distributed online. This time around, it is the restrictive contracts for writers working in cable and on digital platforms. Under pattern bargaining, the deal between the WGA and AMPTP was expected to be similar to the recent DGA agreement with the studios with two writer-specific issues brought to the table by WGA — parity between cable and broadcast pay and the notion of exclusively and options. One of the two seem to have been resolved. “Every aspect of our contract has been negotiated and agreed upon with two exceptions — options and exclusivity — which remain points of contention between us,” negotiating committee co-chairs Chip Johannessen and Billy Ray wrote to their constituency last night . What are options and exclusivity, why are they so important to writers and what do writers seek to … [Read more...] about WGA Negotiations Impasse: Why Options & Exclusivity Issue Is So Important To Writers

EXCLUSIVE : Netflix is hoping to solve the legend of D.B. Cooper, the mystery man who hijacked a Northwest Airlines passenger jet in November 1971 and escaped with $200,000, never to be seen again. The streamer has ordered D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! from Fulwell 73 Productions and director Marina Zenovich ’s PMZ Pictures. The four-part doc series, which launches on July 13, marks the first true-crime project for Fulwell 73, which is best known for producing The Late Late Show with James Corden and Hulu’s The Kardashians. The series looks at the 50-year quest to find Cooper, whose identity remains one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century and the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history. There have been multiple suspects in the case over the years including the possibility that Cooper was a Boeing employee, that he was former WWII paratrooper Kenneth Peter Christiansen, former leather worker and Korean War vet Lynn Doyle … [Read more...] about D.B. Cooper Doc Series Parachutes Onto Netflix As Fulwell 73 Moves Into True-Crime; Marina Zenovich Directs

Oscar-winning screenwriter, playwright and film director Christopher Hampton was on feisty form in a masterclass in Qatar earlier this week as part of the Doha Film Institute ’s Qumra talent incubator event (March 10-16). Hampton, who won Academy Awards for the screenplays of Dangerous Liaisons and The Father and was Oscar-nominated for Atonement , urged aspiring screenwriters in the auditorium to try to retain some sort of control of their work and creative vision. “I would advise anybody to try to get at least some sort of associate producer credit to maintain a grip on the material and you have to fight… fight with a lot of people,” he said. “They don’t want to give it to you. They don’t want to give you those powers, but I’ve always argued that since the writer is the origin of the piece, they deserve to be respected.” “Don’t be unreasonable because there is a very strong possibility that other people’s ideas will be as good as yours but there comes a … [Read more...] about Christopher Hampton Talks Screenwriter Control; ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ Sprint Against Miloš Forman – Qumra Masterclass